PHUKET

Underwater Photography

By : Ashley J Boyd
Transcribe from Phuket Magazine Vol 7 No 2

Compared to land photography, the success rate in underwater photography is relatively low . So don't expect too much from your first attempts. Even a veteran will probably have a maximum success rate of only 10-15%.

Ninety percent of the exposures taken may be less than satisfactory. Why Should this be so?

A diver first; a photographer only second

The most important difference between surface and underwater photography is that, underwater, you have to be a diver first and a photographer only second. You can nerver devote 100 percent of your attention to the photography.

To begin with, you have constant concerns about your life-support system. Time, pressure and depth limits need constant monitoring. Especially on deep dives, it could be dangerous to lose track of how long you have been underwater and how deep you have gone. Caught up in the fascination of your work, you risk running out of air or getting the bends -- the very painful and often fatal penalty for exceeding time or depth limits.

In the meantime, you also have to keep track of your buddy who, according to a cardinal rule of safe diving, should never be out of your sight. (And you have to find a diving companion in the first place who 's patient enough to hang around for 10 or 15 minutes at a time while the photographer sets up a shot)

Composition

Getting the precise composition you want may not be easy. Underwater, everything appear closer than it really is (objects are magnified 25 percent), and estimating distances can be tricky. At the same time, the mos widely available and affordable underwater camera systems are not SLR, so you have to deal with parallax error. This effect is exaggerated, furthermore, bye the gap between the diver's facemask and the camera eyepiece.

Beyond that, visibility is often poor, and flashback from sediment and plankton will produce roughly the same effect on film as you get driving with your high beams in fog. Even when initial conditions are good, other divers in the area may stir up sediment where they don't actually intrude arms and fins into your carefully framed composition.

Equipment failure

Given all the equipment you haveto rely on, there are lots of ways things can cock up. If the batterties for your flash go flat, for instance a minor thing in itself you have to return to surface to change them. And it's often very difficult to get back down to the same spot again to finish your shot, even assuming circumstances have remained the same in your absence. There 's no such thing as putting in a new film or changing a lens underwater, either. Consequently, you may want to carry two cameras on a dive, perhaps one with an 80mm and another with a 15mm lens. Except, that is, where it's too much trouble to manage both cameras, for instance where there is a strong currents.

Plus, of course, you can have problems with flooding camera or lenses. You should always test your camera in shallow water or a pool before taking it on a dive. better still, check it for bubles in a rinse tank; if it does flood, then, it will only be with fresh water.

The use of models underwater

A human figure can add much interest to a shot, but most inexperienced underwater model freeze up the moment they realize a camera is pointed at them, hanging there in the water looking ungainly, much like some thing you wouldn't want in your photo.

Flashes

Because as you go deeper more and more of the colour spectrum is absorbed, with reds, yellows, and oragnes going first, you should use a flash in all but the shallowest sunlit waters. (If you are not using a flash, then the best hours for underwater photography are generally 10.00 am till 2.00 pm, when the sun is at it highest.

Lenses

Judge the prevailing conditions carefully before diving, and try to anticipate what sort of shots you want. Unlike with surface photography, you can't change lenses while shooting. Most divers will also find it awkward to carry two camera bodies, each equipped with a different lens.

Your decision will be easier if you know what type of site it is. Does an interesting bottom photography offer opportunities for scenic shots? What sort of marine life might you expect to encounter? Does most of the interest lie in the type of coral growth found there, for example? Or are there more dramatic possibilities? It would be a shame, for instance, to run into a whale shark when all you had with you was a close-up lens.

It can also be important to know what sort of underwater visibility there is; if the water is really turbid, close-ups may be all that are practicable.

If you decide you want scenic shots or people pictures, however, then you 'll opt for a wide-angle lens.

Film

ASA 100 is a good all-round film, reasonably fine-grained and widely available. ASA 64 and ASA 50 are more fine grained still, and perhaps better for professional use. Though most shops in Thailand don't stock it, particularly outside Bangkok,. ASA is often recommended for macro photography in particular, Kodak is now producing a special ASA 50 underwater film which is highly recommended. It enhances the warmer colours while reducing the blue-green effec; but you have to use a blue filter with it.

Advantages of night photography over day

On the one hand, you find certain creatures that are hard to photograph in the daytime become more accessible at night, many crustaceans and molluscs among them. At the same time, more hard corals extend their polyps in the search for plankton, which adds colour to underwater scenes.