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I love scuba diving, but I also love taking pictures and showing them to friends and family. A few years ago, I invested in an Ikelite underwater camera housing. It works great and is very easy to use. I've taken 1,000's of pictures and am getting better with each dive.
But just when I got good at using the camera housing, I added another level of complexity. Just last month, I finally bought strobes...what a difference! I thought I could just hook up the strobes, turn the power setting to TTL and it would do a good job on its own. That was sort of true, but there are times when I should have manually adjusted the lighting power. Also, there are times when I should have removed the color correcting filter.
The great thing about digital cameras is that you can take 100 or so photos on one dive and try different things out. I usually take 75-100 pictures per dive and sometimes record what I did for specific shots on my slate.
This week, I started browsing the web for articles on tips and tricks for underwater photography. I came across the following article on "Shooting Wrecks" and thought some of you might enjoy it too.
If you've learned something that you think might be helpful to me and other underwater photographers, please share it!
Shooting Wrecks
By Bill Harrigan
This article first appeared in Sport Diver
December 2002
1. Shoot a few available-light panoramas from a distance.
Don’t you love exceptions to rules? They’re always the most fun. There’s a rule in underwater photography about not shooting downward, but panoramic shots of wrecks are the exception. I always like to take several overall views of a wreck. They help me describe it accurately later for a story or a caption, and very often a panorama will turn out to be the wreck’s defining image.
I usually try to get wreck panoramas with an ultrawide-angle lens like a 16 mm fisheye or an 18 mm wide angle. The ultrawide 13 mm for the Nikonos RS works very well. In clear water, a 15 mm Nikonos lens will do the job. To get the shot, simply turn the strobe off, reset the focus for a distant subject and set the camera on auto to take care of the exposure automatically. Don’t forget to return the controls to their normal positions when you’re finished with the panoramas.
Take the shots from far enough away to get a good perspective, but don’t put too much water between you and the wreck or you’ll get a fuzzy blue mess. Get your dive partner to pose near the wreck to provide a sense of scale.
2. Enter the wreck and photograph your model looking into it.
One of the best setups on a wreck is from the inside looking out. You need a model for this shot, someone to be outside looking in. This shot is an excellent choice if the water is turbid, because the inside of the wreck structure will hide a lot of potential backscatter. If you can manage to shoot slightly upward while you are inside, you can also get nice contrast between the light outside and the inner surfaces of the wreck.
Setting up this shot takes a little planning. Talk it over with your model before the dive so you don’t waste time underwater. Be careful not to stir up any sediment when you enter the wreck.
3. Avoid perspective distortion with wide-angle and ultrawide-angle lenses.
Normally distortion is not a serious problem for underwater photographers because the natural scenery tends to have a lot of strange and irregular shapes. Distortion is actually present in many wide-angle underwater photos, but we don’t notice it because of the lack of straight lines. Wrecks, however, have straight lines and shapes that will be recognized as wrong if they are distorted.
Distortion can be minimized by placing the straight lines near the center of the frame and holding the camera level with the apparent horizon. You may have to change your position or the angle of your camera in order to avoid the most obvious distortion.
4. Try to have the wreck to yourself for at least a few minutes.
A group of divers descending on a wreck will usually disperse the fish that school around it. When they enter the wreck, their exhalations will fill it with air, causing it to percolate furiously for a while. While you are trying to photograph part of the wreck, divers will be passing by in the background, or their bubbles will be rising into the shot.
To avoid these problems, try to get in ahead of the crowd. If you’re diving from your own boat, plan to arrive in the gap between dive groups. If you are on a commercial dive boat, try to make special arrangements before the dive. If you can show the divemaster that you are familiar with the wreck, you may get permission to enter the water at the start of the dive briefing. That way you’ll get five or 10 minutes on the wreck before the rest of the group arrives, enough time if you work quickly.
5. Work from a plan, starting at the deep end.
If I only have one dive to photograph a wreck, I try to get to all the signature spots like the prop and rudder, bow, windlass, wheelhouse, crow’s-nest and mainmast. On the way down I’ll shoot a panorama or two, then go right for the deepest point of interest. After shooting that I’ll work my way up, shooting each spot briefly on the way. As I leave the wreck I’ll try another panorama from a different angle.
If a crowd of divers is hard on my heels, I also try to get the interior shots first. That way I can be sure of getting those areas before they get too stirred up or charged with exhaust bubbles.
6. Avoid trapping bubbles in overhead spaces.
You can ruin a nice setup with your own exhaust bubbles when you are inside a wreck. When bubbles hit an overhead surface, they dislodge fragments of anything encrusted there. It is really frustrating to see a rain of particles coming down in front of your lens just as you are ready to shoot. The problem can be avoided by moving your head outside the overhead environment to exhale.
7. Dive the wreck at several different times of the day or night.
As conditions change around a wreck during the day, or from day to day, new photo opportunities arise. It will look very different at 8 a.m. than it does at noon, or on a rainy day as opposed to a sunny day.
If the wreck is safe to dive at night, try some night photography on it. Wrecks that have been freshly sunk are good candidates for wide angle at night, providing some ghostly setups. After they have been down for a few years and have a good coating of encrusted sponge and coral, wrecks are among the most productive locations for night macrophotography.
8. Find the color and include it in the foreground.
Unless the wreck has been sunk recently, it is sure to have encrusting organisms. The green algae that grow in the first few months won’t add much excitement to your photos, but the sponges, corals and coralline algae that follow can light up your foregrounds with red, purple, pink and yellow.
I keep an eye out for these organisms as I swim along the wreck. Some of the best color may be inside the wreck, where it is difficult to see at first. Whenever I find a good crop of color-producing encrusting organisms, though, I try to set up a photo with the color in the foreground, along one side or at least in one corner of the frame.
9. Use dive lights.
Dive lights aren’t necessary on many wrecks, but they are still a good idea for models. They make a nice prop, especially when the model is looking into the interior and you are shooting out. If the model shines the light slightly off to one side, you’ll get a nice beam of light in the photo.
I like to have a modeling light on my strobe when I’m shooting wrecks, too. It comes in handy when I’m trying to position myself inside the wreck, and I can use it to check the camera settings in the gloomy interior.
10. Shoot several silhouettes.
Wrecks are a natural for silhouette shots -- especially the type that show a diver descending out of the sun with the outline of the ship in the foreground. These are actually very easy to shoot. Of course, you need a wide-angle lens, like a Nikonos 15 mm or wider. Stop down an f-stop and a half from the normal blue water, available light exposure, then get your model to swim slowly across the sun about 15 feet above you. Be sure your own bubbles are out of the frame, then shoot.
I usually bump my strobe up to full power if I’m trying to light the foreground, and I’ll bracket a half stop in each direction. If my camera will allow me to use 1/125 or 1/250, I’ll dial in one of these faster shutter speeds because it keeps the sun from looking like a blob.
Brian Pautsch
bpautsch@midwestscubadiving.com
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