Fish Underwater Composition

When photographing fish and other creatures try to focus on the eyes of your subject. This will create a center of interest. Finding interesting angles while maintaining eye focus will create unique and intriguing compositions. Keeping proper spacing in your frame of the image will be imperative. Make sure if possible that your subject is slightly off center. Subjects should have good "white space" on either side of them, often referred to as room to swim in fish photography.

Swimming around the subject will allow you to explore different angles and lighting scenarios. Getting up close often gives better image quality and focus on the subject. Many interesting shots have been captured by getting slightly below the subject and shooting upwards, always keeping the eyes in focus.

Try to seek out a background that does not hide the subject or distract from it. If necessary try using a smaller aperture to blur out a distracting or unwanted background. Use of differing angles can create interesting shots. Diagonal composition lines can be difficult to obtain but make interesting photos. This would be when your subject fills the frame from one corner to the diagonally opposite corner.

Getting up close and personal can create some intriguing photos as well. Try filling the entire frame of your image with the subject of your photo. Remember to keep focused on the eyes, and keep your subject slightly off center.
Shooting for color can be fun, try to shoot complimentary colors with one another, blue and yellow are good together, as are red and green.

Use leading lines in your composition to draw viewers into your photo. Leading lines are parts of the image that tend to lead our eyes into the photo, often to accentuate an interesting image that is off-centered. An S-curve is an additional tool used to show off an interesting image. This involves having an S-curve shape working through the photo leading the viewer to the main focus of your image.

The most important rule about composition is that there are no hard, fast rules. Composition is an art form, practicing fearless and imaginative photography will allow you to grow and learn as a photographer.

The Quick Method for Getting Great Underwater Shots

The Aquapac is one such item. The Aqua pack is a heavy-duty plastic bag with an amazing seal that protects the camera from sand, water and anything else. When using this method, make sure you place the camera in the bag in a dry atmosphere to prevent fogging. Also, don't use a flash or it will reflect on the packaging and give you a whiteout. The picture quality with an Aquapac isn't ideal though, so if you want crystal-clear shots try a container made of hard plastic or glass. These containers are much more expensive but will ensure unrivaled quality.

Next, here are some tips to help you get the best possible underwater shots. Don't use your digital zoom above all else. Also, try to cover the housing in front of your internal flash when using an external strobe to prevent backscatter. You should also keep your external flash far away from the housing to reduce the risk of backscatter. If you're having trouble focusing your camera, try using a dive light. This will allow your camera to adjust its focus automatically.

There are a number of mistakes beginners commonly make when shooting underwater shots. Before you head out, make sure your JPEG image quality is set high enough so the pictures have a high quality when you view them. You don't want to spend an entire session shooting on a low picture quality! Also, don't oversaturate your photos. Here's another great idea: think about what you'll see before you go and set your strobe and f-stop before hand. This will prevent you from missing a great shot because you're trying to fix the settings. If you find a great static background underwater look around for a foreground subject. If you find a great static foreground subject you can wait for a background to swim by. These tips will ensure you get the best quality underwater shots with minimal effort!

Underwater photography can be quite a difficult task. You might think that it is the same as all photography, but will find the pictures to be severely overexposed or underexposed due to lighting difficulties. Too much light will result in colors being too white and not true to the subject you are photographing and too little light results in dark colors in the photos. The deeper you are in the ocean, the more difficult the lighting becomes and taking photographs in underwater caves can prove to be a nightmare.

Underwater lighting

To produce quality underwater photos, it is essential to understand the inner workings of your camera. The total amount of light used for exposure in your photo is controlled by the shutter cycle. A long exposure captures more light with less intensity and a series of short shutter cycles captures less light with more intensity. This is the same principal of taking outdoor photos with sunlight taken into consideration, which may overexpose or underexpose your picture.

I find that a good underwater digital camera with TTL (through-the-lens) metering will take all of the guesswork out of your artistry. This type of camera has an auto exposure lens which measures the light through the lens as you are seeing the subject and it chooses the correct exposure for you. A SLR (single-lens reflex) camera is generally digital for the utmost clarity and includes the quality of TTL. This type of camera is great for beginners with it's no fail properties. This camera will meter the light with an imaging sensor that is located under the mirror. It uses light metering and autofocus to obtain perfect underwater photos. Most of the advanced models have a bracket or dot that is visible through the lens and you place the dot or brackets on or around the main subject of your photo. This is where the lighting and exposure is set for that area of viewing. For example, if you are looking at a group of fish and one in particular is your main subject, then you use the dot or brackets to focus on that particular fish.

I definitely recommend these types of cameras to the beginning underwater photographer for success. Many people call this a point and click camera because you don't have to adjust anything. The camera does all the work for you and it is definitely worth it's weight in gold when capturing your memories of beautiful underwater fish and sea life. It is just too disappointing to go diving and see the perfect photo, that when developed, is much less in quality than what you actually saw.

