U/W Photographer Course
With so many amazing creatures to see and photograph, it's no wonder that underwater photography has been a highly popular hobby of scuba divers for many years.
WHO is up for adventure?
As one of the most popular specialties PADI currently offers, the world of underwater photography is actually taught in two courses - underwater photography and digital underwater photography.
The first will relay the traditional considerations of photography and the characteristics of good underwater photos.
If taking the digital underwater photography course, you'll be taught the basics on a modern digital camera to give you an idea of what modern-day equipment can do.
You'll be able to make an informed decision on the best underwater camera to purchase whilst also being taught the PADI SEA method for getting good shots in a hurry.
WHY should I be excited?
As any serious underwater photographer will tell you, there's far more to the hobby of underwater photography than simply bringing a camera underwater and pointing and shooting images of subjects - although this can be fun if you're not too concerned about the quality of the photographs.
HOW do I do it?
Techniques and skills such as how to use lighting underwater, how to white balance your pictures and how to avoid backscatter or noise are all taught during these introductory courses.
Divers are also taught how to set up their shots within safe distances of creatures and fragile marine life.
Ask about the U/W Photographer course
More about PADI Digital Underwater Photographer Course
Specialty dive courses. With this much to photograph, most divers bring a camera to Mabul; the hard part is coming home with pictures that look like what you saw. The Digital Underwater Photographer course closes that gap: the difference between blue-grey blurs and the shots on our gallery pages is technique, and technique is teachable.
Who's it for? Anyone with a budding interest in underwater photography — any certified diver, any camera, from action cams and compacts to serious rigs. (Snorkellers can even take the first level.)
What will I learn? The PADI SEA method of getting good shots fast: exposure and white balance underwater (why everything turns blue and how to stop it), composition that works through a mask, and the camera-handling-plus-buoyancy choreography that protects both the reef and your shot. Two dives with an instructor critiquing your actual images teaches more than a year of guessing.
Why here? Because Mabul is arguably the best classroom in diving: subjects that hold still (frogfish pose for a living), shallow sites with long bottom times, and macro life that rewards every technique the course teaches. Students leave with certification and a portfolio on the same card.