Hey there! I’m Melissa Jeras. Since I can remember, I’ve always had a fascination and profound love for the water. I swam competitively from age 6 until I graduated college, and even at age 40, I still begin nearly every day with a 5am swim workout and occasionally still compete for fun. I was a fine arts major in college, and one would think it's a bit of a no-brainer that I would blend my love of water with my love of photography, however, it is embarrassing how long it actually took me to figure that out!
Alas, here I am, and I’ve found my photography happy place. Water provides me with such a captivating environment to get creative and lose myself in. It’s a place where even for just a moment, I can feel completely alone in the muted silence and weightlessness. No matter how much time I’ve spent in the water throughout my life, I’m forever enchanted by the magical light and movement that only water can provide.
I’m mom to 3 equally amphibious kids who love to spend their summer days floating around in our backyard pool. As long as I’m in there swimming with them, they don’t mind if I bring my “pesky” camera along.
Since it is always everyone’s first question, my underwater gear includes a Nikon D850 + 35mm Sigma Art Lens with an Outex Pro housing, or my GoPro Hero 6. There are a lot of options these days in different price ranges, but for me and what I use them for, these two options work great.
Underwater photography has its own unique methods and considerations. I’ll share a few tidbits to think about that you might find helpful when you take your camera beneath the surface. Let’s dive in.
Find your light.
In my opinion, light is even more essential underwater than it is above. Light conditions underwater can have an amplified effect on things like skin tone, and clarity. The water can also give light unique properties, such as sun rays, or that marbling effect we see in direct sun. Every body of water is different, even from pool to pool. A great first place to start is to get acquainted with the light.
Nikon D850+ 35mm Sigma Art Lens in Outex Pro Housing. 1/5000, f/2.5, ISO 125. This image was shot in late afternoon, about half of the pool was shaded, and half in the sun.
If you are shooting in a body of water that you have easy access to on a regular basis, I always recommend to take your camera out at different times of day, put it underwater (in the safety of an underwater housing of course!), and take test shots in different directions and angles. That will help you get to know your specific pool and find the time of day best for the look you are going for.
Shot with a Nikon D850 + 35mm Sigma Art Lens in Outex Pro Housing. 1/2000, f/3.2, ISO 640. Shot late afternoon in open shade.
Shot with a GoPro Hero 6. This was shot late afternoon, getting close to golden hour. The water was a bit hazy that day which gave off some fun sun rays. I enhanced them further in photoshop.
Overshoot.
Yes, yes, I know, I know! This is a habit that we try to get away from when we are shooting on land, but underwater I find it necessary. Everything in water is constantly in motion, you the photographer, the light, the surface, your subject, all of it. What's happening in the frame is always changing from moment to moment. One second your subject might look like an awkward T-Rex with bubbles and hair in their face, arms and legs flailing out of the frame, and the very next second, everything changes and they look like a serene and graceful underwater dancer. If you’re not shooting on burst/continuous, those shots will get missed more often than not. Forget what you’ve learned on land about being super intentional (ok fine, maybe don’t forget about it completely). Let the shutter rip, and embrace finding those unicorns amongst the heaps of duds as you’re culling.
Shot with a GoPro Hero 6. My daughter was swimming around playing with a soccer ball in the pool. Shooting in burst mode, I was lucky enough to capture her in quite an elegant position, while many of the shots that came with this one were not nearly as graceful.
Shot with a Nikon D850/35mm + Sigma Art Lens in Outex Pro Housing. 1/1600, f/2.8, ISO 640. With fast moving swimmers as a subject, it is really easy to cut limbs out of the frame, but shooting in continuous mode can help ensure you get a shot where all the limbs are accounted for.
Take time to edit.
Editing underwater is a COMPLETELY different animal. It is definitely not an endeavor where you can just throw a lightroom preset on it and you’re good to go. Expect to spend a lot more time in photoshop than you do with your above water shots.
Not surprisingly, the part that photographers struggle with most underwater is skin tones. Atmospheric perspective is compounded a great deal underwater, and the closer your subject is to your camera and to the light, the more natural the skin tones will look. Small changes in these distances and light make a substantial difference. The areas that are facing away from the surface will need a lot more adjustments than the areas that are even just a little bit closer to the light source. In my own work, I spend a lot of time brushing in tiny tonal differences throughout my subject. It takes time, and my underwater shots have tons of layers, but worth the time in the end.
(First is the SOOC, second is edited) Shot with GoPro Hero 6. Editing the skin tones in this photo took many Color Balance layers in photoshop. The deeper and more shaded areas need more adjustments than the skin closest to the surface.
In a fixed space like a pool, there isn’t always a lot of room to play with composition. Of course ideally, you want to have a great composition SOOC, but often (for me at least) that doesn’t always happen. The other area of the edit that I generally spend a lot of time on is creating a more aesthetically pleasing composition. Adding more depth to the water, length to the pool, or more surface ripples, can all have a dramatic effect on the final image. Don’t be afraid to get creative with this.
One last note on editing, don’t forget to edit out distracting elements like pool toys, drains, stray bubbles, and debris. Those little details really help to make the image look clean, not overly busy, and keep the viewer's eyes on what matters in the image.
(First is the SOOC, second is edited) Shot with a Nikon D850 + 35mm Sigma Art Lens in Outex Pro Housing. 1/8000, 3.2, ISO 1000. The composition of this image SOOC is quite boring, but I liked the movement and the light. In photoshop, I expanded the frame and removed the distracting elements to make it a lot more visually appealing and cleaner looking.
Use water’s best features to your advantage.
Shooting underwater does have its obvious challenges, but it also has some truly magical qualities that can be found no other place on Earth. Think about what makes water special and showcase that in your photos. Pure and simple, humans are just drawn to water. What intrigues YOU about it? Is it the weightlessness? The bubbles? The way water moves on the surface? The reflections? The silence? The unique light? Or just the pure fun of it? Get creative with these elements, and find a way to help the viewer feel the experience through your images.
Shot with GoPro Hero 6. Reflections are one of my favorite ways to add interest to a photo.
Shot with a Nikon D850 + 35mm Sigma Art Lens in Outex Pro Housing. 1/5000, f/3.2, ISO 1250. Model: Monica McLean. Fabric in the water is a really beautiful way to portray weightlessness. However, be cautious doing this with children as they can easily get tangled up in it.
Shot with a Nikon D850 + 35mm Sigma Art Lens in Outex Pro Housing. 1/2000, 3.2, ISO 640. Shooting through bubbles is one of my favorite ways to use what water has to offer.
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