Underwater Photography Adventures: Cemhan Biricik

A Different World Below

The moment you submerge, everything changes. Sound disappears. Gravity loosens its grip. Light behaves in ways that defy your land-based instincts. Underwater photography is the most challenging and rewarding genre I practice.

I first put a camera underwater in the waters off Istanbul — a cheap waterproof point-and-shoot that took terrible photos. But the experience of capturing life beneath the surface was addictive. It combined the documentary instincts from my philosophy with the technical demands of an entirely alien environment.

Gear for Underwater Photography

Camera and Housing

I use my standard mirrorless body inside a custom underwater housing. The housing is essentially a sealed box with buttons that align with the camera's controls. A dome port corrects for refraction and allows wide-angle shooting without distortion.

Lighting

Water absorbs red light first, then orange, then yellow. By 15 feet deep, everything looks blue-green. Strobes (underwater flashes) are essential to restore natural colors. I use two strobes positioned wide to avoid backscatter — the underwater equivalent of dust in a flash photo.

Lenses

• Wide-angle (14-24mm) — gets close to subjects while capturing the environment. Water reduces apparent distance, so wide is essential.
• Macro (60-105mm) — for tiny creatures: nudibranchs, seahorses, shrimp. A whole world invisible to the naked eye.

Techniques That Work Underwater

Get Close, Then Closer

Water between camera and subject reduces contrast and sharpness. The solution: minimize that distance. I swim within arm's reach of my subjects. This requires buoyancy control, slow movements, and respect for marine life.

Shoot Upward

Shooting upward toward the surface captures dramatic lighting — sun rays filtering through water, silhouettes of marine life against the bright surface. This is the underwater equivalent of golden hour photography.

Master Buoyancy

If you are not neutrally buoyant, you will kick up sediment, disturb wildlife, and shake the camera. I spent hundreds of dives mastering buoyancy before I got consistently sharp underwater images.

Favorite Underwater Locations

• Florida Keys: Crystal-clear water, coral reefs, sea turtles, and nurse sharks. My home waters.
• Turkish Mediterranean: Ancient shipwrecks, posidonia meadows, and the turquoise clarity that only the Aegean delivers.
• Everglades: Freshwater underwater photography with alligators, manatees, and submerged mangrove roots. Terrifying and beautiful.
• Caribbean: Vibrant coral, schools of fish, and visibility that feels like flying through an aquarium.

Each location demands different techniques, but the documentary approach remains the same — observe, respect, capture truth.

Post-Processing Underwater Images

Underwater images need more post-processing than any other genre:

1. White balance correction — removing the blue-green cast that water creates
2. Contrast recovery — water reduces contrast, so I push it back in Lightroom
3. Backscatter removal — cloning out particles illuminated by strobes
4. Color saturation — carefully restoring the vivid colors that water steals