White Balance: The deeper you go underwater the more the different light frequencies are diffused. Blue light has the characteristic that it does not diffuse easily. Therefore, the deeper you go you enter a completely blue world and eventually a dark world. This can be compensated by providing external light sources or by using the white balance features of your digital camera. When shooting at depths up to 5 meters usually minimal white balance is needed and the preset “daylight modes” are adequate. Once you go deeper more white balance may be necessary and preset modes like “cloudy” or “night” can be used.

Use of the Flash Underwater: One problem with using the built-in flash of your camera is that the final result will show a “snow phenomenon”. This is due to the fact that light reflects on the plankton, sand and other underwater particles. This could be avoided by using external light sources. In the case of close-up pictures this is not a problem since the layer of water between the camera lens and the object is thin.