holding my breath while taking a photo

[rab1412000]

hello everyone

i know the cardinal rule of diving is never to hold your breath to avoid lung overexpansion.
however i sometimes do this when taking a photo u/w. im not changing depth while doing this so over expansion is out of the queston.

but is there any other reason not to hold your breath? im thinking that maybe holding your breath MAY increase nitrogen load. but again, im not sure.

would really like to know if what im doing could be hazardous.
thanks

 

[mikemill]

Doing it to an excess can increase your CO₂ load which can lead to headaches and generally bleh feeling.

I tend to hold my breath when taking a shot also but not with a full set of lungs. I found it helps to not have the bubbles in my face, helps to hold the position, and then once I've taken the shot I can inhale more and kinda float up and back into normal position.

 

[Darnold9999]

Rather than hold your breath try to just stop breathing. A fine point, but holding your breath to most people means closing your airway, stopping breathing leaves it open. Safer if you get so focused on the shot that you don't notice that you are ascending. With an open airway no problem any excess air just trickles out.

 

[ayeshacantrell]

instead of holding your breath, use your breath control to help you with photography

exhale whilst slowly approaching your shot then start to inhale as you want to press the shutter, you will the rise up over your subject harmlessly

or the other way....

framing from below your shot, slowly inhale to rise towards, clickling the shutter up towards your frame.

Both of these will give you the slightly upwards facing angle that is usually desirable without getting into the habit of holding your breath.

on a sandy bottom, a fin pivot will allow you stability and a range of shot anlges for your subject.

 

[Crowley]

Some good advice from the above in terms of taking photos - there's no real problem with a momentary suspension of breathing to take a picture. Darnald's advice about 'stopping breathing' with an open airway rather than 'holding your breath' is sound - this is what I do when I'm taking photographs.

Back to the OP - for any significant problems to arise from holding your breath whilst diving recreationally I think you would have to really go out of your way to do it. You'd have to make sure you stayed put and didn't float away, for a start! If you did do it - I expect problems associated with nitrogen would be minimally impacted, as it's there anyway, whether you're breathing or not. I think (as identified above), the first problem would be hypercapnia (too much CO2 in the sytem) and coupled with pressure at depth this I suppose it could induce a CO2 blackout.

Given that there's simply no reason to do it, and all other things being equal, and you're otherwise breathing correctly, a momentary suspension of the breathing cycle can't really hurt.

Safe diving,

C.

 

[Doc]

im thinking that maybe holding your breath MAY increase nitrogen load. but again, im not sure.

Nitrogen loading (or offgassing) is not affected by breathing rate.

 

[DevonDiver]

i know the cardinal rule of diving is never to hold your breath to avoid lung overexpansion.
however i sometimes do this when taking a photo u/w. im not changing depth while doing this so over expansion is out of the queston.

Cardinal Rules exist for a reason..... don't do it. Your life isn't worth the photo you are after.

A long, slow inhalation has the same effect, without the risk.

On a shallow dive, holding breath for a photo can still cause problems if there is swell passing overhead. The pressure change doesn't need to be that great to cause a lung injury. I have medical papers here that illustrate the case of a double pneumothorax from a depth of 1m, due to scuba breath hold.

In addition, you have issues of hypercapnia.

Scuba fatalities always seem implausible....and usually originate when people start breaking 'cardinal rules'.

 

[bleeb]

Cardinal Rules exist for a reason..... don't do it. Your life isn't worth the photo you are after.

A long, slow inhalation has the same effect, without the risk.

On a shallow dive, holding breath for a photo can still cause problems if there is swell passing overhead. The pressure change doesn't need to be that great to cause a lung injury. I have medical papers here that illustrate the case of a double pneumothorax from a depth of 1m, due to scuba breath hold.

In addition, you have issues of hypercapnia.

Scuba fatalities always seem implausible....and usually originate when people start breaking 'cardinal rules'.

+1

Another risk factor to consider is that for most people, one of the first things to go when heavily task loaded is buoyancy control. UW photographers are actually a common example of this. The problem doesn't come from when you're doing everything correctly. The problem comes from the first time anything goes wrong or even just unusual (say something completely out of your control, like someone grabbing you) and you get distracted dealing with it.

 

[ligersandtions]

Holding your breath is not an issue....holding your breath and ascending is an issue. If you hold a neutral breath while you're taking your picture, you will stay neutrally buoyant, and thus will not be ascending. However, if you feel that you are ascending for any reason (you didn't hold a neutral breath, you've got some surgey conditions, someone ends up pushing you and forcing you upwards, whatever...), you need to be able to react to that immediately....you also need to be very aware of what's happening to your body as your lungs will give you no feed back as to what is happening to your depth in the water, but dead air spaces such as your ears will.

If you can keep a neutral breath while not holding it (as explained by Darnold in the "stop breathing" part), that's your best bet. But if you do "hold" your breath, try to keep it a neutral breath that will not cause you to ascend.

 

[Sinbad the Diver]

when teaching marksmanship, we teach a basic idea that seems to apply here. Between an exhale and an inhale you have a natural pause. That pause is the optumal time to squeeze the trigger, or in your case, snap the picture.