Shipwreck Photography Foundation

Bigger is not better

Many photographers think they need the biggest and coolest photographic equipment to take good pictures. This may be true in some shallow shallow coral reefs for shallow water or macro photography, but the huge equipment will quickly get you in trouble on a shipwreck or sunken ship. When swimming in narrow aisles filled with silt and various metal objects, you don't want to drag a huge macro photography configuration to follow you. Before diving, you need to simplify your outfit as much as possible. The figure below shows that an unnecessarily large assembly can make things difficult, and this time diving and your camera become dangerous.

Wide angle shooting

Shipwrecks are often the largest objects most underwater photographers shoot underwater. For such big things, there will always be many different types of shooting and shooting angles. From the shooting of the entire shipwreck, the ghostly interior shooting, simple coral shooting, to the shooting of inner and outer fish. No matter what kind of plan you plan to shoot, one thing is the same. That's what you need to have enough shots. At some point, the shots in the Coke segment may be better, but over 95% of the time, you need a super-wide shot.

Flashing lights instead of photography lights

The interior of a very natural shipwreck is very dark and full of silt, and usually the ambient light outside is also very bad. For the best wreck shot, with a video light, set at the lowest output as a focus light. You can also prepare two pods as a primary light source to explore the sunken ship, but be sure to have an alternate place at your fingertips. There is no worse thing than not having a light source in a wreck. When it's time for you to shoot, at least one flasher is working. Because sunken ships tend to "eat" the light, flashing lights are the basics to take out details and colors of the shipwreck. Otherwise all photos will be dark blue/green with only a little detail. If it is inside the shipwreck, it is best to keep the flashlight folded as small as possible, because it is easy to make the flash hit other things or hang off the flash sync line. Simply speaking, it opens when shooting, and takes it back when it is taken.

Increase sensitivity

The traditional rule of photography is to shoot with the lowest possible sensitivity to get the best color and reduce noise. Shipwreck photography often suggests against this rule, especially for most new cameras that still have excellent noise control at high-sensitivity settings. Too much incident light on the sunken ship is not a problem. Many photographers are often frustrated and leave the shipwreck. All photos are underexposure. They often insist on low-sensitivity rules. Before shooting the shipwreck, consider setting the sensitivity to 800 or even 1000. You will get good color and acceptable noise. In addition, you don't have to toss in order to get enough light.

Shooting identifiable objects

Diving in a sunken ship is often like a jigsaw puzzle. It takes a lot of time to imagine what a piece of stuff is like and what it is. These may be very interesting for divers, but when you share photos for other people who do not know the shipwreck, it is not so interesting. In order to get non-wreck divers to really appreciate your hard work, take some of the subjects they can recognize. Propellers are a good example. Everyone knows that ships have propellers so they can easily recognize them. This allows your audience to applaud this picture and the techniques for shooting it. If they can't recognize what was taken, they will not watch this photo for a long time.

Find color

Wreck diving is a magical dive, with many unique shooting themes, and often with magical corals. However, it is very easy to take only a few single-tone photos after diving back. Monotonous photography can also produce great photos, but it's usually just the result of poor lighting and low-level choices. When shooting outside a shipwreck or in a shipwreck, it's important to find something that catches the viewer's eye. Color is the best and easiest option. Find anything that can be picked out, from an old beer bottle to a beautiful soft coral. Coral and sea fans are excellent targets. If you're living in an amazing sea life on a wreck, use it! It's important to note that adjusting your exposure settings to suit this topic, as this is often a strong contrast to the surrounding background.

Take more

Shipwrecks are often the largest objects you shoot in the ocean, so step back and make it larger. Since the wreck is often very dark and poor visibility, this makes shooting very difficult. Don't be scared by this difficulty. Increase your sensitivity to 1000 and use a large aperture as much as possible. Finally, reduce your shutter speed as much as possible, while maintaining the stability of the picture. The typical shutter speed is 1/80 or 1/100, but many new cameras have an excellent stability system, even if it is reduced to 1/40 to ensure clear shooting. Practice your levitation technique and go take some big photographs out of the sinking boat.