Mastering Shark Photography: Techniques, Styles, and Pro Tips to Elevate Your Shark Photography

Among the most sought-after subjects for underwater photographers are sharks—magnificent creatures that exude power, grace, and mystery. Capturing sharks in their natural habitat presents unique challenges, however photographing sharks can lead to some of the most rewarding and awe-inspiring shots imaginable.

For experienced divers, encountering sharks is often a thrilling highlight of underwater adventures. While some locations, like the Maldives, are particularly well-suited for wild shark encounters, capturing high-quality photographs typically requires more than just luck. In most cases, achieving those striking shark shots involves the use of bait or chum to attract them closer. Without these techniques, it’s rare to get the kind of close, dynamic passes needed for truly exceptional shark photography, no matter where you dive.

Shark feeding, while effective for attracting sharks and creating photographic opportunities, comes with its share of controversies. For a detailed look at both the positive and negative impacts, we recommend revisiting one of our earlier deep-dive articles on the subject. That said, if capturing truly remarkable shark images is your goal, it’s important to acknowledge that participating in shark feeding, in some form, is often a necessary part of the process.

The Essentials: Gear and Preparation

Before diving into the different styles of shark photography, it’s important to ensure that your gear and preparation are optimized for success. Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll need:

• Camera System: A high-quality DSLR or mirrorless camera with excellent low-light performance is desirable for the best images but any camera that can take a wide-angle lens will work.

• Lenses: Wide-angle lenses (16–35mm or fisheye lenses) are ideal for capturing large subjects like sharks, allowing you to get close and still capture the environment. The increase in wet lens and water contact optics have also really helped with big animal photography, one of my preferred lenses is the Nauticam WACP-1 water contact optic. It reduces the distortion down a little from a fisheye lens and also allows you to shoot from just a foot or two (half a meter) further away than a fisheye lens but still close enough to get great light on the subject.

• Strobe Lighting: For better color rendition and illumination, high quality, soft and even strobes are necessary. Usually we are conducting these types of dives in shallow bright water, so a reasonable amount of strobe power will be needed, especially for shooting into the sun.

• Housings and Ports: Your camera housing should be rugged and built to withstand the dynamic nature of shark dives. These dives often involve a lot of activity, and your equipment might get bumped or jostled in the excitement. Additionally, sand and debris can be stirred up during these encounters, posing a risk to your housing’s O-ring seals. To prevent issues, it’s a good idea to inspect and clean the O-rings more frequently than usual to ensure a secure, watertight seal.

• Safety and Interaction Gear: Shark photography can involve close encounters, so consider wearing protective gear, such as hoods, gloves and other things to cover up skin that contrasts from the wetsuit, especially if photographing species like tiger sharks, oceanic white tips or bull sharks. A dive buddy or safety diver is always recommended. 

Wide-Angle Shark Photography: Capturing the Magic of the Moment

Wide-angle photography is one of the most popular styles for shooting sharks, as it allows you to capture not only the shark but also its surrounding environment, creating a sense of scale and drama ….but the term Wide angle is way to generic, let’s drill down into some of the different wide angle techniques you can use

Technique 1: The Classic Approach Shot

One of the most effective ways to photograph sharks is to capture them head-on, approaching the camera. This creates a dynamic, powerful composition that showcases the shark’s size and presence. Here’s how to achieve it:

• Positioning: Position yourself in the shark’s path, staying low to the seafloor or close to a structure where sharks are known to frequent. Be mindful of the background—clear blue water can highlight the shark’s shape, while a reef or wreck adds context to the scene.

• Settings: Use a fast shutter speed (1/125 or faster) to freeze the motion of the shark, which may be moving quickly. Depending on the light, set your aperture around F11/F13 to ensure both the shark and its surroundings are in focus and any corner detail remains sharp.  Adjust ISO as necessary, but aim to keep it as low as possible to minimize noise.

• Lighting: Use dual strobes positioned slightly above the port at a 10 and 14 position and have them spread out at a mid width to evenly illuminate the shark from both sides. Make sure your strobe power is set high enough to reach the subject, especially if you’re shooting in blue water or deeper environments.

• Composition: Center the shark in the frame as it approaches, but allow enough space around the animal for context. Be aware of your surroundings and shoot when the shark’s body language is relaxed or curious, as aggressive or fast movements can lead to motion blur or less favorable angles.

