AN UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHER’S GUIDE TO RAJA AMPAT
INTERMEDIATE
SOFT CORALS:
Choose a mid-range aperture such as f/8 to begin
and adjust your shutter speed to set the colour of
the water. Place your strobes above your housing
handles and ensure they are aimed correctly.
Their distance away from the housing should
mirror your distance from the subject, with them
being closer to the housing for closer subjects
and farther out to the sides with more distant
scenes to achieve proper coverage and avoid
backscatter. Adjust the strobe power to expose
the soft corals. Review, adjust and reshoot.
AERBOREK KIDS:
The kids at Aerborek Village are talented and
fearless swimmers and will jump from the jetty
and swim down to waiting photographers with
big smiles and eyes open
wide. Use your hand as
12. Raja Ampat’s soft coral
a test subject to set your
reefscapes are bursting
strobe exposure for skin
with colour
Equipment & settings:
tone. Adjust your aperture
Canon EOS 7D, Aquatica
and shutter speed to get the housing, Canon 10–22mm
desired depth of field and
lens, two Sea & Sea YS-250
strobes, f/7.1, 1/60s, ISO200
background. Some of our
13. A wobbegong shark
favourite shots came from
below a coral
using a 50mm portrait lens in resting
bommie at Melissa’s
a flat port at wide apertures
Garden in Jef Fam
Equipment & settings:
such as f/1.4 with neutral
Canon EOS 7D, Aquatica
density filters to compensate housing, Tokina 10–17mm,
for the lower aperture.
two Sea & Sea YS-250
12
strobes, f/8, 1/100s,
ISO1251/250s, ISO200
PRACTICALITIES
WHEN
Raja Ampat is a year-round destination as visibility
is continuously variable. June through August can
see higher winds and December to January has the
most rainfall but underwater it’s pleasant all year.
USA & EUROPE
SINGAPORE
MANADO
MAKASSAR
JAKARTA
SDTTL
118
BALI
RAJA AMPAT
SORONG
HOW
SilkAir has direct flights to Bali from Singapore,
and from there you can catch a domestic flight
to Sorong, usually with an overnight in Makassar.
There are also domestic flights from Jakarta
to Sorong.
ENTRY
A 30-day visa on arrival is free for nationals of
many countries, including the US and European
Union members.