Friday, October 7, 2011

Reef Lighting

One of the toughest things for an underwater photographer is lighting. Especially if you are taking a picture of a wide area, such as  a landscape shot like this one. The farther down you go the more light you lose. Not only do you lose general light, but colors are absorbed and disappear as you swim deeper as well. You start losing your reds and oranges, then your yellow, the green, and finally blue. This is why the deep ocean looks so blue, because it is the last color absorbed by the water.
This is why photographers flock to clear water settings like Hawaii and hope for sunny days. The sun rays can be seen filtering down through the water and hitting the reef here at the same time as a dark shadow is cast by the vertical rock cliff to the right of the photo area. Having a good model scuba diver can also add a lot to your reef scape image.

This photo was taken at Black Rock in Kaanapali, Maui.

No comments:

Post a Comment