Underwater electro-optical imaging technology can obtain high-resolution information of underwater targets, which has important applications in civil and military fields such as underwater resource exploration or underwater threat target detection and warning. The research on underwater electro-optical imaging model aims to clarify the degradation mechanism of underwater images and obtain high-quality underwater electro-optical images. Based on underwater steady light field distribution, the underwater image is obtained through the path radiance integral in the direction of line of sight, so as to establish the relationship between the underwater image and the underwater light source distribution, target layout, water optical parameters and view point position, at last the underwater electro-optical imaging model is obtained and the effectiveness is preliminarily verified by taking the actual underwater image as an example. The imaging model theoretically explains the formation principle of underwater image under natural light and artificial illumination, and has guiding significance for designing excellent underwater electro-optical imaging system and underwater image restoration algorithm.