Tips & Tricks

With an abundance of amazing dive locations around the world, underwater photography enthusiasts are traveling remote destinations in search of the best subjects – but getting your photography equipment around the globe can prove to be a challenge. Here are some tips and tricks from the Optical Ocean Sales team to help ensure your gear gets there safe and sound.

Whether you prefer to keep your rig as lightweight and compact as possible, or if you’re still saving up for that second strobe, there is no reason you can’t achieve high-quality imagery using only one strobe!

At some point or another, underwater photographers are likely to experience a low-battery warning during a dive. Hopefully it occurs towards at the end of the dive, but for those of us unfortunate enough, the warning kicks in early and we end up carrying around a dead camera. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to improve the camera’s battery life so that dreaded low-battery warning doesn’t ruin your dive.

By Jim Lyle, OOS Customer

The TG 6 is the latest version of the popular Olympus “tough” series of cameras.  While not a huge upgrade from the TG 5, the TG 6 does have some improvements that add to its versatility underwater.We just spent three weeks in Cozumel, Mexico where I was able to play with the camera in warm, clear water.  I’m impressed!  There are a lot of detailed reviews of this camera available on the web so I won’t repeat what most of them say, just share with you my experiences and the settings I used.

The Olympus TG-6 camera paired with the Kraken Ringlight 3000 is a great compact set-up for shooting macro without the added weight and bulk of a tray, arms and strobes. The Ringlight 3000 can function as a continuous light source (up to 1800 lumens), or as a focus light with 3000 lumen burst capabilities. While using the Ringlight in continuous light mode, the camera automatically adjusts the exposure to the light output. However, when shooting in burst mode, there are some additional considerations and settings we recommend for getting well exposed images and make the most out of this compact set-up.

Congratulations on buying a great underwater compact camera package! We've written these instructions to help you get started.

Ultra-wide fisheye lenses are the preferred wide angle lens underwater due to their close focusing ability, sharp corners and wide field of view. Divers can usually get very close to their subjects with them, filling the frame, eliminating water which makes their photos lack sharpness, color and definition.

But there is a drawback to fisheye lenses; when shooting the straight lines, commonly of a pier or wreck, or models or other similar subjects, optical distortion is introduced.

The Olympus TG-4/TG-3 Cameras have a robust selection of flash modes. Generally all you have to do is put the camera in auto/forced flash mode, but on some strobes TTL won’t sync with these settings. Fortunately Olympus has provided an alternative sync mode that does seem to work. To access it you must first enable it, then select it from the flash settings. It is best used in Program or Aperture camera modes. Here's how to set it up...

The Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II is a highly customizable camera allowing for many personal preferences and considerations for underwater use. Hopefully this article, with collaboration from customers and staff here at Optical Ocean Sales, will give you a starting point for setting up your E-M1 Mark II camera for underwater use.

By Margo Cavis, Optical Ocean Sales

Divers and models make nice subjects to inspire wonder and excitement for the underwater environment. A human presence in this surreal, weightless surrounding can really draw your viewer in and help them relate to your image.