I have a trip to Yonaguni, Japan at the end of January to check out the hammerheads. The dive operators don't allow strobes or lighting during these dives.

From very early in my photography journey, i started using lighting and have used lighting consistently the whole time. So, I'm looking for resources and suggestions to set my self up and practice natural lighting underwater workflow before the trip.

Thanks in advance.

Hopefully others will pass on their advice here. But we do cover this question as part of the next episode of The Underwater Photography Show - out before Christmas.

I have had a similar experience with Thresher sharks in the Philippines. No strobes allowed.

What worked for me was:

• Wide zoom lens - WWL-C with 24-50mm

• High ISO of 500-1000

• Shutter speed of 1/60th or maybe higher, as the sharks can make fast movements

• Be careful to adjust for background exposure, tweaking shutter and ISO

• Aperture around f10-13 base on depth and lighting

• Try to fill the frame with one or more sharks, use DX mode if they are not coming in close

• Postprocessing will be required. Work on white balance, mask the sharks and reduce saturation to remove color cast, adjust contrast and clarity

• Lightroom's AI Denoise is a champ to clean up the ISO noise

Thanks @Alex_Mustard, looking forward to that episode.

And thanks @Dave_Hicks. I'm likely to be taking my a7rv with the canon 8-15 and 2x teleconverter as that's my only real wide angle option right now. I tested it recently on some reef shots and its quite good centrally, but falls off a bit at the edges. However, with blue water, I think this might be okay.

I'm wondering if I set up a button over-ride for this particular trip to set it to manual white balance and take a white (or grey is better?) card with me to try and get the best image colour renditions I can, out of camera. Might be a bit of extra work, but diving without the strobes will free me up a bit to focus on that.

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by foetusmachine

20 minutes ago, foetusmachine said:

Thanks @Alex_Mustard, looking forward to that episode.

And thanks @Dave_Hicks. I'm likely to be taking my a7rv with the canon 8-15 and 2x teleconverter as that's my only real wide angle option right now. I tested it recently on some reef shots and its quite good centrally, but falls off a bit at the edges. However, with blue water, I think this might be okay.

I'm wondering if I set up a button over-ride for this particular trip to set it to manual white balance and take a white (or grey is better?) card with me to try and get the best image colour renditions I can, out of camera. Might be a bit of extra work, but diving without the strobes will free me up a bit to focus on that.

The White balance setting in camera is sort of irrelevant in RAW workflow as you can set it in post processing. You are likely to be changing depth and direction from the sun frequently so you would need to be continually changing the WB. Too much effort for my taste.

What I found works well is to get a sequence of images taken in the same setting and bulk change them to a good WB setting. Edit one to your liking and sync it to the rest of the batch.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a perspective I’ve often recommended to fellow underwater photographers when it comes to shooting blue water sharks, especially when you’re working with natural light and strobe combinations. One of the key points is that most shark species have a pretty neutral, silvery-grey coloration. In other words, you’re not trying to bring out a riot of colors like you would with a coral reef and fisheyes lens. That means you don’t have to worry as much about maintaining warm color fidelity at longer distances.

In fact, if you have good visibility, you can shoot from over a meter or more away without losing too much detail. And when it comes to lighting, the idea of a cooler color temperature strobe can actually be a real advantage. Cooler strobes will penetrate the water more effectively over distance because the red wavelengths get absorbed quickly anyway. So you’re focusing on sharpness and light energy rather than trying to preserve warm tones that aren’t really there.

In practical terms, using a strobe that’s a bit cooler and then adding a warming diffuser only if needed is a flexible approach. For typical shark photography—like shooting reef sharks in the Red Sea, where they don’t come extremely close—keeping your strobe on the cooler side and not worrying about warming accessories can give you the best reach and clarity.

And one more thing I’d like to add is about your lens choice. If you’re used to working with a really wide lens like a 15 to 30mm, you might find yourself falling a bit short when the sharks stay a little further away—like in the Maldives or the Red Sea where you’re not always going to get them right up in your face. In those cases, I really recommend something with a bit more focal range—like a 28 to 70mm or even a 24 to 105mm. That way, you’ve got the flexibility to handle those sharks that come in nice and close, but also the ones that hang back—like hammerheads or thresher sharks.

Hope that helps round things out!

So that’s the gist of it. Hope this helps some of you thinking about how to set up for your next shark shoot.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Adventurer