Best Camera Settings For Underwater Photography

Best Camera Settings For Underwater Photography

Hey, in todays post i will explain the settings that i use for my Sony A7III when taking photos underwater.

Although i use the Sony A7III, the settings that i talk about in this post will be relevant for other mirrorless and dslr camera setups so please read on even if you dont use the A7iii.

If your looking for underwater settings for non-dslr cameras like the gopro then i have other guides up here: Gopro underwater guide

Sea turtle heading out to sea, taken with sony a7iii

My current housing setup is as follows:

• Aquatech Elite Sports Housing

• Sony A7III

• 8mm Dome Port

• Sony 10-18mm f4.0 (Not full frame and looking to upgrade soon)

Sony A7III inside the Aquatech Elite Housing

Ive been using this setup for the past 2 years now and love the photos that it takes along with the security it brings taking a expensive camera underwater. Some underwater photos taken with this setup.

Baby Green sea turtle - Taken with Sony A7III and Aquatech Elite Housing

Adult Green sea turtle resting on Staghorn Coral

(chelonia mydas) - Sony A7III/Aquatech Housing

Settings That I Use

The conditions underwater change a lot and the settings that you should use will change depending on the day. Futhermore, the settings can be depending on the subject that your planning to photograph as well so its a good idea to keep inside your head the various settings that you might need depending on the situation.

First of all, i would use either manual mode (M) or shutter priority (S) for underwater photography.

The modes available on Sony A7III and most other cameras are as follows:

1. Auto - The camera will control all the settings for you.

2. (P) Program - You have control of iso. The camera will adjust the aperture and shutter speed.

3. (S) Shutter Priority - You have control of the iso and shutter speed. The camera will adjust the aperture for you.

4. (A) Aperture Priority - You have control of the iso and aperture. The camera will adjust the shutter speed.

5. (M) Manual - You have control of the iso, shutter speed and aperture

When taking photos underwater, I personally like using S the most as i have control over the shutter speed and iso values.

For underwater photography, having control of the shutter speed is very important. Low shutter speeds can completely ruin photos as there is a lot of movement when underwater, which can result in blurry photos that are not in focus.

With Manual, i feel its too many settings to fiddle with especially underwater its a little difficult to keep changing the settings with conditions constantly changing.

Now for the settings that i use in S mode are as follows:

1. ISO is usually between 100-1250. 100 on perfect sunny days at the surface with plenty of light and just over 1000 when its cloudy/deeper where there is less light.

2. Shutter Speed between 250-1250 depending on conditions and the speed of the animal ill be filming. If im photographing slower moving animals like sea turtles then 250-500 is usually enough. With faster moving animals like dolphins and some sharks then id be using between 1/600-1/1000 usually.

3. Aperture (F value) will be automatically set by the camera in S mode so it varies depending on the photo!

Here are some photos below and the settings that i used to take them!

These photos were all taken in the (S) shutter priority mode.

Humpback Whale Calf - Sony A7III Iso: 250, SS:1/500 , F:4.0

This was taken when i went whale swimming at Tokunoshima Islands, Japan. The Humpback whale mother and calf in the photo was very relaxed and moving slowly so i went with the shutter speed at 1/500. To try to get a sharp photo i dropped the iso to 250 and the camera auto adjuested the aperture to 4.0.

Looking back, i probably should have increased the ISO a little more so that the aperture doesn’t need to be as low as 4.0. A higher aperture value would have resulted in more of the photo being in focus, the tail of the whale is a little out of focus due to the aperture being at 4.0.

A Pod of Spinner Dolphins - Sony A7III Iso: 640, SS: 1/1250, F:3.5

This photo was taken at the Ogasawara Islands, Japan. This was a large pod of Spinner dolphins ranging between 50-60 individuals. This small fragment of the pod came up close to me so i had the opportunity to snap this shot. Spinner dolphins are fast moving animals in general and this pod seemed to be heading somewhere so they were swimming pretty quickly. I set the shutter speed to 1/1250 to get a crisp shot and increased the iso to around 640 to compensate for the lower light from a faster shutter speed.

Also before heading underwater make sure your camera is set to taking RAW format photos. With underwater photos it makes a lot of difference if you can retouch the photos even a little in post processing to make the photos look even better.

I personally use lightroom a lot for these processes and it makes a big difference.

This is a list of the gear that i use!! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or need recommendations :)  

My Main GoPro’s 

[Hero 10Black]: https://amzn.to/3pbiEIn

[Hero 9 Black]: https://amzn.to/2YZVwS2

My Backup GoPro

[Hero 8 Black]: https://amzn.to/3DRrKOz

[Hero 5 Black]: https://amzn.to/3DSUqa1

My Main Camera

[Sony A7III]: https://amzn.to/2YXTH8R

My Backup Camera

[Sony A6000]: https://amzn.to/3psXS7x

My Lenses

[Sigma 100-400mm sony e mount]: https://amzn.to/3aMIRoj  

[Tamron 17-28mm sony e mount]: https://amzn.to/3jh0YHB

SD card for GoPro

[128gb-fast]: https://amzn.to/2Z62fuf

SD card for Sony Camera

[128gb]: https://amzn.to/3ANFpEw

External Hard Drive

[2tb]: https://amzn.to/3jgNXh8

My GoPro Mounts:

[3 Way Mount]: https://amzn.to/3n9XjN7

[Bite Mount]: https://amzn.to/3FYcd1y

[Neck Mount - for pov]: https://amzn.to/3ANEGTO

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