Underwater photos with your phone: the practical snorkelling guide

The phone in your pocket now shoots better than many underwater compacts from ten years ago: with a waterproof pouch costing a few tens of euros you can document a whole snorkelling season. But water is a hostile optical environment, and almost everyone’s first photos disappoint. Here is how to avoid that.

Waterproof pouch or action cam?

The phone pouch wins on simplicity and quality in shallow, well-lit water: perfect for lagoons and the first few metres. Check the declared depth rating, do a dry test (closed, underwater, with a tissue inside) and always use the wrist lanyard.

The action cam wins on practicality and video: it clips to a pole or to your buoy, shrugs off splashes and knocks, and recent models stabilise beautifully. Its limit is the small screen for composing shots.

Why everything comes out green (and how to fix it)

Water absorbs warm colours: within a couple of metres red disappears and everything shifts to green-blue. The remedies, in order of effectiveness: shoot in shallow water with the sun high and behind you; use a red filter if your camera takes one; recover colours in post — even your phone’s editor, pushing warmth and magenta, works miracles.

The composition rule that changes everything: get closer, then closer still. The water between you and your subject is the enemy of sharpness and colour: half a metre from a bream beats three metres from a grouper.

Where and how to shoot in Sardinia

The white shingle of the Gulf of Orosei and the pale sand of Villasimius act as natural reflectors, giving you that luminous turquoise even at noon. In the golden hours, look instead for shaded walls: damselfish and brown meagre come out, and the slanting rays create spectacular light beams.

Last thing, and the most important: no photo is worth touching the seabed. Don’t touch, don’t chase, don’t wedge yourself between rocks for the perfect close-up. A relaxed fish comes back; a frightened one doesn’t.