Now that we’ve covered the hardware and software aspects of using a GoPro underwater and we’ve explored some of the mounting options available to scuba divers, we’ll cover a few tips and tricks to make your underwater videos pop.
Learn the basics
As when using any underwater camera, make sure you have the diving basics in place, most importantly buoyancy. Taking good pictures, not to mention shooting good video, is difficult if you can’t hover stably in the water. If you’re constantly making adjustments or jerking around, the result will be blurry pictures and chaotic film footage.
To make the most of your underwater filming, train yourself to maintain a stable position in the water in as many possible (and impossible) angles as you can. It is not uncommon for an underwater videographer to hover upside down to get just the right shot. Some photographers and videographers hold onto underwater features, such as wrecks, the bottom or a reef, for stability. Of course you should avoid doing this, as you’ll more than likely damage what you touch. Hovering, sometimes right side up, sometimes not, is key to getting good shots.
Just keep swimming
When making a video that features movement, work on keeping your swimming as smooth as possible. It will make for better footage if you make smaller, but more consistent, strokes with your fins, rather than intermittent, powerful ones, as the latter will result in jerky video.
Avoid the fin shot
When filming or photographing divers, avoid spending all your time behind your subject, as you would on a normal dive. Divers filmed from the side or front will work much better in the final product. And consider swapping your subject’s black mask (if they’re wearing one) for a clear one. I always bring a cheap, clear mask on shoots in case I need it. It lights up the diver’s face and makes features easy to see. Here’s a front shot of divers at Elphinstone Reef. Front shots are more engaging than shots of a diver’s fins.
Think up and down
When filming in water, we’re working in a 3D environment, much more so than on dry land. We’re not limited to shooting our subject from the front or side; we can go over or under as well. Shots of divers from above, pitched against a dramatic drop-off can be very powerful, and everybody loves the classic motif of a diver silhouetted against a bright, blue surface.
Get close
One of the advantages of the GoPro is its quite impressive wide-angle function, which is great for underwater footage. But it also means that if we film or photograph a subject at what most people consider normal distance, they’ll look very small and insignificant in the frame. So get close. Then get a bit closer.
Take lots of footage
Invest in a large memory card for your GoPro and take lots and lots of footage. I rarely use anything smaller than 64GB. You don’t want to miss that world-class moment because you’re out of memory. Professional photographers shoot hundreds, sometimes thousands of shots to get just one perfect one. And the majority of material filmed in movie production is later scrapped.
Film long, edit short
When filming, linger on a subject a bit longer than you think you should, preferably 20 seconds or more if possible. Quick, erratic footage becomes annoying to watch after a while, and by having longer segments of a given subject, you’ll give yourself more time to catch the perfect frame. When editing, though, be a bit drastic on trimming the material. Particularly with diving, which is not the most dynamic of sports compared to mountain biking, skydiving, and other action sports, a lot of the dynamism needs to come from the editing. Try to find a dive video (or a movie with dive scenes) and count the seconds between edits. They’re rarely more than a few seconds long. Of course there can be sequences that lend themselves well to lingering, such as a dramatic drift dive, a stately turtle cruising by, or a shark hovering around the dive group. But keep your sequences too long and you’ll slow down the pace your final product.
