UNDERWATER PHOTO COURSE: FOR WHO? WHY ?

Text and photos: Isabelle & Amar Guillen

Since the advent of digital technology in 2002 consumer photography, the camera has become a must-have accessory for diving equipment. Amar and Isabelle Guillen, underwater professional photographers, give you some recipes to do more than just photos, and enter the world of beautiful pictures.

KNOW TO DIVE AND BREATHE

Knowing how to equip a block, breathe on a regulator or know all the safety instructions is not enough to take a photo. A photographer diver must know how to balance himself perfectly not only with his life jacket, but also with the ballast lung technique. Knowing how to perfectly control your balance not only allows you not to damage the seabed and not to disturb animals, but also and above all to control your focus! A photo can be missed because of a slight breath at the time of the trigger. During our courses and photo safaris, the first two dives are always carried out in 15 meters of water, which allows you to readjust to the settings but also to resume good breathing habits.

KNOW YOUR EQUIPMENT PERFECTLY

To take good underwater photos, it is also essential to know your equipment well. Even at a depth of 20 meters, divers are no longer as alert as on land. The handling of all the controls of the box must be automatic. Whether adjusting speed, aperture or sensitivity, everything must be instinctive: a second of hesitation, and the sought-after model may be gone. We often advise our trainees to take a few hundred pictures on earth before leaving, to already have the equipment "well in hand".

LEAD THE LIGHT

The essential element to create a beautiful image is the control of light, whether natural or artificial. Natural light is used to photograph large animals such as whale sharks, whales, dolphins, sperm whales or manatees. Since they are often distant from the lens, using a flash is useless because it is not about subjects. And often, they evolve near the surface, and the light emitted by the sun is sufficient to make good shots with sufficiently fast speeds. We also use a lot of natural light in caves when there are skylights. This is the case of many caves in the Red Sea or in the Cenotes of Mexico. The control of natural light is a real challenge because you have to know how to use the sun and especially adapt the settings of the camera. Depending on the conditions, you have to have fast or slow speeds, you have to open more or less. It is necessary to know how to wait until the subject is well placed so that the modeling is the best.

MAINTAIN YOUR FLASHS

The artificial light from the flashes makes it possible to freeze the movement of very mobile fish and to restore the colors. For it to be fully effective, you have to get as close as possible to the subjects, whether in ambient photography or close-up. But most flashes use the TTL technique: it is the camera that controls the power of the flash to be sent to the subject, the photographer does not control the power to be emitted at all, the camera has been calibrated and its algorithms calculation are frozen. During our safaris and our courses, we therefore teach participants who wish to use artificial light in manual mode, the only way to create pictures with subjects that have shaped or to use mixed light for photographs of atmosphere.

CLOSE TO HIS SUBJECT

This is one of our leitmotifs in shooting, a piece of advice given to us by David Doubilet, one of the greatest, who works in particular for National Geographic: the closer a photographer is to his subject, the better the sharpness, the rendering of the lights, the modeling and the finesse of the details. This is true in close-up photography but especially in mixed light mood photography. It is for this reason that we always use lenses with very small minimum focusing distances: from 15 to 40 centimeters.

CREATE AN IMAGE

However, being a photographer is not just about mastering a technique, even if it is essential. A photograph remains an act of creation, a way of showing the underwater world. We, with our trainees, are used to dividing the production of a beautiful image into five stages, and each of them can slip the talent of the photographer.

FIVE STEPS FOR A BEAUTIFUL IMAGE

- the first step is to find a subject to photograph. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the spectator who will look at the photograph and ask yourself "What am I going to show him?" What message will it send him? ". Do I show a fish portrait from the front, three-quarter? Do I have to show a bio photo? If it's a mood scene, what atmosphere should I make?

- the second step is to determine the best light, whether natural or artificial. It will highlight the subject.

- The third stage consists in composing the scene with all the elements which are at our disposal: choice of the background, the foreground, the negative space, color of the background.

- The fourth step is to choose the framing to properly highlight the subject.

- Finally, comes the ultimate step: that of camera settings. It is the crucial choice of all camera settings for the subject to be perfect.

ANALYZE PICTURES AT 100% OF THEIR SIZE

If we look at the purely technical level, the most important criterion for a successful photo is that the subject is in focus. Often photographers are content to analyze the shot on the screen on the back of the camera. This is not sufficient to judge its sharpness. Two possible solutions: use the zoom function in display mode. We enlarge the photo to the maximum and we look at the subject. The second solution is to analyze the snapshot 100% with software on a computer. These are the only two ways to be sure that a photograph is sharp.

USE IT TOOLS

Today, the treatment of underwater photos has become indispensable. The retouches and corrections are often simple and easy to implement if you know the techniques but they make all the difference. This post treatment does not distort at all the original shot, and it is not a cheating. Digital sensors often have a much smaller dynamic range than the human eye. The use of a specific software makes it possible to correct this defect in a few clicks. On the other hand, it is possible to saturate the colors for a more natural effect or to accentuate the details. It's also the way to add a personal touch to an image.

SHOW IMAGES AND WATCH THOSE OF OTHERS

To progress, you have to be able to show your pictures to other photographers, submarines or not, and be able to quickly select some images to show his vision and pass messages. During our safaris and our courses, we organize every day this kind of exchanges, the remarks are constructive, friendly and really allow everyone to progress, to draw new ideas. But a photographer must also spend a lot of time looking, analyzing, looking for inspiration in the photos that others have made. We must put aside pride and shame. We must be humble and say that we are always perfectible. It must be said that a photographer can not be judged on a single shot but on series of 10 12 photographs.

THE UNDERWATER PHOTO, AN ART OF LIVING

Underwater photography is not just a mechanical operation of pressing a shutter button. Anyone who thinks so will always be content with “taking pictures”. For us, and this is what we try to convey through our courses and safaris, under the motto “Dream. Find out. Explore ”, it is also an art of living, a way of showing the underwater world to spectators, divers or not. It allows us to show the beauty of the seabed, to testify to their fragility and to convey the message that we must preserve them for our own balance. It is an art that calls for humility. It forces us to always question ourselves, to always go further in creation, to share our pleasure and our passion with others.