UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY

IF YOU GET A CHANCE TO GO ON HOLIDAY THIS SUMMER, YOU MIGHT BE TEMPTED TO TRY SOME UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY. AN ACTION CAM AND A SENSE OF ADVENTURE IS ALL YOU NEED, SAYS SAEED RASHEED, EDITORIAL CONSULTANT FOR DIVER MAGAZINE

WHAT IS IT ABOUT UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY THAT MAKES IT SPECIAL?

Every time you jump into the water, you don’t know what you’re going to see, and that makes every single dive really exciting. With land photography, you’ll likely set out with an idea of what you want to capture and the kit you’ll need, and 9 times out of 10 you’ll get it. When you dive, you don’t have that guarantee. You have to try and prepare for every situation and take each dive as it comes. But there is just something so special about being underwater and seeing what so few people get to see. Being able to capture those things in pictures and share them with others – there is no other feeling like it.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES?

We don’t have the luxury of tripods like land photographers do, so when capturing macro shots that require a steady hand, you’re often just using one finger to stabilise yourself on a bit of rock, and that’s it. We also don’t have long down there – the average time is an hour per dive. If the weather and visibility are good, we might be able to get down four times in a day, but conditions can change quickly so it’s never a given. Plus there’s the difficulty of light. We work with the Sun as much as possible, but as you get deeper you need strobes to lighten up your subject. It’s like taking a mini photo studio down with you!

“We don’t have tripods - you’re often just using one finger to stabilise yourself on a bit of rock”

HOW HAS YOUR KIT BAG CHANGED OVER THE YEARS?

My very first underwater camera was a really cheap one I bought in duty-free on my way to Australia in the late 1990s. It could take 36 pictures at a time on film, and you would go through rolls and rolls of film just to get a few shots you liked. Now, I shoot on a Canon 7D Mark II and generally use one of three lenses – a Tokina 10-17mm fisheye lens for wide angle, and either a Canon 60mm or a Sigma 105mm for macro shots. On top of that, you need the waterproof housing – mine is from Nauticam – and strobes for lighting. It’s not cheap. A topend system can cost the best part of £10,000, but even a decent entry-level setup is going to cost you upwards of £2,000.

SO HOW CAN PEOPLE GET STARTED?

It depends how seriously you want to take it. An action cam is a good place to start, and you can get pretty decent shots for hundreds of pounds, rather than thousands. Then, if you get the bug, you can start building a compact camera setup from there – I always recommend people buy second-hand to start with as you’ll always find someone upgrading their kit and selling their old setup at a decent discount.

DO YOU NEED TO BE HANDY WITH PHOTOSHOP?

Absolutely. Like with all photography, you can get it right in camera but it’s less likely, and much more difficult when you’re in the water. Even on the best day for visibility, it can still look like there’s a snowstorm in your shot. Being able to remove all that sediment – or what we call backscatter – in an edit is essential to getting the most from your shot, as is being able to replace some of the colours you’ve lost with lack of light.

WHERE IS BEST FOR UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY?

You don’t have to travel. Seals and blue sharks are among my favourite things to photograph, and you can find them both in waters around the UK. Just five hours away, Egypt is a diver’s playground and further afield, the reefs of Indonesia are breathtaking. But for all the beauty we have, I am also really aware of what we are losing. I feel I have a duty as an underwater photographer to share as many pictures as possible, of the good and the bad, so people know how amazing it is down there, but also see what we are doing to it, too. Saeed is a member of British Society of Underwater Photographers and is editorial consultant for Diver magazine. He holds workshops and talks on underwater photography via his company, Focus Visuals.