Natural Light Photography: using tripods

When it comes to shooting underwater scenes, such as wrecks, the only option really is to use natural light. The problem with many cold water and many deep water environments is the lack of light. I have a rough rule of thumb as to whether I can go for a natural light shot – if I can read the LCD display on my computer without any extra light, then I can take the shot without a strobe.

Even then, it can be a long exposure: half a second is not unusual. The solution is to take a tripod. Not the easiest of things to carry underwater, and of course the bouyancy means it is not as solid as a land tripod. The way I have dealt with this is to buy a cheap tripod – not matter how carefully you wash it, eventually the sea water will corrode it. Jessops do some decent ones for less than £35. I don’t need any panning, just a solid head that can be locked off. To get the weight to hold it down I fill the legs with lead shot. You basically pop the rubber ends off the legs, and empty around 2-3kg of lead shot evenly across the three legs. I then glue the rubber ends back on.

This picture is a result of using the tripod:

It was taken in Narvic, in the Norwegian Arctic Circle. It wasn’t that deep a shot – around 20m – but the water wasn’t that clear. I usually ‘side mount’ the tripod in much the same way as a stage cylinder. That way it sits nicely under my arm when I’m swimming. I usually extend the tripod before I go in the water, so all I have to do is open the legs and lock it off.

I was using my Nik V with a 15mm Nikkonos lens. I set the tripod close the the nose of the plane and got my buddy to swim forward. The exposure was around 1 second. You will notice that there is some movement from the diver. This effect was deliberate – I like the fact that the plane is clear, but the diver is cleary moving.

You can see more natural light and tripod photos in the coldwater section of my site.