How to take underwater pictures while snorkeling or freediving

Underwater Picture of Coral Reef in Raja Ampat

Coral reef is a fascinating environment. It is the place where people can see various species of fish and colorful corals. There are blue sea star, black urchin and green sea grass. There are also yellow colored sweetlips, red and white clown fish. Everyone who enjoys snorkeling will definitely want to take pictures of the wonderful marine environment that they see underwater. Underwater photography is now growing very fast with the introduction of a lot of photographic devices that have got better technology and more affordable prices.
I personally have taken a lot of pictures of fish and coral reef. I use several types of cameras such as the ordinary Sony Cybershot pocket camera that I put inside Dicapac waterproof case, Canon G1X, Nikon AW120 and the latest one - the Brica B-Pro5 Alpha Plus.  The camera that I like the most was the Nikon Coolpix AW120. Unfortunately the camera has broken. Now I use the action camera - the Brica B-Pro5 Alpha Plus.

Underwater Picture

When taking pictures of fish or coral reef, the position of the snorkelers is mostly on the surface of the water. The result does not look well because of the lack of the blue water background. Snorkelers or freedivers need to descend to lower position or to an eye level with the fish or the coral reef that they want to take pictures of.
In addition to the eye level position, underwater photographers need to make sure that they are in stable position. This is often difficult because of current or waves. I often release some oxygen from my lung to enable me to go deeper. I also hold a big rock while shooting the fish. In deeper water, the use of flash will increase the quality of photographs.
Sometimes for the purpose of ecotourism promotion, resort owners want to get pictures that combine underwater view of the coral reef and the beach view of the dive resorts. A fisheye dome port will be needed. Using that device, photographers can capture images of both above and below the water environment. Written by Charles Roring
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