The problem and the charm of over under photography is the fact that the photo is created in two different mediums. The upper half is air, which is usually sunny and bright and the lower half is water which absorbs much more light than air and is therefore always at least a little bit darker, not to mention less transparent, muddy, polluted…etc. Shooting 100% above or 100% underwater allows the GoPro camera to automatically adapt to the amount of light that is available. But with over under photos the camera has to consider both – the brighter upper half and the darker lower half. Even with big dynamic range of the new GoPro cameras this can be a problem.  Apart from the light problem, to fill the photo with an interesting underwater scene you need the water to be as transparent as possible, so that the subject that you are photographing is clearly visible. If you remember just one tip for better over under photos, this should be it! Find the clearest water possible!

Clear water: No.1 tip for Better Over Under Photos

What’s the perfect water recipe, what kind of water is best for half half photography?

• Transparent – no mud, sand, algae…you want the water to be as clear as possible, a lake full of distilled water would be the best
• Bright (sea) bottom – even the clearest water becomes darker if it lies over the dark muddy bottom
• Shallow water – it is brighter than deep water.

So on one hand we have dark, muddy water on dark bottom and on the other hand we have transparent tropical sea on white sand bottom. Guess which one  giver better photos:)?

I think all this is best explained with photo examples. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don’t have examples of really dirty water over really dark bottom, but here we go (all photos are made using our Split dome port and GoPro Hero 4 Silver):

Here the sea bottom was pretty bright, but the water was milky from the nearby factory dumping calcium chloride into the sea. So underwater visibility was zero – you can not see the surfer paddling underwater.

Here we have a combo of not very clear water and sea bottom that has rocks covered with brown algae. Again underwater visibility is very bad.

Usually warm tropical seas have more transparent water but it is not always so. Of course – you can get some sick photos and effects even if the water is not transparent.

That’s me hiding under the surface. Here the water transparency is okayish:) but the bottom is not very bright and the thick dark cloud cover does not give lots of light to begin with.

It is not necessary that cold water is less transparent than warm sea. Here is a shot from an alpine river that was so cold you could feel it in your bones.

Here the water transparency is ok and the bottom not that bad, but note that when the weather is darker, with grey clouds, there will be less color in the water.

Here the conditions are almost ideal. Water is transparent, there is some brighter sand on the bottom and the water is shallow.

Clear blue skies (some clouds are ok, they make the sky much more interesting), transparent water and almost white pebbles on the ground. You can see the difference that the water depth makes – on the left the water is shallow and the photo is much brighter than on the right where the sea gets deeper. In darkness cameras can not capture as much data as they do when there is enough light. Less data, more noise, worse photo.

Sunny sky, transparent water, bright pebbles on the floor reflecting the light back into the water. Almost ideal conditions. A few rocks here and there, even when they are brown, don’t make much of a difference. They even make the photo more interesting.

Here you can see the difference between shallower water with bright stones on the right and deeper water with brown rocks on the left. Also – no matter how clear the water is and how good and bright the bottom – the more water you put between your camera and the subject you are photographing, the more color and clarity will be lost. See next photo ->

Here the distance between the Split dome port + GoPro camera is only about half a meter (20 inches), together with clear water and bright ground the colors underwater really come to life, they are almost the same as above water. With increased distance colors and detail are lost. Check out the rocks in the front and the rocks far in the back and compare.

So an extra tip for this tutorial would be – go close! Try to put less water between your Split dome and the subject you are photographing.

In one of the next tutorials we will take a look at how to improve your over under photos with a few adjustments in Photoshop. If you want to know all the secrets to perfecting your half half photography then you should check out our Ultimate over under photography guide ebook.

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First we dropped our Split dome port

With a Split dome port and a gopro camera things are much more simple. All you need is a reasonably clear body of water and an object that you want to photograph. Of course all the standard dome photography tips apply – the clearer the water the better, make sure there is enough light, and put the sun behind your back.

A flip flop into the pool

Then you need the right gopro settings to do the “capturing the right moment” job for you. Go to your camera “multi shot settings*” (this is where you have your timelapse mode) and set it to burst mode. I usually use the burst: 30 photos in 2 seconds setting. 2 seconds give you enough time to drop the object and capture the moment it penetrates the water and 30 photos in that time is usually enough to capture just the moment that you want. If you want more photos use 30 shots in 1 second setting, but here you need to be more carefull not to miss the moment the object penetrates the water.

Just to be safe I usually make 3 or 4 bursts, I drop the object 3 or 4 times so one of the photos for sure captures the moment that I wanted. Also with every drop water splashes upwards differently and you can get some really interesting shapes and effects from the water itself.

Don’t be afraid to experiment – change the height of the drop, the angle, field of view, think about your background etc… Results are best when the waterline goes over the middle of the dome.

Even a person jumping into the water

I hope this gives you some interesting ideas, we would love to share them on our Instagram!

*This describes the Hero 4 menu, in other models it can be a bit different, but every GoPro has a burst mode!