Snorkeling With a GoPro: How to Film the Fish, Not Your Thumb

An action camera turns a snorkel session into footage you can actually relive — or, in Brad's early attempts, forty minutes of his own left thumb accompanied by heavy breathing. Getting good underwater snorkeling footage is mostly about a few simple habits, none of which require you to be a filmmaker. Let's make your fish look as good as they deserve.

Get the basic setup right

Before you get wet, sort three things. First, a handle or float grip — a floating handle means that when (not if) you drop the camera, it bobs to the surface instead of joining the reef forever. It also gives you steady, deliberate control instead of a fist-clenched wobble. Second, make sure any waterproof housing or door is properly sealed and rated for how deep you'll go. Third, start with a fresh battery and empty storage, because the ocean does not pause while you delete old clips.

Mounting the camera on your head or chest frees your hands, but it also films wherever you happen to be looking or leaning, which for beginners means a lot of seafloor and sky. A handheld grip usually gives more intentional shots when you're learning.

Settings that make a real difference

You don't need to master every menu, but a few choices matter. A wider frame rate lets you slow footage down smoothly later, which flatters drifting fish. Turning on any built-in stabilization dramatically reduces the seasick wobble. And if your camera has an underwater or auto white-balance mode, use it — water swallows red and orange light with depth, so without correction everything trends murky blue-green.

If your camera supports it, a red filter or dedicated underwater color mode brings warmth back to the image at depth. Test your settings in shallow water first so you're not fiddling with menus while a turtle swims off camera.

Light is everything underwater

Water eats light, so shoot with the sun, not against it. Keep the sun behind you so it illuminates your subject, and film during bright midday hours when light penetrates best. The shallower you are, the more color and detail you keep, which is convenient because snorkeling is shallow by nature. Overcast days and deeper, darker water both mute your footage.

Avoid pointing straight up into the sun (unless you specifically want a silhouette), and get reasonably close to your subject — water reduces sharpness and color over distance, so a fish two feet away looks vastly better than the same fish ten feet away.

Steady, slow, and close

The three words that fix most amateur underwater video: steady, slow, close. Move deliberately, breathe calmly so your body isn't bobbing, and let fish come to you rather than chasing them (chasing gets you tail shots and stresses the animal). Hold each shot longer than feels natural — several seconds of steady footage beats a frantic pan. Duck diving down a little for eye-level shots looks great, but only if you can equalize and do it safely; Brad covers that in duck diving.

Respect the reef and the wildlife

A camera is not permission to get closer than you should. Never touch or chase animals for a shot, never stand on or brace against coral to steady yourself, and keep your fins up and controlled — a distracted filmer kicks a lot of reef. Give turtles and other wildlife plenty of space and let them behave naturally; the best footage is an animal that doesn't know it's being filmed. Brad's turtle etiquette applies double when you have a camera and a temptation.

Sort your footage after

Even great snorkelers shoot mostly unusable clips, and that's normal — the trick is being ruthless afterward. Keep the steady, close, well-lit moments and bin the rest. A tight two-minute edit of your best shots is infinitely more watchable than the raw forty-minute thumb documentary. Rinse your camera and housing in fresh water when you're done, because salt is patient and destructive.

Composition tricks that make footage look pro

A few deliberate habits separate footage people actually watch from footage you apologize for before pressing play. Get eye-level with your subject rather than filming down onto the seafloor — dropping just below a fish so it's framed against blue water or the bright surface looks dramatically better than shooting the top of its head. Use the rule of thirds loosely: put the reef line or a turtle off-center rather than dead middle.

A couple more that pay off instantly:

• Foreground for depth — let a bit of coral or a rock pass through the frame to give the shot a sense of scale and 3D depth.
• Follow the action smoothly — pan slowly with a swimming animal instead of jerking to catch up.
• Vary your shots — grab a few wide establishing clips of the whole reef, then some tighter shots of individual fish, so an edit has variety to cut between.
• Include a person occasionally — a fellow snorkeler in frame gives viewers a sense of scale the ocean otherwise hides.

Keep the camera alive between sessions

Salt water is the natural enemy of every action camera ever made, and it plays a long game. The moment you're out, rinse the whole camera and housing in fresh water — ideally soak it for a bit, then work any buttons under the water so salt doesn't crystallize in the seams and jam them. Dry it before opening the housing so no drips fall on the lens or battery.

Battery drains faster than you expect, especially at higher frame rates and with the screen on, so carry a spare and start every session at full charge with empty storage. Check the housing seal and the little rubber gasket for sand or hair before every single entry; one grain of sand is all it takes to flood a camera. And leash or float-grip the thing religiously — the reef is littered with the ghosts of cameras that were 'only set down for a second.' If you want to get lower for those eye-level shots, do it safely; Brad covers the technique in duck diving.

Brad's take

You don't need to be a pro. Float grip so you don't lose it, stabilization on, sun behind you, get close, hold steady, shoot eye-level with a little variety, rinse it in fresh water after, and don't harass the wildlife. Follow those and your snorkel footage will look genuinely good. Follow none of them, like early Brad, and you'll produce a moving portrait of your own thumb set to labored breathing.

Snorkel Brad refuses to get in the water underdressed. Gear up with a sheet of stickers and The Trucker cap, or browse the full collection — Brad's commission is, as always, exactly zero dollars.