15 Inspiring Underwater Images
Next week I’m heading away for a short break to the northern coastal parts of my homeland of Australia (near the Great Barrier Reef). On that trip I hope to do a little scuba diving and underwater photography (if I can get an underwater housing for my camera in time).
To get myself in the mood for some underwater photography I decided to do a little surfing on Flickr and see what I could find as examples of under water photography. The following are 15 of the better images that I found. Of course some are quite different from the shots I’m hoping to take (there are no Polar Bears on the Reef for starters) - but all have some sort of ‘under water’ element to them (even if a couple are shot through glass at aquariums).
I hope you enjoy them and find something in what you see as a little inspiration for your own next underwater photography attempts. By the way, if you’ve already taken some that you want to share - check out this week’s forum assignment which is coincidentally on ‘Water’.
Three Books on Underwater Photography
- Master Guide for Underwater Digital Photography
- The Underwater Photographer, Third Edition: Digital and Traditional Techniques
- Adobe Photoshop for Underwater Photographers
Underwater Photography Books from Amazon
23 Responses to “15 Inspiring Underwater Images”
October 24th, 2007 at 1:40 am
Those are all really good examples, I agree. The ones with the sharks raised my eyebrows a bit though. :)
However the black and white photo of the child underwater by childish_david gives me the chills for some reason. I tried to think about why and the only reason I can come up with is because the body appears to be limp and calm with a devilish little smirk. To me it’s very macabre and eerie.
But any photo that invokes feeling like that, whether good ro bad, has done a good job at what art is all about.
*shutters* :)
October 24th, 2007 at 5:32 am
wow i can’t image what were they thinking when they shoot the photo, amazing :). Anyway if you want to enlarge those picture and make it as your wallpaper, this tutorial video might help you
[link=http://denmuel.blogspot.com/2007/10/enlarge-image-to-anysize-you-want.html]enlarge image to anysize you want[/link]…
October 24th, 2007 at 5:34 am
here is the link to enlarge you image..
http://denmuel.blogspot.com/2007/10/enlarge-image-to-anysize-you-want.html
October 24th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Those are some amazing pictures. I don’t know which ones I like better … the ones of the sea life (love the jellyfish ones) or the one with the hands and the roses. Great job to everyone.
BTW - if you want to do underwater photography I know at one time you could buy the disposable cameras that could be used underwater. I know they probably wouldn’t do as well as a “professional” camera, but they do take good pictures. Just a thought.
Tonya
October 24th, 2007 at 7:31 am
Very nice images! I wish I had the opportunity and skills to shoot some of these! I would guess at least two of these were not taken underwater though. These were probably taken at an aquarium/zoo:
1. the jellyfish photo with “Photo by Rigmarole” under it
2. the polar bear
Good luck with your quest, as underwater photography is a whole different game. Note, you will probably need a wide angle lens with a fish-eye dome to get good over/under images like the first two.
Here are a few shots my wife and I have taken: http://www.reeflections.net/gallery.php
Note that the quality was reduced for the online gallery.
– Jeff
October 24th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Wow, these are some good pictures,
In response to denmuel, I would just like to point out that the resizing method mentioned in the linked video is completely bogus. It’s the same algorithm that does the resizing, whether you do it all at once or in several little steps. I just tried it, once doing the resize in one step, and once doing it in 10% increments. The results were identical, nearly to the pixel.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:17 am
I’ve got quite a few underwater shots on my Flickr account - most of them are obviously not up to the quality of the ones in this post, but I think a few of them are pretty good - check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronsher/1425289864/in/set-72157602172791963/, for example (though I can’t take credit for that one - my wife took it! Envy…)
Aaron
October 24th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Sigh - Firefox, at least, includes the comma in the link in my last comment. If you want to see the photo, go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronsher/1425289864/in/set-72157602172791963/
Or just delete the comma.
Aaron
October 24th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
I used a disposable cameras when snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef 7 years ago, everything comes out dark blue. To get anything good in the image, you have to be within 4 feet of the object (you might get a bit more distance right at the surface). Maybe newer technology has improved these underwater sports cameras, and a flash might help (that’s a big “might”).
October 24th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Just FYI, the hand and rose is upside down. The hand is actually coming out of the water, not into it. You can tell by the ripples in the water.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Wow! I’m inspired ,-) !
(As I often am by your posts…)
October 24th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
great underwater photography!
October 24th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
The images have that ‘wow’ factor.
Not sure if its just me but they look even better when viewed with firefox than IE7
October 25th, 2007 at 3:31 am
Very cool! Those images make me want to buy the equipment and take my photo group on an underwater excursion! I love the shark photo!
October 27th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Amazing shark photos! You have helped to cement our resolve against ever going in the water during our Australian cruise. I don’t even want to know how the photographers got their pics.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
that’s awesome!
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:07 am
All are quite fantastic. The photo by Vanveelen almost looks fake and the photo by Arne Kuilman has the most incredible composition - sunlight streaming from behind gives it a very ethereal feeling. Excellent work.
December 16th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
“Tracye Says:
October 24th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Just FYI, the hand and rose is upside down. The hand is actually coming out of the water, not into it. You can tell by the ripples in the water.”
==========================================================
Hi Tracye,
The photo was shot underwater, It’s not fake =)
January 20th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Nice collection of photos. By far my favorite are the Pixie Hawkfish and White Shark. Stop by my blog to check out my collection of underwater photos as well!
Christopher
On the Flats Art Studio Blog
May 30th, 2008 at 10:53 am
i love the colors in photos by or in water.
also when i saw the polar bear i went “haha butt!” in my head.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:19 am
Beautiful is the word.
April 17th, 2009 at 7:42 am
Great inspiriation, thanks!! further to Reeflection’s comment you can do under and over photos with the pentax underwater point and shoots (we currently have the Pentax optio w60, but started with an earlier one), they are heaps and heaps of fun and quite inexpensive compared to underwater housings. They may not be as perfect as the top ones but there’s some examples here:
http://megcampbellback.typepad.com/a_letter_homefrom_meg_cam/underwater-photography-point-and-shoot/
(scroll past the flood pictures- that’s just heavy rain, not actually underwater!). The camera only goes to 4-5m, but there’s not much light past there anyway and you can get some really pretty images without going deep…
April 18th, 2009 at 4:32 am
Really amazing photographs and it’s a very nice and rare collection for me , Excellent work
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