411 Dive Log Australasia April 2025

Taking the shot

Flash fill techniques is the optimum for my needs. Turn the power of your strobes down. You can balance the light at the start with a couple of test shots and make the required adjustments. Once you have the camera setting as you like it, it is all a matter of timing. Wait until the shark is in the best position. Try to compose the photo so that you have the “approach shot”, that is the shark moving into the frame. Focus on the eyes and face of the shark. Have the shark moving into negative space which will be the blue water just in front of the shark. All this is to make sure that you have a pleasing blue water background. Use the shutter speed to control light. For more vertical shots, choose a faster shutter speed such as 1/250 th of a second to try to balance the light. Black and White photography Converting a photo to black and white can increase drama and contrast. It can improve a mediocre photo making it look awesome. But as one land photo expert told me, you convert weak photos into strong photos by using B and W.

As a rule, try to avoid shooting downwards. The poor light added to the counter shading of sharks, means that you will almost certainly have underexposed shots. If you shoot upwards, you run the risk of over exposing the sky and losing the subject in a haze of light, once again with the lighter underbelly counter shading of the shark that is designed to blend in with the skylight. Be prepared to change settings in an instant to adjust for the changing position of the subject. The best angle is to shoot upwards at a slight angle of five to thirty degrees. This gives optimum light as well as that pleasing darker blue to lighter blue tones that captures the beautiful characteristic of water. If you are doing a shark attract or feed, take a couple of test shots of the open water and get your exposures correct before the action starts. You might like to shoot with natural light. If so, raise your ISO to 400 or 800 to match the available light and you will get good exposures. I personally, like to use strobes to flash fill the natural light. That is, you are taking the photos at natural light but adding some extra light from the strobes at the same settings.

Nikon D200 Tokina 10 to 17 mm Fish Eye lens in 2010. f5.6. 1/80 Sec ISO 200. Try to avoid over exposing the underbelly of the shark and also try shoot slightly upwards.

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