Technique 2: Over-Under Shots (Split Shots)

 For shallow-water sharks like reef sharks, lemon sharks, or blacktips, over-under shots can create a striking image that combines both the underwater and the surface environment. This works especially well during sunset where you can expose for the sun and light the bottom half

 You can often do these type of shots whilst remaining on the boat and leaning over the back of the boat holding your camera at the half way point with your strobes underwater

• Lens and Ports: Use a wide-angle or fisheye lens and a large dome port. The larger the dome, the easier it is to capture the water line without excessive distortion.

• Settings: A small aperture (f/16 or higher) will give you a large depth of field, ensuring both the underwater portion and the surface are in focus. Use a fast shutter speed to freeze the movement of water and sharks. For the focus, pre focus your camera around 3ft from the front of the dome, them the autofocus off from the shutter release, this will stop the camera hunting for focus and at F16 or higher you will have enough depth of field for both halves of the image. Go for a shutter speed of 1/125 of quicker, you may need to boost the ISO to accommodate the aperture, you may need to go to ISO 800 or more.

• Lighting: You will need to use strobes only for the bottom half of the frame, you will need low to mid power for sunset splits as your exposure is catering for the lower light.

• Technique: Achieving the perfect split shot requires patience and timing. You’ll need to position the dome port halfway in the water while keeping the camera steady. Keep an eye on the surface conditions—a slightly rippled surface can add texture, but too much chop will make the shot difficult. Aim for calm conditions if possible.

Technique 3 Capturing Motion: Using Slow Shutter Speeds

Slow shutter speed photography is an artistic technique that can bring a whole new dimension to your shark images, allowing you to capture their motion in a way that conveys fluidity and power. Rather than freezing the shark’s movement with fast shutter speeds, you deliberately use a slower shutter to blur parts of the image—creating a dynamic effect that emphasizes the motion of the shark and the environment. Basically by using a slow shutter speed, anywhere that your strobe light falls will be sharp and still, all other parts of the frame that are ambient lit will be blurry and add the feeling of motion

When and Why to Use Slow Shutter Speeds

This technique is particularly effective when photographing sharks that are moving gracefully or when you want to highlight their speed. Species like hammerheads, makos, and reef sharks are excellent candidates for this approach, as they tend to exhibit repeated, predictable swimming patterns. Using slow shutter speeds helps to tell a different kind of story—one that shows not just the shark’s form, but the energy and flow of their motion through the water.

Camera Settings for Slow Shutter Success

• Shutter Speed: The key to achieving the right amount of motion blur is choosing the correct shutter speed. Start with a shutter speed between 1/10s and 1/4s, depending on how fast the shark is moving. For faster sharks, a slightly faster shutter speed around 1/8s works well, while for slower-moving species, you can go down to 1/6s or even 1/4s for more dramatic blur.

• Aperture: A slower aperture is needed as otherwise you will be letting too much ambient light into the scene, around F16 is a good place to be.

• ISO: Since you’re slowing down the shutter, you’ll want to keep the ISO low to prevent overexposure in bright conditions, but you may need to increase it in low-light situations such as the end of the day, I usually shoot at ISO low or ISO 100 as a starting point and adjust it based on the color of the blues in the background

Mastering the Panning Technique

One of the most effective ways to use slow shutter speeds underwater is by employing the panning technique. This involves moving the camera smoothly in sync with the shark’s movement. The goal is to keep the shark—or part of it—sharp, while blurring the background to emphasize speed and movement.

• Track the Subject: As the shark swims past you, track its motion by moving your camera at the same speed as the shark. Once you have the perfect composition, hit the trigger and immediately move the camera forward at a faster speed than the shark

• Smooth Camera Movement: The key to successful panning is maintaining a steady, fluid movement of your camera in line with the shark’s motion but accelerating past it, this way you leave any motion or shadows behind the shark. If you go slower than the shark the shadows will appear ahead of it and the image will look like it’s going backwards

• Strobe Synch: For this technique you will need to use “front curtain synch” this means that the strobes will fire when the exposure begins meaning that when you have the perfect composition and focus and press the shutter, that is the part of the image that will remain sharp

Composition for Motion Blur

The success of slow shutter shark photography doesn’t just come down to technique—it’s also about strong composition. Think about how you can use the blur to enhance the sense of motion within the frame:

• Positioning: Ideally, try to position yourself where the shark will be moving across your field of view horizontally. This maximizes the effect of the motion blur and creates a sweeping, cinematic feeling to the image.

