Kandice Vincent
- Oct 7, 2022
- 4 min read

Advanced Underwater Photography Tips and Tricks

Shooting quality photos is hard enough on dry land and that’s why photographers make the big bucks. From composition to focus, lighting, and zoom, a lot goes into getting the perfect photo. But try to do that underwater, and it becomes even more difficult!

Taking photos underwater adds the extra challenge of the natural behavior of water. Everything in your frame will be moving. Whether you’re photographing marine life or your scuba buddy, nothing stays still, including the water itself. But, we have some tricks up our sleeves to help you overcome these challenges and take photos that will look professional quality and allow you to capture amazing underwater memories. Here are our top advanced underwater photography tips and tricks.

Get close to your subject

The closer you can get to the subject of your photo, the better. Taking pictures underwater is different from taking photos above because water is 800 times the density of air. That means that even in close proximity, you can start to lose visibility, and color will begin to distort. As you move away from your subject, the camera will start picking up a lot more blue and green color waves, and your subject will begin to blur. The ideal range is between one and five feet away from your subject. That said, DO NOT harass marine life or attempt to touch them. And that includes marine plant life like coral reefs.

While you can zoom in with certain cameras or camera apps, it can be harder to get a clear image when zoomed in. You need to keep extremely stable when you’re shooting in zoom, which can be difficult when also trying to swim. Being physically closer to your subject (within a safe distance, of course) will help generate better images than with zoom.

Use a color-correcting filter

Being underwater alters the color of your subjects. The deeper you go, the more color you will lose. As you descend from the surface, red is the first color to disappear. Water absorbs red light first, meaning that any red, orange or pinkish hues may appear muted or brownish. You only have to be 10 meters deep, and much of the red light will be gone. If you take photos past this depth, your subjects will not appear with their true colors. But you can correct this using a color-correcting filter.

A color-correcting filter will sit over your lens and add back in the color that the water has absorbed. One of the most commonly used filters is a red filter since that’s the first color to disappear underwater. But yellow filters can also be helpful for areas with low visibility. Magenta filters are also great since they help mute the water’s blue color tones slightly, making other colors on the spectrum appear more vivid. This is an excellent option for shooting multi-colored coral reefs.

While you can edit your photos post-production, the quality will always be better when you filter your images in-camera.

Use a strobe or flash

The key to any good photo is the lighting, and that can be a big problem when shooting underwater. When nature isn’t delivering adequate lighting for you, you have to create it yourself. Using a strobe or flash can help you capture saturated and sharp underwater photos that look even better than what you can see with the naked eye. The light created by an underwater flash is the same temperature as sunlight, so it will create the same illumination of your subject as if you were closer to the surface. External strobes provide stronger light than in-camera flashes, but they are also more expensive. It’s up to you what you choose to use based on your budget, but either will make a big difference in your images.

Without an added light source, your images will appear blue or green, especially if you’re shooting in deeper water. One thing to be careful of when shooting with flash is backscatter. If you shoot your subject from too far away, your flash may reflect particles floating in the water, making them appear like white dots. You can eliminate this by shooting closer to your subject.

Shoot from the right angle

Avoid shooting downwards at your subject, as the images will rarely turn out as you hope. Water refracts light, which can distort your image, especially when you’re shooting downwards. To avoid this, it’s best to shoot at the same level as your subject or with your subject slightly above you (about 1-2 feet). Not only will shooting at this angle ensure you capture the best light but shooting upwards means that your subject will be on the blue background of the ocean, giving it an extra pop. When you shoot down at your subject, it will often blur into the background of whatever is underneath it.

Use your surroundings to your advantage

Nature is powerful, and you can either use natural conditions in your favor or end up with a low-quality image. The first thing to keep in mind is the sunlight. As we mentioned before, the key to good photography is the lighting, so shooting at the optimal time is essential to getting the best shots. Aim to shoot in the middle of the day (between 10 am and 2 pm), when the sun is at its highest, to capture the most light. While you can capture some beautiful sunrise/sunset images above the water, that timeframe isn’t ideal for shooting underwater.

Another thing to consider is how calm the water is where you intend to shoot. If there are powerful currents, swimming will be more of a challenge, making it hard to get a steady, quality shot. On top of that, rough water is almost always murky, which presents an added challenge when trying to take pictures.