Photography Tips

Pictures taken with SeaLife DC1400

With our clear waters all year round, St Maarten/ St Martin offers great under water photo opportunities. Check out some tips for great underwater photos below, then go to our Camera Center for a description of our photo equipment.

Control your buoyancy
Be very calm and patient, and let that curious fish get closer and closer. Get up-current from a good spot and just drift motionless along with your camera in ready position.

Crystal clear water
No matter what equipment you use, good underwater pictures require crystal clear water. Keep your shooting distance to 1/10 of the visibility. For example, if the visibility is 40ft/ 12m, keep your shooting distance inside of 4ft/ 1.2m.

Avoid backscatter
Don’t stir up the sand and debris on the bottom. When using a flash, the best is to have one on an arm attached to the camera so you avoid the flash light reflecting off the particles right in front of the lens.

Shoot up, not down
Get some of the blue water in the picture. An interesting little red fish and yellow coral in the foreground will stand out against a mystic blue background. These colour contrasts will add depth to your pictures.

Stay close to the subject
When taking pictures of your buddy, he or she should be no more than 6ft / 2m away for a good picture. Use a wide-angle lens for group shots, so you can get everyone in the picture and still keep your shooting distance within 6ft / 2m.

SeaLife AquaPod Underwater MonoPod (for your GoPro)
Although made by SeaLife, and great with either of their cameras, this super smart extending pole actually comes with a GoPro mounting adaptor. The tip for a smoother video with this (or any) pole is to actually mount your GoPro hanging BELOW the end of the pole. To do this you actually have to mount the GoPro UPSIDE-DOWN! But fear not, you won't have to stand on your head to watch your movie, the GoPro Hero3 Black Edition actually has a very nifty setting that allows the camera to record right way up even when it is right way down. AND as the Hero3 Black Edition has another nifty feature that automatically takes photos (think timed spy mode) while filming video you can get great stills and video of that moray without getting close to it (the pole extends 53"). Oh and by the way, we do have this AquaPod and both the SeaLife and GoPro cameras for sale in our stores.

FREE Underwater Photography Made Easy iBook
from SeaLife and Annie Crawley
Featuring positioning, lighting, macro, wide-angle, video, buoyancy and more! Covered in easy-to-apply techniques, you'll love this easy to use, interactive guide. Perfect for all SeaLife camera owners or anyone ready to dive into underwater photography. Designed for the iPad and iPad Mini, and also available as a downloadable PDF.