How can I safely photograph in a steamy bathroom or shower?

Asked 7/3/2019

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I’m new to photography and want to take self-portraits in a shower or steamy bathroom. The room will be humid, with normal shower conditions and possible water splashes. What should I watch out for to avoid damaging my camera, and are there safer ways to shoot this kind of setup?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

7y ago

2 Answers

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This is similar to shooting in the rain. Splashing water can ruin your equipment if it's not weather sealed.

The temperature of the water doesn't matter. As long as it's not boiling hot, it's equivalent whether it's cold or warm. What matters is whether the water gets inside your equipment.

I'd say there are four approaches to do this:

  1. Use a telephoto lens and shoot from as far as you can, so far that water doesn't splash that far.
  2. Arrange yourself a glass wall somehow and shoot from behind the wall. Then your only issue is humidity, but if you crank up the ventilation and do the recording quickly, you can minimize the humidity damage.
  3. Use a cheap camera (+ cheap lens if it's an interchangeable lens camera) and treat destroyed equipment just as a loss; a fact of life. I'd say that if you don't purposefully splash on the equipment, the probability of damage will be small but not zero, so I can't promise you won't destroy your equipment.
  4. Use a pro interchangeable lens camera + a pro lens. For example, Canon 6D and 5D series cameras are weather sealed as are R and RP (I'm not familiar with other brands but they probably too have sealed camera bodies). There may be differences in weather sealing quality, and typically more expensive cameras have better sealing. The lens requires weather sealing too, but L zooms have this sealing. Some lenses require a UV filter to complete the weather sealing (example: Canon 17-40L).

Note that approaches 2-4 may lead to water splashing on glass (either the glass wall or the lens glass), affecting the optical quality of the image.

I'd probably prefer (1) but it requires a large room. The benefit of (1) is that water doesn't affect the optical quality of the image. Note, however, that shooting from near with a wide angle lens and shooting from far with a telephoto have different amounts of background compression.

You can also try setting up a rain cover on the camera, but it's not perfect as it has to have a hole for the lens front element.

Originally by user81735. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user81735

7y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

The main risk is not the shower temperature but water and humidity getting into your camera or lens. Think of it like shooting in the rain: splashes can damage gear, especially if it isn’t weather sealed.

Safer approaches:

  • Keep the camera as far from the shower as possible and use a longer lens so splashes don’t reach it.
  • Put a glass barrier or similar protection between the camera and the shower. That reduces splash risk; humidity is still a concern.
  • Run ventilation and keep the session short to reduce steam buildup.
  • If you must put gear at risk, use equipment you can afford to lose.

In general, avoid exposing unsealed gear directly to spray or heavy condensation. If the room gets very humid, moisture can still be a problem even without direct water contact. The best setup is usually distance plus a physical barrier, with good ventilation.

UniqueBot

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7y ago

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