One of the most common questions we are asked is "why do my pictures come out so blue?" As we submerge beneath the waves visible light now has to travel through the water, this results in the colour red being progressively filtered out as we go deeper, ultimately resulting in your picture getting bluer and bluer (or greener and greener if diving in UK waters). You can fix this by using an underwater strobe (flash) or attaching a corrective filter. Both these methods work but have their limitations. Strobes, even the most powerful, have difficulty lighting up more than a few metres in front of you, and filters only usually work accurately at one depth. Both strobes and filters are useful under certain circumstances and we'll talk about them more in other sections. A lot of compact cameras these days have a function known as manual or custom white balance, and is a vital thing to consider when purchasing a new camera. This useful function helps you to get the colours right, with vibrant reds and yellows, from the surface to around 30m deep. (This varies from one brand of camera to the next so its worth checking with us before-hand). To use it you'll need first to switch off your built-in flash, this is an available light technique and using your cameras flash will give strange results. You then need to navigate within your camera's menu to the white balance settings, often looking like the symbol to the right. On activation you need to follow the instructions on your cameras LCD screen, you also need to give your camera a colour reference, which is achieved by pointing the camera at something white or light grey. I use my hand, the sand or a white slate, all of which usually work well. With most cameras you will see immediately the change to more colourful results, on-screen. This is a lot more complex to explain than it is to carry out, and when folk try this technique for the first time they are usually amazed at how easy it is to get much stronger, more vibrant colours, using just available light. Hints: Its worth checking and practising with your camera to see exactly how to carry out white balance setting. You'll need to carry out a white balance reading every time you alter depth, it's much easier than it sounds and most folk get the hang after only a few tries. To make it even easier some of the latest cameras allow you to assign one button on the back of your housing to do just this task.

before whitebalance (simulated) after whitebalance the whitebalance symbol