Physics of blue water photography

I prefer true colors in all my photography work - nature is too beautiful to be tempered with. However knowledge of some basic physical laws and manifestations applying to blue water photography helps you to substantially improve your blue water results without use of any filters.

A polarizing filter might be one natural way to enhance your clarity in blue water photography - but a polarizing filter never affects the blueness of the water. Modern digital cameras such as my new Sony alpha A100 seem to have no matching filters - at least in this beautiful tropical paradise. Only your photo technique affects blue, turquoise or dark or mirroring water - hence it is up to you to use all physics to your benefits and your joy.

The blue of the ocean depends on many factors. Assuming you have all potentially needed factors - sun, clear clean water, sun light, blue sky, etc ... you still have a few factors to consider that you can at least partially control and use to your liking if needed. Here first some basics for b blue water photography.

1. you only can get water on your photos blue if water really IS blue
2. the blue color of your photos depend on angle of sun-light to you and your angle to the object of your photography

Below you will see 2 pictures - taken within some 19 seconds from the same scenery, but from 2 slightly different angles !! The difference is obvious. Hence small difference resulted in huge results.

Blue water photography - wrong angle

Blue water photography - crystal clear turquoise water

Looking at above - the second photo shows true colors as is

What is the difference between the two photos ?

Here the details. Best blue water photography is achieved when both below factors occur simultaneously. Assuming an angle scenario as follows:

Imagine a huge clock - with hours 1-12 - horizontally on the water. your position is 6 o'clock - your photo object's position is 12 o'clock - the sun is either 3 or 9 o'clock. the sun needs to be nearly vertical above the water surface. Hence if we look at a vertical clock and 12 o'clock would point straight vertically UP - then your sun should be at an angle between 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock. the closer the sun to the vertical line - the deeper the sunlight penetrates the ocean, the less sunlight will be reflected by the surface and the more sunlight scatters deep in the ocean to create the sapphire blue effect of deep ocean blue.

1. Sun is high above horizon - nearly vertical to the water
2. When aiming with your camera toward your photo object, the sun is nearly 90 degrees to your left or right

The easiest way to test this best arrangement of sun angle and your angle in relationship to sun and photo object is when you are in a boat on blue water and make a 360 degrees turn looking at the colors of the ocean.

When the sun is in your back - then all or most of the sunlight might be mirrored on the water surface and between you and the horizon you have either darker water or a mirror.

When the sun light is in front of you - you have bright sky and mirrored sunlight on the water but no blue

when the sun is too low - i.e. too early in the morning or too late in afternoon, then most sunlight will be reflected by the ocean surface and little light penetrates the depth of the ocean - hence no blue ocean at all.

Here at places I love - I am always near equator - and most of the year sun around noon is exactly or nearly vertical - hence my best time would be around 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock.

Since you might be a little work away from paradise - most likely your sun ( same as mine - but further away ) might be so low even at noon time that best time for blue water photography might be sharp noon time - blue sky, clear water.

Successful blue water photography requires flexibility in your routing and timing as well as proper choice of ideal sunny blue sky weather conditions. During my recent 20 days travel to Boracay island, Busuanga - Coron island and El Nido - Palawan, I had little choice. Time was limited to 20 days, weather I had to make the best out of it and for the timing I used always the best time from sunrise till sunset depending on the exact photo sessions scheduled for that day. The routing around islands requires you to know geographical directions, time and sun angle and to plan your boat trip with your captain accordingly. Hence you have your own boat just for work. My Capitano Edwin was gently driving from one hidden beauty to another one - my next Capitano Emil on another location simply told me to point out where I want to take my photos and he would then turn the motor boat according to my needs to avoid my usually waling from one side to the other, from aft to bow, depending on where I needed to make my photo shoots. I am blessed by getting some of the finest Captains and experts being my partners.

The recipe for getting the finest captains on your blue water photography is spiritual bargaining !!

I have my own method of fixing prices - some of my visiting disciples have adapted that style as well and hopefully practice it as well when away from here. Spiritual bargaining is the key to best blue water photography.

Emil - my El Nido Boat Captain - I asked him how much - I had no idea about how many miles and the overall sea conditions - hence the question. He replied 1000 - I said NO - and countered 1500 ...

Silence for a moment - then a smile and Emil agreed. By the end of the 150 minutes boat trip I added 500 tip for him and 200 tip for his young boat assistant - a young man of about 10-12 years.

Hence spiritual bargaining means to substantially offer more than asked because most people here in paradise asked far too little to live and operate their family business out of troubles. overall a thumb rule might be to offer double of what people ask you and you'll be fine and happy with the results. I have never in my life ever heard of a Captain turning his boat according to the needs of passengers taking pictures. Hence love only makes the difference in success or failure.

If you love to enjoy some of the blue water photography - I have started today to process and publish the first of many hundreds of most beautiful blue water blue sky scenarios from some of the world's finest tropical destinations.

One final warning for blue water photography in paradise islands

Make sure you truly have plenty of battery power and abundance of memory space for your camera. a half day trip to a single tropical island may give you some 1000 shots in 2-3 hrs ...

For my Sony Alpha A100 I have 3 battery packs and one 4 GB fast memory stick. just enough for a 150 minutes photo session. after that I had to return to shore because I was running out of memory. 900-1000 pics = 4 GB with a 10 Mega-pixel camera! 2 battery packs usually are enough for a full day photo session with the Sony A100 - but for such exciting trips you never want to run out of any - power nor memory.

More photos and wallpapers with beautiful blue water and ocean view pictures:

• Most beautiful islands, blue water, turquoise water - more than 100 photos and wallpapers
• Wallpapers beautiful beaches and ocean view several thousand photo wallpapers tropical sceneries
• Widescreen wallpapers

Enjoy

Love and bliss

hans