How to Shoot Underwater, Part 2

©ISTOCKPHOTO/TAMMY PELUSO

Once you’ve got your underwater housing, there are a couple of challenges you’re going to face. First, there are things underwater that want to eat you. But that aside, one of your biggest issues will be light, or really the lack thereof. Ideally, when shooting in deeper water, having a flash or other light source is the only way to get good color in your photo. If you’re shooting near the surface, you’ll probably be able to keep a fairly low ISO, but once you start going down 30–40 feet, take a look at your shutter speed and you’ll shudder (sorry, that was lame). The light down at this depth is low, and if you start getting shutter speeds of 1/30, 1/15, or below, what you’re going to get is a bunch of incredibly blurry photos, but sadly, you won’t know that until they’re on your computer (or you’ve made prints), because (say it with me now, everybody) everything looks in focus on your tiny LCD screen. So, if you’re buying a point-and-shoot for underwater photography, try to find one that has fairly low noise at higher ISO. Your other problem is going to be color casts, and a general murkiness or haze over your photos. The good news is that Photoshop can usually fix this automatically. I’m not a big fan of “Auto” settings in Photoshop, but this is one case where it works surprisingly well. Go under Photoshop’s (or Photoshop Elements’) Image menu, under Adjustments, and choose Auto Levels. That alone will usually do the trick.