How to Photograph Sharks

I blew it; I just didn’t know it at the time.

In January 2020, my wife and I visited the North Shore of Oahu to watch the epic surf, explore the town of Haleiwa and fulfill a life long dream of mine: swimming with sharks. Ever since I was a kid, I have been obsessed with sharks. In fact, I even created my own shark encyclopedia when I was around ten!

A few weeks before our trip to Hawaii, we booked a shark diving experience with a North Shore-based tour operator. After we booked the tour, I knew I had to purchase an action camera to capture our epic encounter with some of the ocean’s most spectacular creatures, so I picked up the GoPro Hero 7, which was the latest model at the time. This camera, by the way, is still a solid action camera. But, with absolutely zero experience diving with sharks or photographing them, I tested out a few features on my new GoPro, figured I had everything “dialed in” and threw it in my camera bag for the trip.

On the morning of our tour, my wife and I sat on a small cafe’s patio, Vintage Island Coffee, in Haleiwa. Rain splattered onto the road, as dark clouds rolled overhead. We shared an açai bowl, sipped on Kona coffee, and trembled. The moment was upon us. We were literally about to dive with sharks.

After cruising down to the harbour, hopping onto the tour company’s boat and cruising about four miles off shore, the boat stopped. Sharks circled us. The tour guide dropped the boat’s ladder into the water. Heart racing, I turned on my GoPro. Those familiar three GoPro beeps echoed across the ocean. I took a deep breath, stepped one flipper-covered foot into the water and pressed record on the GoPro.

My first shark photography attempt in Haleiwa, Hawaii.

Keep Your Gear Simple, But Dial It In

Now, I will say that I don’t actually feel like like I “blew it.” I still love the shark photos and videos I captured during our time swimming with them in Hawaii. But, as I started to look back on my shark photography before our recent trip to Bora Bora where we swam with sharks again, I knew I could capture higher quality images of these incredible creatures. Why? Because the sharks in my Hawaii photos looked either too sharp or too blurry. The photos also seemed a bit oversaturated for my liking, which proved hard to correct in editing.

So, what did I do? First, I considered purchasing an underwater housing for my Sony a7iii mirrorless camera, but those were expensive and it seemed like it’d be difficult to control a camera of that nature underwater. Thinking back to my time in Hawaii, I liked using the GoPro Hero 7 Black, as it was a simple and easy to use camera in the water. And, after looking at other peoples’ underwater GoPro shots, I knew there had to be a way to take better images with them.

So, like any camera gear enthusiast, I purchased another new GoPro (the GoPro Hero 11 Black), as I figured the 5.3K resolution video recording and 27 megapixel photos would help improve the underwater quality. In addition, I researched the best GoPro settings for underwater photography and videography.

Now, when I first went to Hawaii with my GoPro Hero 7 Black, I made the mistake of snapping photos using the standard factory settings right out of the box. Sure, the images and videos still turned out ok, but GoPros are generally setup to deliver super sharp and oversaturated images, creating, in my opinion, unrealistic looking photos that are almost impossible to edit. GoPro creates these hyper-edited looking images out of the box so that people can have a fairly bold action shot delivered to their phones immediately. But, given that underwater and shark photography delivers a complex layer of lighting and colour, post production work is almost always required to make the shots look realistic. Because of this, you really want your GoPro to produce a fairly flat image or, depending on your model, a RAW image.

Now, if photographing RAW images on a GoPro sounds scary, you can honestly leave your GoPro in JPEG mode and just tweak a few settings to create a flatter, easier to edit image. Firstly, turn down the sharpness. Most GoPros are set to high sharpness, creating an unrealistic outline on most subjects within an image. Turn the sharpness down to medium or even low. You can add sharpness back in during your editing process.

