Everything you need to know about underwater photography

​Photographing sea creatures, coral reefs, and aquatic plants is an adventure in and of itself. The art of underwater photography is hard to get into and even more difficult to master. The photographs need to be taken using a specialized underwater camera and equipment. The photographer needs to track a dozen different things, not only for the perfect photograph but also for his safety.

So let’s take look at what it takes to get into underwater photography.

1.  Preparing yourself
The first and most important aspect of underwater photography is learning how to dive. Taking underwater photography requires diving skills. So make sure you first spend time getting familiar with diving equipment and diving in general. 

​Also learning about various diving skills and equipment is necessary. This ensures that when you finally go for photography dives, you can focus on photography. Having additional knowledge about things like marine life, currents, aquatic topography, etc is also pretty useful.

2. The equipment you need
Unlike ground photography, underwater photography requires special equipment just to get started. For your camera, you have two options. First is to buy a specialized underwater camera that is waterproof and specially designed to be used underwater.

The second option is to use a waterproof housing for a DSLR or mirrorless camera. While there are some smartphones like the latest iPhone that can do underwater photography. Those are only good in really shallow waters. 

Other equipment you will need for underwater photography is light sources like strobes or focus lights. Diving accessories that will be useful include things like buoyancy control devices, weight belts, and communication devices if you are diving with more people.

3. Choosing the location
 The most important decision is selecting the location of the dive. While there are different considerations for different photographers. Mostly diving location is chosen based on things like 

• Rich Aquatic Life: If you are looking to photograph underwater life.
• Interesting Topography: If you are looking to photograph beautiful topographical features underwater. 

​When selecting your dive location make sure that it is easily accessible and has good visibility. The last thing you want is your image to be a poorly lit mess.

You can edit your underwater photographs on the Urban Jungle Photo Editor. Available on the Apple App Store.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to be the first ones to hear about exciting new features coming to the Urban Jungle Photo Editor.