Amazing surfing images can be shot if you get yourself in the water. And it’s easier than you might imagine. All it takes is a confident swimmer, a waterhousing, a DSLR and a fisheye lens. Most photos you see that are taken inside a barrel have been taken this way.
The procedure involves setting your camera to manual. Keep the shutter speed high, usually 1/1000 sec, and set your aperture to 4.5. If it’s a cloudy day or low light conditions apply, you might need to change the settings or alternatively, leave your camera on auto ISO.
Once you have the settings adjusted, focus on a close object (e.g. 1.5m away). Set your lens to manual focus. You don’t want to have to autofocus in the water. Believe me, you will make less mistakes this way.
Make sure your waterhousing is sealed, then get in the water. (Refer here to some tips on maintianing underwater equipment.)
Position yourself at the impact zone — that’s right, you’re going to get smashed. Since you’re using a fisheye, you want the rider you’re shooting to come close to you. So work together. If he gets barrelled, even better.
Respect your limits. If the waves are huge, don’t go out. Swimming with a waterhousing is tough. If you’re not comfortable in the ocean, this is not for you.
If you need a waterhousing, take a look delmarhousings — these waterhousings are awesome!
Click here if you’d like to check out some amazing water shots… amazing!
Popularity: 2%
Related posts:
- Taking Care of Your Underwater Equipment 1. Make sure your O ring is intact The O ring is what guarantees no water will enter your camera. Check for dryness or cracks — any sign of those, you should replace the O ring immediately (contact manufacture for replacement). If your camera is an underwater model that needs...
- Surf Photography SURF PHOTOGRAPHY IS TECHNICALLY, RELATIVELY EASY. It is, however, an unavoidably expensive hobby. Yes, you do need a 70-200mm… even though, on many occasions, it won’t get you close enough. Good gear is essential to properly photograph surfing. Massive, high quality, minimal outlay, zoom lenses are an illusion. And teleconverters...
- Something Fish Eye Going On FISHEYE OR EXTREME WIDE ANGLE LENSES provoke extreme reactions. At their mere mention, many photographers run away. And if distortion is in question, the answer is most probably: No Way! At the risk of being crucified, I’d like to say, sometimes distortion can be a good thing. One of my...
- A Photographer’s Journey into Filming THIS QUICK VIDEO I’m posting is a demonstration of the movie mode in the new Canon EOS 7D. As a photographer, I’ve been simply using photography principles, hoping they work for video as well. So far so good. This video concentrates on potential manual focus issues and shows how well...
- One Point Or More To Focus USING THE CENTRE FOCUS POINT, especially for close up, thin depth-of-field shots, often leads to focusing errors as well as metering errors. There are times, of course, when using the centre Focus Point is fine – for example, landscapes and other shots with very wide depth-of-field. But for group shots...
Trying to find the path between where I am and where I wish to go, but definitely photographing my way there. 
“Make sure your waterhousing is sealed, then get in the water”???
Interesting to find it mentioned,
There must be some who do.
like the print on a dish washing detergent bottle:
“Do Not Swallow”
Happy Days, Axel
Hey Axel, working in a camera shop, you’d be surprised how many “warranty claims” we process due to people going in the water without checking if everything is proporly sealed. I wish I could have left that out, but like you said, there are some that will swallow detergent!!!