Next, you’ll want to tone down the colour in your images. GoPros are typically set to Vibrant. Again, this will produce a very vivid image right in camera, but it won’t leave much room for editing later. I’d recommend setting your GoPro’s colour setting to Flat, as this will give you the most amount of flexibility to adjust the colours. When photographing sharks or any underwater photos, the blues in the water can appear off and the white balance can be too cool (refer to the very blue looking sharks in the photo above), so it’s essential that you edit the colouring to make your shark photos look more realistic. If snapping photos with a Flat colour profile seems a bit risky for a vacation, you can also try snapping photos with the Natural colour profile. This profile will give you a bit of editing flexibility, while still providing a somewhat finished photo right out of camera.

Film the Sharks, and then Create the Images

When I first hopped in the water with sharks in Hawaii, I was blown away by how majestic these creatures are. I was also tossed around in the current, as these particular sharks liked hanging out in deeper water! As I learned that day, snapping photos constantly in water, even on a GoPro, can be a bit challenging. That’s why I recommend using Burst Mode (set to 30 photos in 1 second) to give yourself multiple chances to capture the shot you want. Or, if you want an even easier solution, film the sharks - and then create images.

When I was swimming with sharks in Bora Bora, I used Burst Mode to capture some images of my wife swimming with the sharks, but, honestly, with the 5.3K resolution video on the new GoPros, I was also able to easily create high quality images from the video clips afterwards. This capability is incredible for shark diving because it allows you to focus less on snapping perfect individual photos, and focus more on simply swimming around with these incredible creatures.

The other great thing about just continuously filming your underwater shark experience is that you’ll end up with so much video content - and, in turn, so many potential photo opportunities! You’ll also be less affected by the elements, as GoPro’s video stabilizing features have come along way, ensuring all of your clips look smooth and focused even as you get tossed around in the waves.

The best part? You can connect your GoPro to your phone using the Quik app, watch your epic shark videos, pause on the frame you want to turn into a photo, and then simply tap the “Grab Photo” button - all while you’re sipping a post shark dive celebratory cocktail near the beach.

My second shark photography attempt in Bora Bora, French Polynesia.

Learn How to Edit Underwater Photos

When I first went shark diving in Hawaii, I made two mistakes: I didn’t dial in my camera’s settings to make the editing process easier and, to make matters worse, I didn’t know how to edit underwater photos. At the time, I also didn’t think I needed to learn anything about editing underwater photos, as I already had a photo editing style for my on-land shots. But, as I looked through my Hawaiian shark photos, determined that the colouring appeared off and tried endlessly to edit and correct them, I kept ending up with unrealistic and inaccurate looking photos.

As I learned on that first shark diving trip, snapping underwater photos and videos is very tricky for cameras. The blue colour in the water tends to get thrown off when you photograph it, and the white balance is almost always too cool, making all marine animals look unnaturally blue / green. As my travel photography career progressed, and as our trip to Bora Bora approached, I spent a lot of time researching how to properly edit underwater photos, and understanding why the colours get so thrown off in the water. After we finally swam with sharks again in Bora Bora, I utilized my new underwater photo editing knowledge. The final edited photos not only came out looking way more realistic, but they have also become some of my favourite travel photos of all time.

If you recently headed out on a vacation to swim with sharks and you’re struggling to edit your shark photos, check out my underwater photo editing guide here.

Conclusion

While diving with sharks can be an intense, intimidating and mind blowing experience, photographing sharks in strong currents can be challenging. To help make the process easier, use simple camera gear, such as a GoPro, to capture photos of the sharks. Before you head into the water, learn about your camera’s different features and dial in the best settings for underwater photography. When you’re actually in the water, snap photos using GoPro’s Burst Mode to give yourself the best chance of snapping a good photo as the sharks swim by, or film the sharks and then grab a photo from the clips afterwards in the GoPro Quik app. Modern GoPros film with a very high resolution, so the resulting screen grabs are typically very crisp and sharp. Finally, learn how to edit underwater photos so that you can adjust the white balance and overall colouring to make your shark photos look more realistic. Oh, and don’t forget to put down the camera and take some mental photos of these incredible marine creatures as they swim past.