Underwater Photography Workshop

Would you like to learn or improve your underwater photography with renowned professionals?

Please contact us for details about upcoming Sipadan Underwater Photography Workshops.

Pelagics at Sipadan meet world-class macro on Mabul and Kapalai, with easy logistics via Semporna. This workshop focuses on patient, deliberate macro techniques while keeping a day or two for Sipadan's wide-angle drama.

Proven results: multiple award-winning student photographs have been captured in this area, including nudibranch portraits, behavior sequences, and abstract supermacro images.

Who This Workshop Is For

• Divers comfortable in the water (AOW or equivalent recommended) seeking structured, hands-on coaching.
• Photographers using compact, mirrorless, or DSLR systems; video shooters welcome.
• Macro enthusiasts chasing rare nudibranchs, shrimp, and cephalopods without skipping Sipadan wide-angle opportunities.

Why This Area Hooks Macro Lovers

Semporna's shelf spreads into sand, seagrass, rubble, stilt houses, and pier habitats. These micro-environments concentrate food and shelter and create nurseries where macro life thrives. The plan is simple: slow down, scan patiently, and let the sand speak. Currents are generally mild and predictable, influenced by tides, which supports long, methodical dives.

Signature Species Around Mabul & Kapalai

Mabul (classic muck and dusk action)

• Mandarinfish courtship during blue hour; blue-ring octopus on calm mornings or afternoons.
• Green and hawksbill turtles, frogfish species, ornate ghost pipefish, seahorses and pygmy seahorses, ribbon eels.
• After dark: cuttlefish, bobtail squid; plus leaf scorpionfish, banded sea snakes, and the occasional mimic octopus.

Kapalai (sand, pylons, behavior)

• Flamboyant cuttlefish by day with hunting, mating, and egg-laying sequences under debris and rubble.

Seaventures House Reef

• Crocodilefish, ornate ghost pipefish, colorful frogfish, and steady migrations of nudibranchs, shrimps, and crabs around the rig pillars.

Nudibranch & Sea Slug Hit List (examples)

• Sakuraeolis, Hypselodoris, Phestilla, Tenellia, Trinchesia, Cratena.
• Cyerce katiae, Cyerce blackburnae.
• Phyllodesmium crypticum, Melibe (including M. engeli).
• Aegires (e.g., A. malinus), Trapania armilla.
• Favorinus (egg-ribbon specialists).
• Thecacera (orange tubercles that glow under light).
• Goniobranchus, “ghost nudi” Placida sacoglossans.
• Yellow Tritonia, Eubranchus ocellatus.
• Costasiella kuroshimae (“leaf sheep,” rosy-cheeked and pink-nipped variants).

Also expect exquisite micro-crustaceans such as cryptic sponge shrimp, Phycocaris (hairy shrimp), Synalpheus stimpsoni, and sacoglossans like Caliphylla and Hermaea.

Macro Masterclass - Approach & Technique

Finding Rare Critters

• Use a torch even by day and scan in a steady grid. Keep your mask level with the substrate and look laterally for repeating shapes like cerata, gills, and egg ribbons.
• Zero silt: minimal finning and no sand storms. Many subjects live on delicate algae or bryozoans; no shot is worth damage.

Focus, Stability, and Optics

• Single-point autofocus with a focus light; for shy subjects, pre-focus and rock gently.
• Add a wet diopter (+5 or +10) for supermacro and manage tighter working distances.

Lighting Recipes

• Black background: 1/200 s, f/16-f/22, ISO 100-200; strobes tucked in and feathered.
• Inward lighting: strobes slightly behind the port and angled inward to reduce clutter and emphasize edges.
• Backlighting: a second strobe or a torch behind the subject; flag to prevent flare.

Critiques are designed to produce contest-ready frames, a process behind several award-winning student photos made here.

