SeaLife SL720 User manual

Including high definition video and

photo galleries to show you positioning

and best techniques!

Including high definition video and

photo galleries to show you positioning

and best techniques!

BY ANNIE CRAWLEY

by Annie Crawley

Made Easy

Underwater

Create amazing photos
& video with

Photography

SeaLife Cameras

Perfect for every environment whether you are headed on a tropical vacation
or diving the Puget Sound. These cameras meet all of your imaging needs!

©2013 Annie Crawley
www.Sealife-cameras.com

www.DiveIntoYourImagination.com

Edmonds Underwater Park, Washington

All rights reserved. This interactive book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, Dive Into Your Imagination, LLC a
company founded by Annie Crawley committed to change the way a new generation views the Ocean and themselves. Dive Into Your Imagination, Reg. Pat. & Tm. Off.

Underwater Photography Made Easy shows you how to
take great photos and video with your SeaLife camera system.
After our introduction to this interactive book you will learn:

1. Easy to apply tips and tricks to help you create great images.

2. Five quick review steps to make sure your SeaLife camera
system is ready before every dive.

3. Neutral buoyancy tips to help you take great underwater
photos & video with your SeaLife camera system.

4. Macro and wide angle photography and video basics
including color, composition, understanding the rule of
thirds, leading diagonals, foreground and background
considerations, plus lighting with strobes and video lights.

5. Techniques for both temperate and tropical waters, how to
photograph divers, fish behavior and interaction shots, the
difference in capturing animal portraits versus recording
action in video. You will learn how to capture sharks,
turtles, dolphins, clownfish, plus so much more.

6. How to visualize and capture images needed to tell a great
story plus tips to tell your story.

7. Care and maintenance for your SeaLife Camera system.

8. How to share your images through SeaLife imaging contests
and social media.

Whether you are shooting with the SeaLife
ReefMaster or the DC Series, it is all about
the technique. Should you use an external
flash? Fisheye lens or macro? This enhanced
eBook shares a variety of diving situations
and how you can get the most from your
SeaLife Camera.

Stingray City, Grand Cayman

Welcome to the Underwater Photography & Video Club!

About SeaLife Cameras

Underwater photography and video changes your life and your
diving. Once you see how easy it is to capture your experience and
share it with your friends and family, you want to do it again and
again. SeaLife Cameras are a great way to capture memories
underwater whether you are a beginner diver or more advanced
and want to start underwater imaging. I created this guide for
SeaLife Cameras to give you professional tips and tricks so you can
take amazing underwater photographs and video with your system.

For nearly twenty years, I have been training divers and snorkelers,
kids and adults, beginners and pros on the skills and techniques of
how to shoot great underwater photos and video. SeaLife Cameras
can do it all. This enhanced eBook will inspire and help you. You
will learn proper body positioning, composition, lighting, and what
shots you need to tell a great story. Most of us dream of diving and

Whether it's your first
time snorkeling or
your annual scuba trip
in the tropics, SeaLife
Cameras help you
discover the
underwater world. For
over 25 years, SeaLife
has made the world’s
most popular

SeaLife DC1400 shoots photos and

underwater cameras.

high definition video.

All SeaLife products
have something in common - they make great images easy to
obtain. At SeaLife, our goal is to develop innovative underwater

swimming with turtles, dolphins, and sharks; but with your SeaLife

Camera in hand you get to capture
your experience to share with
others! Consider me your personal
camera coach as I’m sharing my
professional secrets with you. As
you explore this eBook, imagine
you are behind your SeaLife camera
taking the shot. I’m looking forward
to go on an adventure with you.

Keep diving into your imagination
and let’s get started creating
Underwater Photography Made
Easy!

cameras and accessories that make underwater photography easily
accessible to everyone.

The first SeaLife underwater camera was developed in 1993. Our
cameras made it easier and more enjoyable then ever before to take
pictures underwater. In 2000, SeaLife pioneered underwater
imaging with the introduction of its first digital underwater camera
which revolutionized the world of underwater photography.

Today, SeaLife offers a range of underwater cameras and
accessories that allows users to change from photography to high
definition video underwater. SeaLife is the only truly expandable
camera that allows you to add accessories when you want because
all SeaLife underwater strobes and lenses are interchangeable with
nearly every SeaLife camera.

Annie Crawley

4

Table of Contents

I. Creating Great Images 1

Intro to Camera 6

•

Buoyancy 9

•

Body Positioning 12

•

II. Photo & Video Basics 17

The Rule of Thirds 16

•

Light & Color 21

•

Macro & Super Macro 32

•

Wide Angle 37

•

III. Photographing Movement 40

Tracking Subjects 45

•

Photographing People 47

•

IV. SeaLife Care & Maintenance 55

V. Share Your Images 56

Photo by Goh Iromoto

Information and Support

Getting to Know Your Camera

We created easy to read and use downloadable manuals on
our website: www.sealife-cameras.com/manuals

If you practice using and operating your SeaLife camera system
on land before you go scuba diving or snorkeling, you can focus
on finding animals you want to photograph and film when you
get in the water.

SeaLife cameras are designed to be EASY to set up!

See the buttons and display clearly underwater.

6

Set Up Before Entering Water

When scuba diving or snorkeling with your SeaLife camera
system, run through this quick five-step review before every
dive.

1. Check to make sure you have a fully charged battery for your
camera, strobe, and/or video light. Consider bringing extra
batteries so a set can be charging while you dive.

2. Ensure your memory card is inserted. Do you have plenty of
empty space? Review images underwater, but avoid deleting.
Save deleting images for after you download and back up the
card on land.

