UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY - Photographer's Mask

If you are an underwater photographer, being able to view and compose a photo using a D-SLR in a housing is much more challenging than on land.  Nikonos photographers using an accessory viewfinder and those using a digital Point & Shoot camera screen do not have problems viewing with most diving masks.

The way to make viewing and composing easier with D-SLRs is to use a PHOTOGRAPHER'S MASK.  By definition, a Photographer's Mask is a mask with:

• BLACK or Dark SKIRT, 
• Low Volume and 
• Very close to the eyes.

Of course, the most important feature of a mask is correct fit.  Once you have established that you like a mask, the advantage of the black skirt is that reflections are eliminated.  These can interfere with viewing inside the housing.

Low Volume allows for a design that gets the glass of the mask close to the eyes.  This gets your eye a more normal distance to the camera viewfinder inside the housing and allows you to see more of the entire image in the viewfinder.  Using a standard Diving mask, there is a high likelihood there will be severe vignetting, cutting off the edges of view.  Your photos will most likely be poorly composed and require a lot of cropping.  The mask on the left is considerably closer to the eyes than the one on the right, and provides room for a prominent proboscus.

Composing the Sea Lion dance here required a good clear view and fast reflexes.

Click here to see some more examples of my underwater favorites.















I currently use a Cressi Matrix mask.

















Other Black Skirt examples are: the Cressi Superocchio, ScubaPro Framless, Essence Liquidskin Mask, Atomic SubFrame, Mares X-Vision or the Oceanic Shadow.
 

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