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D’oh! Mozaik’s most common underwater photography blunders
There’s a lot that can go wrong in underwater photography. Outside, of course, of the dreaded F word (“F, L, O, O, D”), there are many annoying little things that we forget that can sure spoil a dive.
None of us are immune to the occasional forgetful episode, not even at Mozaik! So, this week, we thought we’d round out our list of the top 8 ways to cause you to kick yourself underwater.
1. Leaving the lens cap on
This is probably the most common little booboo that photographers forget above water, and usually not a big deal (other than a little embarrassment). But underwater, the ol’ lens cap is killer. Obviously, it’s not so easy to take your dome port off or open up the housing to pop the lens cap off. And, other than shoot a piece of modern art black square, there isn’t much you can do if you’re 20 meters deep with the lens cap on inside the housing.
2. Forgetting the flash trigger
This is the one that gets me the most. When I was first starting out I did this a few times, and wanted to throw my housing to the depths every time. The flash trigger is a critical piece of your kit that relays the camera flash to your fiber optic cables and then on to your strobes for cameras without an internal flash.
Flash triggers have a few benefits over built in flashes – they can recycle faster, for one, which lets you shoot faster if you have quick-recycling strobes. They also save your camera’s battery a bit, as the camera uses a little more energy when powering a built-in flash. If your camera doesn’t have a built-in flash and you’re using a trigger to fire your strobes, dropping down on a dive means you won’t be able to fire your strobes.
3. Forgetting the camera plate
I’ve done this one a few times, but it’s harder to do. In my case, I only do this if I’ve been switching back and forth between terrestrial and underwater shoots a lot. The camera housing plate is a tray that screws into the bottom of your camera using the tripod hole, and then locks securely into your housing. It’s critical in aligning your camera with all of the mechanical controls in the housing, and, without one, your camera will not function inside the housing.
If you shoot on land, having the camera plate on can be a bother – in my case, I often use the articulating screen, and my camera plate prevents the articulating screen from popping out. This means that I end up taking the plate off and on when I switch back and forth, a recipe for forgetfulness. A good strategy is to always store your camera plate locked into your housing. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit of leaving mine in random places when I frantically take the plate off to shoot something that jumps out of the water.
4. Dead battery
Another classic. Thought you charged that battery? Think again. There’s nothing worse than that red blinking battery icon at the start of a dive. Bringing multiple batteries is a GREAT idea, but even with multiple batteries it’s not impossible to start a dive with a battery you thought was charged.
I recommend having full sets of backup batteries for every piece of kit you have that needs power – strobes, housing electronics, video lights, cameras, etc. And make sure you bring power adaptors and power strips on the boat if it’s a live aboard so you can charge everything at once! I like to keep one set charging while I’m underwater and swap every dive, even if I have plenty of battery left.
5. Forgot the memory card
You had the shoot of a lifetime, loaded everything into your computer, and have been editing like crazy ever since. But now it’s time for another dive, and you’ve just realized that memory card is still in the card reader. Ouch! Been there. For cameras with multiple card slots, it’s nice to have one card always in the camera as a backup option, although this isn’t always possible if you keep one card for photos and one for video, or backup all files to both cards.
6. Memory card is full
This one is probably more likely than the one above – it’s easy to forget how much space you have available on your card, and run out in the middle of a dive. While very frustrating, at least in this case it MIGHT not kill your dive. If you’re desperate, you can always delete some larger files off of your card while underwater, and keep shooting. It’s far from ideal, but if you always backup your cards between dives, you can wipe or format your card or selectively free up space as need be.
7. Forgot to put the camera outside before leaving AC and now it’s fogging
This one is much more regional, and has a special evil place in my heart. In the Eastern Red Sea, where the temperature is HOT, the humidity is HIGH, and the indoors are heavily air conditioned, cameras, lenses, and housings all fog up immediately when moving from inside to outside. Not only do they fog, but they can take a lot longer than you think to unfog.
Ideally, it’s best to leave forgeable equipment outside overnight before shooting, somewhere protected. I like to use hotel balconies or similar if available. Closed bags can keep cold for a lot longer than you think as well, so opening up bags outside to let the air inside the bag reach ambient temperature is important too. I have had lenses come out of bags that were outside for hours and still fog, because the bag kept the equipment cold enough.
8. Leaving the focus switch in the wrong position on a macro lens (manual focus or focus limiter)
Last, but not least, this applies to all manual switches on lenses. If you push a physical switch on a lens, just remember it cannot be unpunished in most situations once you are underwater! This, in my experience, most often occurs with focus limiting switches on macro lenses. I have certainly done this before – if, for example, you limit your macro lens to only focus from 1 meter to 1:1, you will not be able to photograph anything further away than 1 meter. Always set such switches to “full”!
There you have it. Did we forget anything? Which is the most frustrating? Let us know!
- Strobes or video lights? A head-to-head comparison for the underwater photographer – October 23, 2023
- Shooting Video AND Stills on the Same Dive [Guide] – April 6, 2023
- New cameras on the block! A roundup of our favorite recent releases – November 14, 2022
1 comment
One thing I always do before I leave the room is to take a test shot in the mirror. It not only tells me that everything is turned on, it also tells me the strobes are syncing with the camera.