3. Take a photo with your system on land. Try zooming in and
out with your camera. Make sure your digital zoom function
on your camera is set to OFF. Can you switch from macro
mode to wide angle? Is your camera set for land or
underwater? Go through the Easy Set-Up menu to make
sure you are shooting with the correct menu settings
designed for your system. Turn the camera around and take
a photo of yourself. Is your strobe firing and your lens clean
and free of debris?

4. Shoot 20 seconds of video and review. Toggle back and forth
between photo and video. Switch from macro to wide angle.
Practice on land until it is stored in your muscle memory.

Raja Ampat, Indonesia diving aboard Dewi Nusantara

5. Double check that you prepared your underwater housing,
strobe, and video lights correctly before submerging your
SeaLife camera system underwater. Prepare yourself for...

7

Creating great images and memories

with your

SeaLife camera.

Raja Ampat, Indonesia diving aboard Dewi Nusantara

Neutral Buoyancy

In order to use a camera while scuba diving, maintaining neutral
buoyancy is very important so we do not damage aquatic life.
Moving slowly and breathing slowly allows us to get close to the
animals. By having control in the water, you will be able to get
creative with a variety of different camera angles.

Raja Ampat, Indonesia diving aboard Dewi Nusantara

Buoyancy First

Before taking photos or video, always check your buoyancy
and positioning. You never want to create a dust storm
while diving or you will create bad viz and backscatter.

Then Sneak Up on Your Subjects

Underwater Buoyancy Tips

1. Practice weighting yourself so that you slowly sink when you empty
your BCD and exhale.

2. Slowly add air to your BCD until you can hover effortlessly.

3. Watch for signals that mean, “I am not neutrally buoyant.” If you have
to breathe deeply, use your arms, or kick your legs to stay in one place,
you are not neutrally buoyant. Add air in small amounts to your BCD.
Practice patience as you establish buoyancy and watch for these signals
throughout your dive.

After establishing buoyancy you can move in close to your
subject without damaging the reef. The less you move, the
better.

4. Every time you equalize your ears, check your buoyancy. As you
descend, you will have to add more air to your BCD.

5. As you start to ascend to a shallower depth, you will need to deflate
your BCD. Re-check buoyancy again, you may need to add more air!

We may get excited when we see a sea turtle
underwater. When we get excited, we change
our breathing, which can then change our
buoyancy. Sometimes it is hard to resist
swimming towards a turtle, yet if you remain
calm they will often swim directly to you.

Look at the different divers in this image.
Notice the angle they are in, in relation to the
turtle. The angle of your body in relation to a
subject will change the image. When you get
low with your camera and shoot up, it looks
much different than shooting down. Each
technique can work, depending on the type of
image you want to create. Let’s look at a few
examples to show the difference.

If you practice good buoyancy skills by moving and breathing slowly,
you will be able to get very close to most animals. Perfecting neutral
buoyancy gives you an advantage when trying to create great images
and makes shooting underwater photography and video easy!

You can zoom the lens of the camera to get closer
to an animal or you can physically move closer so
there is less room between you and the animal to
capture different perspectives.

When shooting animals that move you want to position your body low
and anticipate the direction they travel, giving them room to move.

When we move and breathe slowly we can get close to the animals. If we
move and breathe fast we can startle animals, causing them to swim away.

By including people in your photographs, others can imagine they are diving
with you. It is important to take pictures of the people you are with too.

Look how camouflaged the turtle’s shell is against the coral reef. This
hawksbill turtle swam down deep. Try getting underneath the turtle to get an
angle looking up towards the surface for blue water.

As you get close to your subjects you may need to adjust your strobe setting
up or down. The larger sun icon indicates more light output, the smaller sun
icon indicates less light output.

When you get a subject that cooperates with you take multiple
images and try different angles. Animals move and you do too. Take
multiple images of the same subject to capture a variety of poses.

If you are experiencing out of focus images,
you might be shaking the camera when you
press the button. Use only your index finger
to de-press and be careful not to shake your
arm which can cause shots like this.

If you are too far away from your subject,
everything might look green or blue. The light
from your strobe can only reach so far. Rule of
thumb in photography, when you think you
are close enough, move closer!

Great buoyancy and knowledge of your
subject creates better photos and video.
Hawksbill turtles love to eat sponges. If you
don’t scare them, you can dive/snorkel with
turtles for hours while they are feeding.

The more you know about an animal’s
behavior, the better photographs and video
you can take. Try approaching squid (and
other animals) slowly at a low angle or they
will dart away.

SeaLife cameras have the ability to shoot both
photographs and high definition video. You can
switch back and forth throughout your dive.

Photo & Video Basics

We all have exciting stories to tell, and everyone has a
different view of the world to express with a camera. We can
be on the same dive together and return with completely
different images and stories. These guidelines are meant to
help you understand the foundation of photography and video.

Guadalupe Island, Mexico

The Rule of Thirds

One of the most well known principles of photographic
composition is “the rule of thirds.” Imagine dividing your
images into thirds both horizontally and vertically so you have
nine parts. When composing a subject, you want to consider

placing the elements of the

image both where the lines
intersect plus up and down the
horizontal and vertical axis of
each line.

Images composed following the
rule of thirds are more pleasing
to the viewer’s eyes. Some

people have a natural ability to
compose images utilizing this
principle, while others must
work at developing the skill of
composition.

Creating great pictures requires
a bit of thinking. When looking
at a scene, break it down to find
what is interesting and then
figure out where you will place

the subject in your frame. Will
your subject look better as a horizontal or vertical? Experiment
with photography and capture images both ways. Note that for
video, you should always stick with horizontal because
televisions and other devices display video horizontally.