Limitations in Underwater Photography

There are a lot of limitations when photographing underwater (in a swimming pool or the sea or lake etc.). For example for obvious reasons, the camera needs to be either waterproof or in an underwater casing; these can vary in quality, functionality, and price. The best casings can be up to £1000 but, with that, there is a guarantee of quality and functionality. However, the cheaper soft PVC casings can be around £10/£20 but there would be caution of whether it would leak and enable good quality photos to be taken due to something being in front of the lens.
More to do with the aesthetic of the image, at depths underwater, a lot of the light would fade away, leaving the image looking very dark and dingey. Likewise, the colour red, having the least energy of all colours, is absorbed in the first metre of water; leaving the image looking very blue and green. The image below is a good example the darkness, together with the prominence of blue and green, that can occur when photographing underwater. This leaves a lot of post-editing to restore the balance of colours to the image.

The subjects of the image can also be affected by the fact that they are underwater. For example, when underwater, most people end up squinting of screwing their face up if their eyes are open and not wearing goggles. The challenge when picking a model for an underwater shoot is to choose one that looks natural underwater when not wearing goggles and eye are open. Additionally, the majority of objects would float when submerged in water. This leaves a challenge in actually taking the shot as the photographer would have to figure out what settings to use, what lighting to use and what framing to use, all before they and the model run out of breath and float to the surface.

These limitations, of course, can only occur once a body of water has been obtained. If you want to shoot in something such as the sea or a lake when it's sunny, then the weather plays a big part in conducting the shoot because, firstly, it has got to be sunny if you want the sun in the shot. Secondly, it can't be too cold because you and the model would both be wet, making it feel a lot colder than it actually is. If you want to shoot in a swimming pool and you don't have one yourself, nor have friends that have one, then you will have to look elsewhere - likely to leisure centre swimming pools. However, if you aren't going to rent the whole pool out, then there is the issue of safe guarding and privacy protection etc. which could be a lot of hassle and the reason why most leisure centres don't allow it. Luckily, I had a friends with a swimming pool so I used theirs.