1 min readplongée, matériel
Preparing a Photo Dive
Underwater, everything is decided before you enter the water. Equipment check-list, managing your air, and lighting compromises.
A successful photo dive is decided on the pontoon, not at thirty metres. Once the housing is closed, nothing can be changed.
The check-list
- O-rings cleaned, greased, inspected under a lamp.
- Batteries at 100 %, cards formatted, a second set in the case.
- Pre-programmed settings: f/8, 1/160 s, ISO 200, strobes on manual at 1/4.
- Leak test at shallow depth before descending.
Water eats the reds
From five metres down, red disappears. Two options: bring the light back with strobes, or accept a blue-cast image and work the texture. The strobes are placed well away from the housing so that suspended particles do not bounce the light back into the lens.
Wide angle, always
The thicker the water between sensor and subject, the more the contrast collapses. A fisheye twenty centimetres from a sea fan will always give a sharper image than a 50 mm at two metres.
