Most professionals will tell you that the most important element in underwater photography is light. Light paints the picture. This article is not intended as a photo lesson on lighting. It is intended to introduce you to the basics.

What is light? Light is a visible form of energy that travels in a straight line at 186,000 miles per second, making it the fastest phenomenon in the universe. The human eye can see visible light. When you look at sunlight, it appears to be without color; we call this white light. White light is not the light of one color. It is made up of all the colors of the visible spectrum. When light is reflected off an object, we see it as different colors.

Light does not behave underwater as it does on the surface. Water is 800 times denser than air. Therefore, when light travels through the water column, it slows down, changes direction, scatters, reflects, looses color and intensity.

Underwater photographers have two forms of light available to them: natural (ambient) light from the sun, and artificial light from built-in flashes and off-camera strobes. Thus, the choices are: natural or artificial or a combination of both.

Ambient light is an art in itself. Most underwater photographers have little or no knowledge about ambient light photography underwater. It is drilled into their heads that water absorbs the component colors of light one by one as depth increases, thus rendering our pictures flat and two-dimensional, with monochromatic blue/green hues. This is true, however, we can use this ambient light creatively to produce three-dimensional pictures of great beauty by taking advantage of the rays of light which descend the water column and strike the subject or scene.

The best time of day for taking ambient light photos is between the hours of 10am and 2pm, with the rays of light coming in from behind the photographer and striking the subject head on.

Strobe light is artificial light engineered to emulate sunlight and bring out the natural colors being photographed. Strobes are not the horse of the same color. Some strobes offer specific manual settings only, some automatic TTL (through the lens metering), some that fine-tune light intensity in increments via a dial, and some that offer all three.

Welcome to the age of the digital cameras. Initially manufacturers have flooded the market with point-and-shoot cameras. Most of us thought the strobes we used for film would fit in nicely with the digital camera. Dream on. All digital point-and-shoot systems have a pre-flash function. Strobes not designed to cope with a pre-flash system will fire before the shutter is fully opened. Therefore, we must use strobes specifically designed for the point-and-shoot. There are a few good ones on the market such as Sea & Sea and Ikelite. An assortment of sensors both manual and auto, plus fiber optic cables and hard wire sync cords are available to make it all work.

Hold on, I haven’t finished yet. We now have the Digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex). With these you don’t have to worry about pre-flash. The SLR’s shutter is in sync with the strobe and the shutter opens at the right moment to allow the full amount of light to strike the CCD and record the image.

Now the only other problems we must overcome with the digital SLR is to get the camera and strobe to function in manual, TTL or slave mode. Manual mode is no problem as long as you have the right sync cord to mate the strobe with the housing. TTL on the other hand is a problem.

Nikon and Canon, the most popular of the digital SLRs, don’t make an amphibious strobe. You must rely on other manufacturers. I recommend Sea & Sea or Ikelite. As an aside, the only digital SLR camera ever produced that offered TTL with any third party strobe was the Fuji S2Pro. They are now out of production; however, a few used can be purchased. Call me. I’ll get you one.

For those of you still using 35mm film SLR cameras, strobes manufactured by Sea & Sea and Ikelite can be adapted for use with most new digital SLRs.

It’s impossible to write in detail all there is to know about digital strobe photography. Consult a photo pro before buying a strobe. Once you make the right selection and master the modes to control light output, your days of taking better pictures are before you.

Part Two of Painting the Underwater World with Light will appear in the August issue. We will discuss how to use light underwater.

If you are serious about learning how to be an accomplished digital still photographer or videographer, please join us in La Paz at The Underwater Imaging Academy October 10 – 16. See our website for details. www.JoeLiburdi.com

Closer to home, Joe is offering private photo lessons at a reasonable fee of $50 per hour, minimum three hours. The classes are one-on-one and conducted either at his home in Aliso Viejo or at Liburdi’s Scuba Center in Costa Mesa. By appointment only. Call 949-448-0499 or e-mail Joe at orca2@cox.net .

New PADI Digital Underwater Photographer Course will be given at our Underwater Imaging Academy in La Paz. For details please visit www.JoeLiburdi.com

I love it when a photographer comes to me with questions and then goes out and does amazing work. Mike Bartick is such a student. He had a brand-new Canon Rebel XT digital camera in an Ikelite housing with Ikelite 125 strobes. After a three-hour private lesson, he went into the ocean and nailed it!


Taken with a Canon 15mm wide angle lens.

“Where there’s a will there’s a way,” I say. How many times have you been miles from home with a broken piece of equipment and you really need to fix it? Hardware stores in remote locations or on a liveaboard, no way! With a little ingenuity, you can fix it wherever you go.

Bag of do-it-yourself tricks

• Electrical tape. I use it to wrap bare wires, secure mounted target lights on strobes, hold a lens caddy in place or a wobbly base tray. Also handy to hold most anything in place, wayward gauges and a bootie with a broken zipper.
• Aqua Seal and aqua seal liquid hardener. Most broken items can be fixed by wrapping tape around the broken piece, coating it with Aqua Seal mixed with the liquid hardener. When it dries, bingo, you have a temporary fix until you can buy new.
• Toothpaste. Got a few scratches on a lens or port? Rub a dab of toothpaste in circular motions. Surface scratches will come off.
• Rubber bands in assorted sizes and widths. Provide a firm grip to remove screw-on lenses, filters, etc.
• Silk ties or any old clean piece of silk make perfect lens cleaning cloths. Only use silk that has a very fine weave; a rough weave will scratch the lens.
• Plastic tie wraps. Carry a dozen assorted sizes. Use them to lock luggage compartment zippers. They come in handy if you don’t have locks or the locks have been broken or lost in transit.
• Bubble wrap. In need of a diffuser over your strobe’s reflector? Place a piece of bubble wrap (small bubbles), the type used in shipping, over the reflector. Secure with rubber bands, tie wraps, or electrician’s tape. Make sure the bubbles have not burst; air inside the bubble is what makes it work.
  To learn more tricks and to download our Traveler’s Checklists, Click Here.