Friday 7 October 2016

The Underwater Blues


Why do underwater pictures captured from your own camera look pretty much just blue and monotonous, and absolutely nothing like the stunning pictures on National Geographic?


Is it your camera or is it your lack of good photography skills?

The answer is, neither! The ‘blueness’ of your underwater photos is actually because of the water.

Water is 800 times denser than air and therefore absorbs light quickly. At 5 meters deep, the red light will be absorbed and disappear, followed by orange at 10 meters, yellow at 20 meters, green at 30 meters and eventually even blue at 60 meters. So the deeper you dive underwater, everything will eventually turn to pitch black. 

So how do underwater photographers solve this?

The ideal way to restore the colours and contrast lost from absorption is by using artificial lighting like underwater strobes. Another way is to just photoshop the pictures by adjusting the level and saturation of colours…. which will result in something like this.. 


Now, doesn’t Mr. Turtle look more alive?



Shared by Nensirati Supahan
Guest Blogger

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