Introduction to Digital Underwater Photography

Consumer digital cameras are small compact and ideal for scuba divers who don’t want the camera to take over their dive. Easily fitting in to a pocket of most BCD’s, it can be used at your leisure.

Digital cameras store the pictures you take onto a storage card called "Compact Flash" or CF for short. These CF cards are available as different storage capacities. From 16 to 512 mega bytes or more if needed. It just determines the amount of pictures you can take with your camera on any one dive. With film rolls you’re restricted to 36 shots. With CF cards you’re more likely to be able to take 100 or 200 shots. Digital cameras are really consumer friendly these days. You can even delete pictures you don’t like while still on your dive. With everything being digital, you are going to need a PC or Mac to transfer all your photos from the compact flash card to your computer. This is done using a USB cable connector which is included with your camera. Most households have a computer that will do the job adequately. If you purchased your computer within the last 3 years, it most likely has a USB connection on it. The computer can become a temporary or permanent storage for your pictures. What you do with them after that is quite endless. From getting your favourite underwater picture professionally printed to an enlarged 20"x30" poster, creating a slideshow on a CD Rom for others to view, or simply to email them to your buddies.

A graphics program for your computer is nearly an essential part of digital photography.  When we transfer our digital pictures from the camera to the computer, you may want to adjust the images slightly.  This is where a graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop Elements v2 or Jasc Paintshop Pro come in.  We can change the colours, zoom in to a particular area and generally enhance our underwater photo to a masterpiece.  There are demos available of these graphic programs and can be downloaded from www.download.com.  These software applications can also be purchased in most computer retail stores.



If you would like your underwater digital pictures printed out onto photographic paper then you have two choices.  Buy a photo printer in your local computer store which will print up to A4 size. Canon, have very good photo printing printers along with HP, but be prepared to pay up to €450 for a good one like the Canon i950.  All ink cartridges do not come cheap either.  The photo paper will need to be purchased too.  Photo printers are great to have and produce visually great results instantly from your computer.  The second option is to have your digital photos professionally printed through an online photo company and posted out to you.

This might seem a bit much for what you want but, I have used the internet for getting pictures printed and it is a pleasure to do so and relatively cheap too.  Online printing company’s can do a whole lot more with your pictures too.  Why not get some greeting cards, a personalised mouse mat, mugs, baseball caps, clocks, t-shirts or even jigsaws.  To get prints ordered, you need to first upload them to their website.  Then select the sizes you would like and then the quantity.  Online printing company’s like spectraphoto.ie, fotango.com and www.spectraphoto.ie website.  The standard photograph size is 6x4 (10x15cm) and costs €0.59 per print.  If you get 10+ prints, the cost is €0.40 per print.  If you get 20+ prints, the cost is €0.35 per print.  Spectra photos website also offers everything on your first order for half price, which works out very cheap and a great way to see the results from an online printing company.  Post and packaging is extra but reasonable.

Here is the question that everybody asks... Which camera should I buy?  Well there are a lot of digital cameras around, but not all have underwater housings for them.  If you own an existing digital camera or are not sure if a housing is available for the camera you wish to purchase, then your best bet is to check out some websites like www.digideep.com or indeed ask the retailer in a camera shop and also look in brochures for that particular camera.  I have just named 3 here for reference and because I have seen the results from these cameras.  These are typical of what to expect from a consumer digital camera and an underwater housing.  If you are out to buy a digital camera then go for a 4 or 5 mega pixel camera.  There are a few reasons for this but mainly being that, the more mega pixels in the camera the better the print quality.  The following digital cameras are all similar and all have an LCD display on the back.  You will use this LCD display under water to compose your shots.  This will give you a precise display of how the final image will look.  The cameras also have a feature that, reviews the picture you have just taken.  It displays the picture from about 2 to 10 seconds.  Plenty of time to decide how your shots are going through the dive.  You can use the zoom function to zoom closer to a subject.  There is macro mode, for getting that really close-up shot.  An extra feature of these digital cameras is the ability to record video footage.  This is a very nice extra option to have. The downside to it is that it takes up a lot of space on your memory card and uses up the battery a lot quicker.  Most functions of the camera can be accessed while in the underwater housing.

The PT-015 housing for Olympus C-5050zoom is one of the most widely used underwater housings. Depth Rating: 40m

The Canon WP-DC300 – Housing for the Canon S30, S40, S45 and S50. The one housing does various mega pixel cameras in the Canon "S" series.

Sony DSC-P10 is a 5 mega pixel with unlimited video mode too. SONY MPK-P9 pictured

One thing to remember about underwater photography is that in the spectrum of light, the colours get filtered out the deeper you dive.  Thus the use of a flash, or strobe, to produce artificial light to get the colours back into the picture.  To generally solve this problem, simply use the internal flash.  Unfortunately the internal flash can create its own problems like "backscatter".  Backscatter is when the particles of salt in the water reflect off the flash and appear as a blurry spot on your picture.  The trick is to get as close as you can to the subject to reduce the amount of particles between the lens and the subject.

Digital cameras have a lot of electronics hidden inside their case.  If constantly used, the camera is prone to heating up.  This, along with the camera being in a sealed housing can cause condensation to form on the lens.  Loading the camera into the housing before you reach the dive site (preferably indoors) can avoid this to some extent.  It does not seem to happen so much in warm waters but in Ireland, if your snap happy, the lens can "fog" up within a matter of 10 minutes.

Another picture on the same dive, just getting the camera closer to the subject can get rid of backscatter and show the colours better. A hermit crab in Skerries.

Be sure to get a clip holder to attach to your camera to your BCD.  Digital cameras, including housings, can work out expensive.  At some stage through your dive you will more than likely need two hands free.  Don’t use the camera underwater unless it’s clipped on to you in some way.  If you’re entering back onto a dive boat with a camera, its common practise to unclip the camera and hand that to the boat person first, then continue your exit. There is of course a lot more equipment you can buy like arms, strobes, macro and wide angle lenses, but if you’re just starting, it’s best to get the basics working first.

I hope this gives you a brief introduction into digital underwater photography and gets you started.  If pleasure diving is your thing, then digital underwater photography will keep the memories fresh from day 1...  It’s always popular with divers after the dive to look through the pictures you took and talking about that part of the dive or asking things like – "Did you get a picture of that big moray eel behind them tube sponges?"...nbsp; More and more divers are inspired by the ease and convenience of underwater digital photography.  The great thing is that all scuba divers can join in on the fun too.  It’s available for you now, so there is no excuse not to jump right in!!

Good Diving...

PS: On a recent liveaboard trip to the red sea I brought my worthy Canon S40 digital camera for some serious photo snapping.  I also used an external strobe and a wide angle lens which is part of my setup now, but similar shots can be produced with the standard setup.  Here is a few shots that I liked which I imported into Adobe Photoshop Elements v2 and then adjusted colour levels and softness.

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