Underwater Camera Settings

F-Stops

The F-Stops setting will control what your background looks like. You may want to have a slightly blurry look to your photo. This can be done by increasing or decreasing the numbers on this setting. The thing to remember is that when the numbers go up, this will mean a smaller lens or range, aornd when the numbers go down, the lens will open me. So, up means less and down means more. This will take some time to remember, but practice makes perfect. Be patient and have some fun seeing what kinds of photos you can get with each setting. You can try one type of setting at a time each time you go underwater. When you go back up, take some notes. This will help you to remember as you write it down and keep track of your photo shoots.

ISO Settings

The next camera settings underwater to learn about are the ISO settings. This has to do with the grain. Grain is basically the speed of your camera when taking photos. Have you heard anyone say the words “noisy photo” before? They were talking about the grain and their camera. They say it is better to have a noisy photo than to have taken a blurry one, but if you were trying to take a blurry photo, that is great! Some blurry photos come out wonderfully!

Shutter Speed

The next setting on your underwater camera is shutter speed. The shutter speed affects motion. Have you ever seen a photo that looks like someone’s hands were trembling when they took the photo? This can be very frustrating if all of the photos developed are like this. Sometimes, with the shutter speed not set right, you can end up with a photo that has blue behind it.

I am assuming that if you are reading this article, you have already done some underwater photo taking and are familiar with diving. If you haven’t been diving yet, you may want to take some diving lessons first to get comfortable with the diving part before you begin underwater photography. Then, you can learn all about camera settings underwater.

Right underwater camera

Regardless of your interest, an underwater camera frees you up to take those shots that previously were off limits. But how do you know what kind of camera to purchase? Like standard digital cameras, underwater cameras come in a variety of price ranges, each with different features, abilities, storage capacity, and quality levels.

Before you begin looking for your camera, determine what you want to use it for. Do you take an annual beach trip and you just want additional snapshots of the family to put in your album? Do you travel frequently and love to take detailed pictures of ocean life? Think about the times you would use the camera, and why you want to take the pictures. If you're an amateur photographer and getting the perfect shot is important to you, you might want to look into which features suit you best. However, if you just want candid shots of your family and don't bother with settings very often anyway, one of the basic models might work perfectly well for you.

Something else to consider is how you'll be printing the pictures. If you intend to use the pictures for posters, advertisements, competitions, or you print them for the purpose of selling them, a higher megapixel camera will be important to you. You need the option to print at the largest size possible. You might look also at the zoom features, especially if you'll be wanting to zoom in on smaller objects.

Overall, the best approach is to consider your usage, your motive for taking pictures, and your desired objects of photography, and then to take a look at which features you do and don't need. Remember, too, to budget in extra money for accessories.

See if you can find something you could use in our underwater camera reviews...

With the many cameras on the market. this will be an interesting shopping experience for you. An important feature for any underwater camera, is keeping it sealed to keep the water out. In the past, the cameras were bulky and large, and even the batteries were big. Now there are very small automatic camcorders that have small long-life batteries.

Underwater camera selection

A wide-angle lens should be purchased with the camera. This will result in less depth of field and focusing problems. I find this to be very helpful in photographing the beautiful coral reefs and focusing on the fish that swim past them. I also prefer the pressure resistant housing that can work well at one hundred feet deep. I don't even like to go that deep, but it's tempting to do it. The housing should have a quick release snap and an o-ring seal.

To pick out your underwater camera selection, try to purchase a popular model that you've heard a lot about on the market. Be sure you can find a companion housing for the camera. Make sure it can accommodate the wide-angle adapter and long-life battery. Check out condensation problems the housing may have. I would personally get something that is inexpensive, small and easy. But you still want something sturdy.

A good underwater camera selection is also that kind that can take still pictures as well as videos. I like to have that choice. If you get a camera with a 4 megapixel or above, this will be the best bet to take that still picture and videos. There are usually two hours of recording time on a camera, as when you are underwater it sometimes doesn't offer the option to open the housing to change between video and still.

If you are more interested in just still pictures, then an underwater digitial camera is a good choice. You can choose between the compact or the dSLRs. The dSLRs have better optics, quality and less focus delay. Hard to imagine, but there are also underwater disposable cameras, and even some underwater cameras are so cheap, they cost less than $5.00. I would be careful in checking out everything first. If you want good results, you may have to spend a bit more. I know I have.

Read the online underwater camera reviews and see what you find...

Beginning underwater photography

The camera you use is not your largest variable. Underwater cameras are available for purchase, ranging from nearly affordable to not even close. Water tight housing cases for land cameras can also be used, for a slightly smaller investment. Add a light source, called a strobe, and you are half way there. In theory.

Most of my research on this type of photography has led me to believe that a masochistic bent to the psyche is nearly a prerequisite since a low ratio of the shots you will take will be considered keepers. Water as a medium is a difficult environment. Thousands of small, even miniscule, particles float between you and that angelfish you were so delighted to stumble upon, making your photo hazy and unclear. Water will also suck the warm end of the color spectrum out of your shots. That's why many underwater photos are studies in blue on blue.

To alleviate the color wash, basic rules have repeatedly been reiterated:

1. Get close to your subject - close enough to touch (however, experts do not recommend touching!).
2. Never shoot down. If you do, you will lose your subject in the background. Here is where a good grasp of diving is valuable. Positioning yourself below your subject will swing the odds in the photographer's favor. The solid blue of the water will create the best background for showcasing your subject.
3. Adding a strobe will be our rule #3. A medium to strong light source will go a long way to bringing back the true colors and textures you have fallen in love with beneath the deep blue sea.