• Backgrounds: A clean, simple background like open water will make the blur effect more pronounced, while a busy background like a reef or wreck can add interesting layers of texture to the blurred motion. Consider how the background will interact with the movement in your composition.

• Negative Space: Slow shutter speeds naturally introduce motion blur, which can add a sense of scale and freedom when used with ample negative space. Leave room for the shark to “move” within the frame, giving the image more energy and visual flow.

• Varying the Blur: Adjust your shutter speed and aperture settings to experiment with different levels of blur. Try a range of speeds—from slight motion blur around 1/30s to more abstract effects at 1/8s. 

Technique 4: Portrait Photography

Shark portraits are among the most intimate and striking forms of underwater photography. When executed well, these images can convey the personality and beauty of individual sharks, turning them into characters rather than just animals. A portrait expresses something about the character of the creature, it makes you consider the personality of the animal.

• Approach: Get close—really close. This can be intimidating, especially with larger species, but proximity is key to creating a detailed, impactful portrait. Move slowly and remain calm to avoid startling the shark. Let the animal approach you naturally.

• Settings: Use a wide aperture (F11/13) to allow for sharp details and all of your portrait to be in focus. Set your shutter speed to 1/125s or higher to avoid motion blur.

• Lighting: Since close-up shots reduce the amount of water between the lens and the subject, strobes are even more important to bring out the true colors and details. Position the strobes close to the dome port but behind the handles of the camera pointing straight forward.

• Focus on the Eyes: As with any portrait, focus on the eyes. Sharks have incredibly expressive eyes, and capturing a sharp, detailed image of the eye can elevate your portrait. Look for opportunities when the shark turns toward you or glances at the camera, a side eye style portrait with the shark at 45 degrees are amongst my favorites.

Technique 5: Using people as models for scale and human interaction

Whilst sharks are super cool, especially for divers. A shot of a human and a shark can tell a much bigger story, the human in your shot can be used both to demonstrate the size of the shark and it’s sheer power but can also tell the story of how little we have to fear from these incredible creatures.

• Approach: Understand the path the sharks swims, they will tend to repeat loops or paths over and over again. Once you have this figured out position your model where they will be in the path, and be able to maintain eye contact with the shark as it comes towards the model. Try to pick an area where your model and the shark can be isolated form other divers, bubbles and distractions.

• Settings: Use a wide aperture (F11/13) to allow for sharp details and all of your image to be in focus. Set your shutter speed to 1/125s or higher to avoid motion blur.

• Lighting: you will be slightly further away, and likely on the sea bed, for this reason you will want to throw the light forward and avoid it hitting the seabed so use a rabbit ears style strobe position and have the strobes up on high ready to throw the light forwards.

• Focus on the Eyes: As with any big animal focus on the eyes, use enough aperture to ensure both the shark and the model are in focus.

• Composition: Try to get the model to look at the shark, they should interact with the shark and not the camera. The model should be looking at the subject, also try to get both the animals and the divers eyes into the shot and both lit up.

There are many other techniques you can use, such as silhouettes and sunrays, sun balls and you can find out more about these techniques in our Mastering sunrays and Mastering silhouette articles

Conclusion

Shark photography, in all its diverse styles, is not just fantastic fun but also a powerful tool for conservation and raising awareness about these misunderstood creatures. Each of the techniques discussed—from wide-angle shots that highlight the shark’s place in its environment to capturing the fluid motion of these predators with slow shutter speeds—serves a purpose far beyond creating striking images. These photos can evoke empathy, spark curiosity, and change perceptions about sharks, helping to dispel the myths that have long painted them as villains of the ocean.

By sharing your shark photography, you have the opportunity to show people the beauty, grace, and importance of these apex predators.

In an era where shark populations are rapidly declining due to overfishing, habitat destruction, and the cruel practice of shark finning, every image can make a difference. Through thoughtful and creative photography, you can inspire others to care about sharks, support conservation efforts, and ultimately help protect these incredible creatures for future generations. By using your skills and passion to raise awareness, you contribute to a growing movement dedicated to preserving sharks and their ecosystems, ensuring they remain a part of our oceans for future generations to be able to photograph.