Wide-Angle Interlude at Sipadan

• Schools: set the blue first around 1/160-1/200 s, f/8-f/11, ISO near 200; use strobes to kiss the foreground, not the water column.
• Turtles: shoot eye-level with a slight upward angle for a clean blue gradient.
• Walls and fans: include a diver for scale and position them against the blue.

Choosing the Right Macro Dive Guide

Request a macro-specialist divemaster who also shoots. They know seasonal micro-habitats, keep dives intentionally slow, rotate subjects so each buddy team gets clean time, and help with background control and backscatter management. This guidance is a key factor behind many award-winning student images from this area.

Sample 6-7 Day Plan

• Day 1 - Semporna arrival: gear check, buoyancy tune, exposure fundamentals, backup workflow.
• Day 2 - Semporna muck: autofocus behavior, strobe placement, black-background exercise.
• Day 3 - Mabul muck: autofocus behavior, strobe placement, black-background exercise.
• Day 4 - Kapalai shallows: backlighting and negative space; optional night dive for crustaceans and cephalopods.
• Day 4 - Sipadan I: barracuda tornadoes and walls; bumpheads ; sunball control and backscatter mitigation.
• Day 6 - Macro Masterclass: advanced snoots, inward lighting, supermacro, and one-on-one water time.
• Day 7 - Optional: sunset dive; photoshop editing lab, critique, export for web, print, uw photo competitions and contests.

Sequence may shift with permits, tides, and conditions.

Stay Close to the Action (Examples)

• Sipadan-Mabul Resort and Mabul Water Bungalows: strong dive infrastructure, Sipadan permits, Nitrox or Tech options.
• Seaventures Dive Rig: unlimited house-reef macro via lift, camera-friendly logistics, Nitrox, ideal for species hunters.
• Borneo Divers Mabul Resort: pioneer operator with a practical balance of Sipadan pelagics and macro-heavy days.

Kit Checklist

• Housing, ports, dual strobes, diffusers, snoot, and focus light.
• Macro lenses such as 60, 90, 100, or 105 mm; optional wet diopter (+5 or +10). Wide-angle fisheye or 16-35 with dome.
• Fiber-optic cables, spare O-rings, grease, and silica packs.
• Laptop, fast card reader, and two external SSDs for redundant backup.
• Reef-safe sunscreen, SMB, and a non-pointy reef stick used only on dead substrate for steadiness.

Responsible Muck Diving

• Clip gauges and octos and perfect buoyancy before settling near sand.
• Practice the photo triangle: one finger on dead rock or rubble with fins still.
• Respect micro and macro zones to keep habitats healthy and sightings consistent.

Permits, Logistics, and Base

We coordinate Sipadan permits, boats, cylinders and weights, and Nitrox where available. Typical stays are on Mabul or Kapalai for macro access, with Sipadan day trips slotted by permit allocation. Transfers are via Semporna jetty, and a short Semporna photo walk can round out your visual story.

Ready To Build an Award-Ready Macro Portfolio?

Share your experience level, certifications, camera rig, and preferred travel window. We will tailor your dives and coaching focus so you return with a refined, contest-ready portfolio from Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai, and Semporna.

Please contact us for details about upcoming Sipadan, Mabul & Semporna Underwater Photography Workshops.

Participating in the Underwater Photo Competition

• If you join the Sipadan UW photo competition, you can participate.
• You must bring your own compact camera, reflex camera or video camera with accompanying housing and any lighting.
• You can take unlimited photos and film on site every day. Every day a time code will be communicated in the morning that you must set on your camera.
• This way we can verify that all photos have actually been taken on the spot.
• Each evening you can select 15 photos from the total number of photos you took that day. With the camera's memory card, everyone presents themselves to the organization in the evening with a note stating the 15 photo file numbers. The organization will transfer and maintain these 15 photos from your card.
• If you stay on board for 1 week, you can have brought in a maximum of 6 × 15 = 90 photos from which you will have to make the final choices for the photo competitions.
• Keep in mind that you can only use each photo once in the competitions !!