And now you are on the road to great underwater photography.

Happy shooting!

VuPoint DC-WPC-ST531TBLK-VP

Say you are at the beach taking pictures of your family while they enjoy some sea side fun; then a wave backsplashes a large amount of water onto you and your camera. This ultimately results in the destruction of the camera because the internal hardware of the camera is tainted by the water and salt from the sea. Now you have no camera for the rest of your vacation.

For this type of situation alone, the waterproof camera option has become so popular recently. It not only protects against water damage, it is actually built to be used in the water. This means that it can actually be taken underwater and used to capture some of the indescribable scenes of beauty that lie beneath the water’s surface. The VuPoint DC-WPC-ST531TBLK-VP is a phenomenal camera for these purposes, allowing the most beautiful underwater scenes to come alive in the high resolution camera imaging.

The VuPoint DC-WP-ST531TBLK-VP features an astounding 5.0 megapixels of resolution and over 50 feet water submersion capabilities. It also contains a very nice 8X digital zoom mechanism allowing farther away pictures to be taken both above water and below. It contains a 16 MB hard drive internal memory which allows photographers to take pictures right away. However, it also contains a very nice SD card readiness capability which allows for additional photos to be taken as well.

The vast array of features that the VuPoint DC-WPC-ST531TBLK-VP offers is boundless and truly classes this particular camera at the top of the ring category.

The VuPoint DC-WPC-ST531TBLK-VP includes features such as 1.6 foot to unlimited focus range, built in strobe light for underwater flash, Macro mode, 2 inch color screen, white balance for above ground pictures, video mode, up to 2 GB SD readiness, self timer, TV output cable, built in microphone, USB capability, AAA battery capability, as well as several other choice features.

The VuPoint DC-WPC-ST531TBLK-VP is a fantastic camera with no noticeable problems except for the fact that it is not the best. It does include these interesting and useful features but, as far as newer cameras go, the VuPoint DC-WPC-ST531TBLK-VP is simply mediocre amongst its competitors. I would give the VuPoint DC-WPC-ST531TBLK-VP 7 out of 10 for overall appeal and functionality, because it is well rounded, just not overly impressive.

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The waterproof case is well designed with 2 latches and a heavy rubber seal to keep your camera dry even with repeated underwater use. A 2" LCD screen is more than ample for reviewing your video and photos and is extremely clear with great picture quality.

Vivitar ViviCam 6200w

The battery life is about 2 hours, which will give you enough time for all of your photos on a scuba dive or swim. The SD card slot in the Vivitar ViviCam is extremely useful in playback and transferring data to your home computer for viewing. One of the best features of this camera is that it records video with sound underwater. The clarity of the sound is so outstanding that you can even hear things that you didn't notice when you took the video. Video is always much more exciting when brought to life with sound. You can also expect to take great action photos with this camera. It's speed allows high speed action photos to be taken with no blur involved.

The ViviCam 6200w comes with a carrying case, so there is no need to search for the correct one that it fits in. There are extra batteries included for your convenience, as well as an extra O-ring. All of the software is included also. This is very helpful in not needing to find and download it off of the internet. The software also has options available in order to proof and size pictures as well as color corrections for the ultimate in photo viewing and sharing on your computer.

This camera is definitely a good buy. It has the features needed for a good starter underwater camera and also takes good quality pictures on land. It definitely is much more dependable and has much better clarity in photos than a disposable underwater camera.

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VIVITAR WATERPROOF 5188

With the 1.8 inch preview screen, the 8x digital zoom, anti shake and an auto flash all included on this camera. Phototags photo editing software is included in the package as a bonus. There is a 1 year warranty with this camera also which I think is pretty standard for most camera manufactures these days.

There was also a combo pack for the Vivitar 5188 Model that you can have with the camera. The combo pack includes one 2 GB SD card, one Multi Sd card reader, and carrying bag, tripod and lens cleaner kit and when you purchase this Vivitar 5188l with the combo pack it will cost you about another $20 or so, so a very good value. I decided not to purchase the one with the combo pack due to not needing the other items.

There were a few of the Vivitar Black 5.1MP Digital Cameras to choose from at a wide variety of stores.

The Vivitar 5188 Model is a great value with 5.1 Megapixel, a 2 inch monitor, 8x Digital zoom, a focus range of 11 cm - 18 cm. The auto, sport, night, portrait, landscape, backlight modes are great. A storage memory of 16 MB Flash Memory and a 2 GB SD Memory Card.

This wonderful camera uses 2 x AAA batteries. Also this Vivitar 5.1 Digital Camera 5188 Model is a waterproof camera to 15 meter or 45 feet.

Overall with my experience with the Vivitar company it is a great camera company that makes quality, reasonably priced cameras that will hold up it's value and durability to what the company claims. I have owned a few other Vivitar cameras and keep coming back to the Vivitar camera whether it be for myself, spouse or even as a gift for a friend or family member.

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