Water Photography

The basics of water photography

You the readers have often marveled at some of the crazy angles that you see photographed in this very magazine and have probably wondered how we manage to get the shot without destroying our equipment in the process. For the vast majority of those of us who make our living from photography, we choose to “house” our equipment into water proof box’s, usually crafted from fiberglass, which are called “water Housings”.

Getting your gear protected from the elements.

Because of the sheer number of different cameras out there, there is no real standard in finding a water housing. Some people simply go out and purchase a plexiglass (perspex) housing made by the maker of their compact camera for a couple of hundred dollars and although they do a great job, the results are usually far from what we’d call professional in quality. This is mainly due more often than not to the “port” of the housing being almost as tiny as the lens of the camera, which tends to collect water droplets and make them look a lot bigger in your photos.

Really, the only quality way to go about it these days is to get an SLR camera I’m using Canon cameras so hopefully you are too, if not, you should still be able to understand. The Canon’s range from the Rebel, 40D, 1D MKIII and 5D. The first of these 2 models have a small digital chip in them, so the quality’s never going to be as good as say a 1D MKII or the 5D with it’s true full frame chip, however, even the rebel and 40Ds will yeild images miles better than a consumer level box, made by the maker of the cameras.

The housings that I use are made in Australia by Aquatech. Some people ask me why I don’t use something that is made a little closer to Hawaii, but when it comes down to it; Aquatech’s housings have the most consistent level of quality that I’ve seen in water housings, which to me is important. You want to know that your expensive gear is well protected from the elements. Another thing that places them ahead of the pack is that their housings offer unprecedented access to most of the camera controls. Certainly, the ones that you need when you’re actually shooting. I’m able to access my shutter speed, aperture, shooting mode, back focus button, zoom lens control along with several of the back functions, associated with viewing pictures while shooting.

I’m using a Canon 1D MKII inside an Aquatech DV4, which also gives me access to several lens, using the same housing. By using different sized screw on ports lens ports, I’m able to use: 15mm, 17-35, 50mm, 100mm and 70-200mm lens. I used to even have a port for a 300mm, but found that to be a little overkill. ha ha

Setting up your housing

Always double, even triple check your housing before you submerge it into the water. Sometimes, you might have an o-ring seal move which could be disasterous if not noticed.

* Always, check the housings for damage or cracks, especilly if it has been out of your hands.

*Check all the buttons and knobs to make sure there is nothing missing or broken.

*Place your camera inside the housing and seal the clips, making sure all along that the o-ring is sitting in position.

*Once the camera is in, place the required port on the front of the housing, also checking that the o-ring is positioned correctly.

Practical basics with using your housing.

I find that there are basically two ways to set up the outside of your camera port. (that is the part that the lens sees through.) If you are shooting with a wide angle lens (20mm or less) it is better to shoot with what we pro’s call a “wet port” To get a wet port, this is what you do:

* Buff the front of the port with a towel or other clean piece of cloth. Once clean, spit on the front of the port and lick it around so that it forms a fine layer over the front.

* When in the water, this “wet port” will allow the wide angle to focus the most efficiently, due to a fine membrane of water that stays over the front of the port.

With lens larger than wide angles 24 – 200mm I use a “dry port” This involves buffing the front of the port with a clean towel or similar cloth, then dabbing just a small bit of car polish on the port and swirling it so that it forms a fine layer across the port. Wait a few minutes for it to dry, then buff it off. This will help the port repel water altogether and works far better with larger lens than a wet port. The larger lens have difficulty focusing through the wet port, so this is why the dry port is preferable when needing to focus more critically. After a while of swimming with a dry port, you will notice that the water will start to stick to the port. An easy way to prevent this is to every now and then, rub the palm of your hand across the port. This releases oils in the palm of your hand which helps to maintain the dry port state.

For those of you who have a Canon SLR and plan to house it, I strongly recommend that you make sure that housing maker places a button on the housing so that you are able to use the back-focus function. This I find is critical in maintaining sharp images. By using the back focus, I am seperating the shutter finger from the focus finger. (This is custom function 4 on most Canon EOS SLR’s. )

By keeping the shutter and focus functions seperate from each other, I’m able to ensure that the vast majoritry of my water work is sharp.

Here are a couple of examples on when the custom function 4 – Back focus is usefull when your using your camera inside a water housing. Many lens will not focus both under and above the water at the same point. Most of the time, it requires a slight alteration on the focus to get it sharp again after changing from above to below the waves or vise versa. When in the water, focus can be chaotic, especially at the decisive moment, so I prefer to pre-focus for the moment. This is easy when using the back focus. Not possible unless you are using it.

When shooting action with a bigger lens like a 100 – 200mm, focus becomes super critical. Often there’s water running over the port which can interfere with shooting again especially at the decisive moment, so by using the back-focus function, I’m able to maintain a much higher degree of control over the focus, which is often the difference between nailing the shot or not.

Aloha

Sean

 

JackJohnson_100606_026_ 15mm focused above the water
JackJohnson_100606_035_ 15mm focused above the water
JohnJohnFlorence_Ehukai_112105_037 15mm focused below the water