Mustard’s Masterclass: How to Capture Perfect Underwater Sunbursts

Alex Mustard focuses his consideration on easy methods to seize underwater sunbursts.

Finally, the rain has come! And I believe I used to be as happy to really feel it splashing on my head as my yellow-dustbowl of a garden. I believe that the final time I skilled rain was again in June, earlier than I went to the Red Sea.

There have been a number of breaks within the gloriously sunny climate this summer season, however they got here whereas I used to be on hols in Sardinia. So I believe it was over ten weeks since I final skilled a cloudburst, drizzle or any type of precipitation. As an Englishman, I’ve been very a lot exterior my comfort-zone with all this sunshine! The solar can even scare underwater photographers. It shouldn’t be for nothing that it’s nicknamed the ‘white ball of death – WBOD’ for its means to kill a photograph. But captured accurately, underwater sunbursts add ethereal magnificence and a fascinating underwater feeling remodeling an on a regular basis shot into an attention-grabbing, almost-magical {photograph}.

The Secret Ingredients for Perfect Underwater Sunbursts

Time and once more, once I present a fantastic sunburst photos, I’m requested the identical query. And it’s the fallacious query. “What were your settings?” Camera settings are essential, however opposite to fashionable perception, there isn’t a magic method hidden in your digicam’s menus that transforms the WBOD into radiant sunrays and a shocking sunball. Instead, the 2 most-important elements are unrelated to our digicam – they’re the prevailing circumstances and the depth at which we select to shoot.

Optimum circumstances clearly contain having the solar shining, however equally essential is having a clean water floor. Windy circumstances ruffle the ocean’s floor, and underwater this breaks up the sunburst and stopping the beams from forming these all-important enticing rays. Larger waves and swell aren’t problematic so long as the floor of the water stays clean. So in addition to ready for the solar, I’m additionally ready for these particular mill-pond days, when the water is clean.

Patience is a advantage, however good issues additionally come to those that search for them. Many tropical dive locations are uncovered to easterly commerce winds, so dive websites on the protected western sides of islands show the smoothest water. Additionally, because the land heats up sooner than the ocean every day, breezes develop, with winds blowing from mid-morning to late afternoon. The calmest circumstances and greatest sunrays are often at both finish of the day. The Red Sea is usually windy, the common windspeed in Hurghada, for instance, is above ten knots 12 months spherical! This is the place small-scale topography and different obstacles for the wind can create worthwhile pockets of clean water, preferrred for underwater sunbursts pictures.

The steep sides of protected inland dive websites, particularly outdated quarries, present this kind of shelter. Similarly, a big liveaboard can create a small patch of millpond even in blustery circumstances. The excessive cliffs round Sharm El Sheikh defend coast dive websites and supply one among my favorite locations for each break up stage and sunburst pictures.

The extra you search these circumstances, the higher you change into at predicting them. There are sometimes nice sunbursts ready in areas the place coral grows proper to the floor and the place marine life clings to submerged partitions of steep-sided islands, akin to across the limestone rock islands of Raja Ampat. When on a liveaboard, spend a couple of minutes observing the terrain, the place of the solar and circumstances between dives to plan your diving and pictures accordingly.

Diving Shallow: Avoiding the “Cyan Halo”

Attractive sunrays will be photographed in heat and chilly, salt and recent, and clear and murky water when the circumstances are proper, however by no means depths. While the solar can nonetheless be utilized in deeper photographs, it received’t produce enticing rays at depth. Staying shallow is essential as a result of sunrays change into more and more defocused with depth. As they move by means of water, their gentle scatters in all instructions, weakening them.

Another motive for staying shallow is that the solar’s gentle turns into more and more blue with depth, and this impacts how the sting of sunball seems in our footage. The solar is shiny and we must always anticipate it to overexpose as white in our photographs. But the deeper we go, this white sunball is more and more surrounded by an unattractive cyan-halo or partial overexposure. Underexposure (often by growing the shutterspeed) will shrink the ugly halo, however it’s going to concurrently darken the water and make gentle beams much less seen. Post-processing additionally actually struggles to take care of the halo, so the perfect recommendation is to keep away from it by diving shallow.

Radial vs. Dappled Light: Timing Your Dive

That mentioned, I’ll embody the solar in my photographs at any depth for extra distinction and as a focus. However, I do know that for a fantastic sunball and sunrays, I dive must shallow. The preferrred depth is determined by the solar’s top within the sky, which varies with time of day, latitude, and season. When the solar is excessive within the sky, akin to noon within the tropics, I keep within the high 10m to seize its greatest. In these circumstances, the solar creates symmetrical beams generally known as radial gentle. When the solar is low within the sky, I dive a lot shallower, as the perfect sunrays are seen within the high 3m. This kind of underwater sunbursts, generally known as dappled gentle, is enticing as a result of it travels by means of extra environment, giving it a hotter color and small waves break up the sunshine into layers of golden rays. But keep in mind you actually do have to be shallow – security cease depth is simply too deep – if you’d like lovely dappled gentle it is advisable to dive for it! Dappled gentle is usually related to night gentle, however early risers or these diving on sunny winter days at excessive latitudes can discover equally gorgeous dappled gentle at noon. One of my favorite instances and locations for spectacular dappled gentle is a winter’s day dive at a sheltered inland web site within the UK and is a pleasant reward for braving the chilly.

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Mastering Exposure: Beyond the Camera Settings

While there aren’t any magic settings for capturing underwater sunbursts, getting the correct settings is essential. The solar is the brightest object in our photo voltaic system, so you’ll doubtless want a quick shutter pace and a closed aperture for the proper publicity, however the actual numbers are usually not vital. Avoid underexposing an excessive amount of and as a substitute modify your composition so the solar rays are the brightest function within the body. I attempt to conceal the brightest a part of the solar barely out of body or behind one thing within the body, which supplies the strongest beams.

The key to creating world-class underwater sunbursts shouldn’t be counting on a secret digicam setting however studying the circumstances, and when they’re proper diving for sunbursts, as a result of they’ve the ability to remodel a very good underwater picture into an incredible one.

When on a liveaboard, spend a couple of minutes observing the terrain, the place of the solar and circumstances between dives to plan your diving and pictures accordingly

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