Snorkelling: nailing your underwater photos on holiday

Have you ever been on a snorkelling trip whilst on holiday and later regretted not having any photos to remember it by? Well, good underwater photography is a real art form and usually involves a lot of effort. But that’s not necessary at all if you just want a few photos to remind you of your underwater adventure later on. In this article, we’ll give you a few tips on how to take impressive photos of your snorkelling trips using a lightweight and simple camera. A rugged waterproof camera like the PENTAX WG-8 is built for exactly this: sealed out of the box, with an underwater mode, close-up macro and a red-correcting white balance, so you can shoot straight from the first snorkel, with no housing and no scuba gear.

This guide covers the essentials: choosing the right camera, fixing the blue-green loss of colour, getting close to your subject, and using light, composition and the right settings to bring home sharp reef and fish photos.

Key takeaways

• You don't need a housing or scuba gear: a natively waterproof camera lets you shoot from the very first snorkel.
• Water absorbs warm colours with depth (red goes first), so stay shallow, shoot in bright natural light, and switch on the underwater mode or a custom white balance.
• Get close to your subject: distance drains colour and sharpness more than anything else.
• Use macro mode with the built-in ring light for tiny reef subjects, and a fast shutter to freeze moving fish.

Snorkel responsibly

Great marine photography begins with respect for the ocean. Practise good buoyancy, keep your fins clear of the reef, and never touch or chase an animal. Healthy reefs make for better pictures, and the finest shots come to the patient snorkeller who hangs still and lets the fish approach. For photographing animals with care, our wildlife photography guide is worth a read.

What camera do you need for snorkelling?

Short answer: a natively waterproof camera you can take in the sea without a bulky, expensive housing. The PENTAX WG-8 is waterproof out of the box, shockproof and crushproof, with a dedicated underwater mode and close-up macro, an ideal snorkelling camera for beginners and families.

For years the price of entry to photography below the surface was gear: costly housings, external strobes, dive training. A rugged compact sweeps that aside. Where ordinary cameras stay on dry land, the WG-8 is designed to be dropped straight into the water (no case, no ceremony) and it shrugs off the knocks of travel. A housing can cost as much as the camera, is model-specific, and a single failed seal floods everything inside; building the sealing into the body removes that whole problem. One habit matters back on land: rinse it in clean fresh water, dry it, and let it air out before opening any compartment. If you're weighing options, these reasons to choose PENTAX are a good place to start.

The underwater mode and macro

Short answer: switch to the underwater mode for correctly balanced colour on reef and fish scenes, and use macro mode, with the WG-8's ring of LED lights as a built-in light source, to capture tiny marine species in sharp close-up, right down to about a centimetre away.

Two features carry the weight for snorkellers. The underwater mode re-tunes colour and exposure for life beneath the surface, so a reef comes out vivid instead of washed-out blue, with a matching movie option for video. Macro mode is the camera's secret weapon: paired with the LED lights around the lens, it lets you focus extremely close and light small subjects evenly, so a thumbnail-sized nudibranch, a patterned shell or the texture of a coral head becomes a striking picture. For a touch of fill on close subjects the built-in flash is plenty; the strobes and video lights scuba photographers haul around are overkill for the shallows. It is the PENTAX WG-8 at its best.

Beating the loss of colour

Short answer: water absorbs warm colours with depth (red goes first), so photos turn blue or green. Fix it by staying in shallow water and natural light, switching on the underwater mode or a custom white balance, adding a red filter in deeper water, and moving close to your subject.

This is the single problem that defines the genre. Water swallows the warm end of the spectrum fast: red is gone within a few metres, then orange and yellow, leaving that familiar blue-green cast. Four moves bring the warmth back:

• Stay shallow, shoot in natural light. The nearer the surface, the more colour survives, and the sunlit shallows a snorkeller favours are the ideal place to be.
• Set the white balance. The underwater mode corrects colour automatically; a custom white balance read off the sand does the same by hand.
• Add a red filter for deeper water. It restores the warmth the water strips away once you drop past a couple of metres.
• Close the distance. Less water between lens and reef means truer colour, sharper detail and fewer particles in the frame.

Timing matters too, and the rule flips from land: the middle of the day, when the sun is high, drives the most light straight down into the water, keeping colours bright. A calm, clear, sunny day beats an overcast one every time, so plan your best sessions for the brightest hours.

Composition and settings that lift your shots

With the colour sorted, a few habits turn record shots into real photographs:

• Get close, then closer. The golden rule beneath the surface: shrink the water between lens and subject.
• Shoot slightly upward. Angling towards the light sets fish and reefs against a clean, bright background rather than murky depths.
• Use the rule of thirds. Place your subject off-centre and leave it room to swim into the frame.
  
• Don't fire the flash at distance. In poor visibility it lights up floating particles and causes backscatter, the usual reason for blurry frames; save it for close subjects in clear water.
• Let wildlife come to you. Sudden lunges scatter the fish; stay calm and let curious marine life drift towards you.

For more on shooting across the range, see why the WG series are such hard-working cameras.

Where to go, and what to pack

For clear water and rich reefs, a handful of destinations are hard to beat: the Red Sea for coral walls and visibility a short swim from shore, the Maldives for manta rays and, in season, whale sharks, the Caribbean and Mexico for easy, family-friendly reefs and crystal cenotes, and Indonesia for some of the richest reef life on Earth. Aim for the dry season, when visibility peaks. Packing is quick: a floating wrist strap first (it keeps the camera at the surface if it slips), a spare battery and memory card, a red filter for deeper water, and a microfibre cloth, since wet lenses and a smear of sunscreen are the usual culprits behind a soft shot. You'll find the extras among the compact camera accessories.

Editing your photos afterwards

Even with colour handled in-camera, a gentle pass finishes the job. Software like Adobe Lightroom lets you fine-tune the white balance, lift colour and contrast, recover any warmth the water still took, and reduce noise from dimmer light. The aim is to give back what the water removed, not to invent a look that was never there.

Snorkelling is the easiest, most rewarding way into the hobby: no housing, no dive kit, just clear water and a camera built to be in it. Keep your first outing simple and start with still subjects to find your distance, then pack the WG-8, find a bright reef, get close, and you'll come home with photos that finally look like the world you saw beneath the surface.