Daily Selection & Editing

• We know we are already working hard on selecting 15 photos every day!
• A plus, however, because if this would not happen, some of them have thousands of photos to search at the end of their stay.
• An impossible task.
• Once you return home, you have plenty of time to select the very best photos from your selected selection.
• You can also edit them afterwards (photoshop or similar program).
• However, keep in mind that certain rules apply and not all operations are allowed.
• To know exactly what is allowed and what is not allowed, you should read the regulations on the “rules / regulations” page!

Coaching & Feedback

• Another advantage of daily selection is that we also immediately get an idea of your capabilities as an underwater photographer.
• We will always be there to give you some extra tips regarding aperture, shutter speeds, lenses, exposure… ..
• You can certainly learn something new!

Submission & Categories

• 1. All pictures have to be delivered in digital format in jpeg format or can be send by Wetransfer or Dropbox.
• 2. Every participant is allowed to send in 3 pictures in competition in each category but only one serie of pictures in the portfolio competitions. The results of the best picture in 5 reflex camera categories will be added together to determine the winner. The results of the best pictures in 3 compact camera categories will be added together to determine the best compact camera photographer.
• 3. Every participant can win one prize in each competition category. There will be prizes for the 1st place and 2nd place (runner-up) in the different competitions. In the category overall winner and best compact camera photographer 6 prizes will be awarded. There will be 1 prize awarded in each compact camera competition.
• 4. Only pictures registered in the databank during the shooting days at Sipadan and Mabul will be accepted in competition.
• 5. A picture can only be entered once and can not be entered in several categories.
• 6. Pool images are not allowed.
• 7. Each competition day, in the morning, the competitor will receive a new time code to set the camera.
• 8. Every evening the competitor can transfer a maximum of 15 pictures to the organiser's databank for pictures in competition. During the competition the settings on the camera have to be put on jpeg or jpeg+raw (jpeg always in highest resolution)
• 9. The pictures will be transferred in Jpeg.
• 10. It is not allowed to modify pictures in any way before having them registered during the competition.

Post-Processing Rules

• 11. Photoshop is allowed but limited !!
• Next adjustments are allowed : Adjusting contrast - Adjusting sharpness - Color adjustments - Dust removal and cleaning - Rotate & turn
• Next adjustments are NOT allowed : Putting images together or copy and paste parts of pictures (f.e. Copy an eye - mirror and paste so the fish will have two eyes looking into the camera) - Removing background parts or making the background black. No artificial adjustments to create sunbeams or sunlight in the background. Double exposure pictures are allowed (1 raw file = double exposure). The two or more pictures that make up the double exposure picture have to be delivered but do not count as pictures in competition.
• Cropping is allowed up with a maximum of 20% of the original size. (Longest side X shortest side - 20%)
• For example resolution 1500×1000 = 1500000 - 300000 (20%) = 1200000 pixels minimum resolution.

Authorship & Responsibility

• 12. All competitors must supply their own full photo equipment. All pictures have to be taken by the participant him/herself.
• 13. By submitting the photo, the competitor certifies that he/she has created, composed and made the original submitted photo. The pictures will be send with a file map for each separate competition.
• 14. By submitting the photo, the competitor certifies that he/she has made every shot during the competition days
• 15. During a competition day it isn't allowed to erase pictures from the memory card before the final selection of the day has been transferred to the organizer.
• 16. Decisions of the jury panel shall be final.

Awards & Timelines

• Proclamation of awards and prize giving during the festival.
• More details about the date of the prize giving & awards evening will follow shortly.

Disqualification Criteria

• Entries exhibiting the following behaviour will be disqualified.
• Keep in mind that the dive guides are very sensitive to divers who show no respect to their environment.
• Feeding of animals.
• Touching or moving animals to “better” backgrounds.
• Animals with signs of stress (e.g. puffed puffers, inking octopus).
• Marine life should never be stressed or endangered for the sake of a photo or some video.
• Divers visibly damaging the environment can be disqualified.

