Underwater Photography Tips: Shooting Schools of Fish
Alex MustardStrong formations visually communicate togetherness. Pictures say “schooling” best when the fish are neat and we can see the whole school as a finite entity within the frame.
Tobias Friedrich****Shoot a Silhouette****
****Neat schools make for neat photos. And our images get even stronger when the formations form pleasing geometric shapes, something that is rare in the oceans. Schools regularly form circles and ovals, and if we’re lucky, occasionally even rings. The better the shape, the better our shot. Often big schools are hard to illuminate well with strobes, so consider turning them off and shooting the formation as a silhouette.
****Waiting to Exhale****
Time your breathing to avoid splitting the school. When you’re swimming below a school of fish avoid exhaling in the middle — the fish won’t swim through the bubbles and you’ll end up splitting them apart, ruining your photo opp.
**CAMERA: **Canon 5D Mark II // **HOUSING: **UK-GERMANY // **LENS: **Canon 17-40mm // **STROBES: **none //
**SETTINGS: **f/10, 1/200 sec, ISO 200 // **LOCATION: **Liberty wreck, Bali
Alex MustardCapturing an Entire School
****When shooting schooling fish, I aim for two main compositions. If the school is small enough and my lens wide enough, I want to get the whole school in my picture. Nothing says togetherness better than a group of fish surrounded by open water. Once I’m in tight, I’ll go for wall-to-wall fish, focusing my camera on the densest part of the school, where the fish are most aligned.
**CAMERA: **Nikon D2X // **HOUSING: **Subal // **LENS: **Nikkor 17-35mm // **STROBES: **Subtronic //
**SETTINGS: **f/8, 1/50 sec, ISO 100 // **LOCATION: **Ari Atoll, Maldives
Henry JagerSome Schools Stick Together
****Schooling fish are sticky, but species vary. Some, like barracuda, are magnetic, and you can swim right through the middle of them and they’ll hold formation, parting just enough to let you pass. With some other species, you need only to breathe out in their direction, and they soon start pointing in all directions.
That said, some natural movement of the fish will infuse schooling shots with the energy of movement. Watch the school, and try to time your photos to capture the fish sweeping past your lens, which will produce a dynamic composition.
**CAMERA: **Olympus E-3 // **HOUSING: **BS Kinetics // **LENS: **Zuiko 8mm fish-eye // **STROBES: **Inon Z-240 //
**SETTINGS: **f/5.6 , 1/250 sec, ISO 250 // **LOCATION: **Pescador Island, Cebu, Philippines
Swimming among schools of fish is an irresistible attraction for every diver, but producing stunning images of them means curbing our enthusiasm. Schooling photos need to communicate the togetherness of the fish — that’s what schooling is all about. The one thing that is sure to destroy a pleasing arrangement of fish is a careless diver.
More than any specific technical expertise with the camera, striking schooling shots require excellent diving skills to avoid breaking up the formations, as well as the patience to hold your position and let the school come to you.
Often experienced photographers find this hardest to learn. The golden rule of underwater photography is “get close, then get closer.” Shooting schools successfully goes against the grain. If we want attractive formations right in front of our lens, we have to let the fish come to us.
Keep expanding your diver brain and check out more of these amazing underwater photography tips!
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