François Baelen is an underwater photographer from France. Dr. Baelen is becoming very well known for his very detailed photographs and has won a number of awards in recent years. His work can be found at Linkou Underwater: François Baelen - Marine Photography (linkou-underwater.com).
Dr. Baelen is best known for his wide angle photography of cetaceans, particularly humpback whales. His photograph, “Gentle Giants”, taken in 2019 has won many awards, including the UPI Underwater Photograph of the Year.
Dr. Baelen is also respected for his underwater macro photography. This area is the area that really drew me to his work, as it is a passion that I share. Underwater macro photography is fascinating because you are attempting to capture details that almost no one has ever seen.
Dr. Baelen offers advice on how he is able to capture such amazing images in interviews and in his personal blog. He says that the most important lessons are perseverance and practice. Underwater photography, particularly macro photography, is unique from land photography in the difficulty in capturing shots. Because of the adverse environment, tasks such as gauging light and focusing become much more complicated. In addition, many subjects in the underwater environment are extremely skittish.
Equipment choice is also critical for underwater photography. Interestingly, Dr. Baelen chooses to use a mirrorless camera for all of his work. The mirrorless camera is much quieter that an SLR. This is important for macro work since sound carries underwater and can scare the subject. In addition, the mirrorless camera lets him compose on the camera screen rather than having to use a viewfinder or having to lock up the mirror. Dr. Baelen uses a Sony Alpha A7 3.
Light is also critical to Dr. Baelen’s process. Light changes rapidly as you descend below the ocean surface. Colors fade out with the order of the fading dictated by wavelength. Reds disappear first, followed by orange and yellow. At thirty feet underwater, without artificial light, almost everything appears to be almost entirely blue and green. But, in reality, there are deep and rich colors. Dr. Baelen uses multiple strobes to try and restore these colors deep under water. For his macro work he uses two high-powered Inon Z330 strobes with TTL to provide the light for the shot. When he is taking macro shots, he also uses “snoots” with the strobes. These are long guides that focus the light on the subject.
Apart from the technical challenges of fading light in increasing depths, shallow depths of field and skittish creatures, there are also all the environmental challenges facing the photographer. On land, you may worry about shaking the camera while taking the shot. Underwater, this idea of holding the camera steady takes on a whole new meaning as you yourself is not anchored to anything and you are floating. It requires tremendous buoyancy control, so you can see the creatures and position yourself just right to take the perfect shot.
You are also looking through a mask – which sometimes feels like a hindrance.
To top it all off, you are actually very loud underwater because of the exhaled bubbles from your regulator. Most professional underwater photographers use a rebreather system which does not put out any bubbles but returns the exhaled air through a closed circuit to be scrubbed of carbon dioxide, enriched in air, and reused. This tremendously helps with that stealth factor, so you can approach your subjects without scaring them.
Some underwater photographers dispense with the diving gear all together and free-dive to capture their perfect shots. Free-diving for long amounts of time requires a lot of training and excellent physical stamina. For an eye-opening story on how one can capture the whole life story of an ocean creature on camera, I would highly recommend watching the Netflix Original Documentary “My Octopus Teacher”. Free-diving photography requires a level of comfort with the ocean that most people find hard to master.
What really appeals to me about Dr. Baelen is how he has mastered all these techniques to be able to take such awe-inspiring shots of the ocean creatures with crisp details, so that we can meet our fellow Earth inhabitants that we have never set eyes on before. Thanks to Dr. Baelen’s photographs, I know many more ocean creatures than before, and I can appreciate them in a new light because Dr. Baelen’s photographs teach us something new about these creatures’ way of life.