Logistics & Requirements

• Participants have to bring with them their diving license and diving insurance.
• The pictures must be submitted on time.

Rights of Usage

• The competition's management and sponsors will have the right to use all the pictures made by the competitors for promotion of the competition and for public relations.

Responsibility

• Each participant is responsible for his/her own safety and the proper operation of his/her diving and photographic equipment. The organizers and the sponsors of this event do not endorse that diving is safe and do not recommend any particular location. Each participant must follow the diving rules and use his/her own judgment regarding diving safety.
• By signing the inscription form all participants agree with the rules of competition !

Participating in the Underwater Video Competition

• If you join the Sipadan UW Competition during the period, you can participate..
• You must bring your own video camera with accompanying housing and any lighting.
• You can film unlimited on site every day. Every day a time code will be communicated in the morning that you must set on your camera.
• This way we can verify that all film images were actually taken on the spot.

Videography Workflow

• Unlike photography, no images need to be brought in for videography on a daily basis.
• The participant must keep his dive logbook properly “up to date”.
• At the request of the organization, he / she must always be able to state on which day and which dive site his images were filmed.
• Once back home, all filmed images can be used to produce a video.
• Don't forget to also pay attention to submit an interesting video clip.
• The rules for video can be found on the “Rules / Regulations” page.

Time Code & Locations

• Each competition day, the participant will be asked to insert a new time / data code in his video camera.
• All video footage used must have been filmed and filmed at Sipadan, Mabul, Kapalai Semporna or the nearby islands.

Prohibitions & Formats

• No pool or aquarium admissions allowed.
• All images must be filmed by the participant himself.
• The allowed video formats to send in competition are Quicktime movie files with codecs H264 or H265 files, Mpeg4 or Mov.
• Maximum resolution full HD.
• The films must be delivered in duplicate - One version where the name of the producer is not visible and one full version with name indication.
• Minimum 70% of the recordings must consist of underwater images.
• All participants must provide their own full video equipment.
• No material is made available by the organization.
• By submitting the video, the participant declares that he / she has created and compiled the video himself and that he / she has used his / her own images.
• By submitting the video, the participant declares that all images used were filmed during the competition days.
• The judges' decisions are indisputable.

Awards & Dates

• The awards & prize giving will take place during the festival.
• More details with the exact date will be announced later.

Disqualification Criteria (Video)

• Entries showing subsequent dive behavior will be disqualified.
• 1. Feeding animals.
• 2. Touching or moving animals to “better” backgrounds.
• 3. Animals showing signs of stress (bloated puffer fish, ink squirting octopus)
• 4. Marine life should never be endangered or in a stressful situation to take a nice photo or video.
• 5. Divers who are clearly seriously damaging the diving environment.

Requirements & Deadlines

• Divers are obliged to adhere to the rules of diving.
• All participants are required to bring their diving certification and diving insurance.
• The participating videos must be sent before the dateline.

Rights of Use

• The organization and sponsors will have the right to use the submitted video of the participants for promotion of the competition and public promotion.

Use Music and Projection Copy Rights

• The video producer declares by participating that he has all rights and owns all copy rights for the video film or video clip in the competition including the sound tape that matches the film.
• He has all rights to public projection in any form including private and commercial presentations worldwide.
• The participant will be held responsible for any damage, loss or costs arising from the projection of his film in accordance with the aforementioned declaration.

Responsibility (Video)

• Each participant is responsible for his / her safety with regard to his / her dive, video and photo equipment. The organizers and sponsors of this event do not emphasize that diving is safe, nor do they recommend any particular dive sites.
• Each participant must abide by dive rules and make his / her own decision regarding dive safety.
• By signing the registration form, the participant declares to agree with these regulations.
• Good luck!

Please contact us for details about the Sipadan Underwater Competition.