Photo Courses

Has anyone here been on any UW photo courses, such as the UW photographer course that PADI run, or any of the courses that some of the UW photo Pro's run?

I've been asked by one of the local dive centres if i'd be interested in doing some basic UWP tuition, but not too sure how much these courses charge or whether divers have/would find them useful?

I took the PADI Underwater Photographer course not long after getting certified from my OW instructor. The success of the class definately depends on an instructor whose a good photographer themselves...mine wasn't! Basically I was handed a list of apertures and shutter speeds and sent out to do two dives. She looked at the results and critiqued them by saying "this one's OK, that one's really bad, I'd keep this one, etc." I learned absolutely nothing to improve my photos.

I unintentionally took the same course again several years later from Holly and Armando at Island Photo in Cozumel. They are both excellent photographers and teach alot for S&S so this was a class for S&S cameras. We all had either MMII or MX-10 cameras. The course just happened to include the PADI specialty card. The difference was night and day. After each dive, our slides were processed and each photo was critiqued with what was good or bad about it and what the exposure correction would be. Composition was covered intensively with slide shows of good and bad examples, which was a great learning tool...at least for me. And having a camera specific class was great. That might be hard to do with digitals.

We also had the opportunity to use a SLR pro setup and learned alot about different camera set-ups and the differences. I left that class feeling like a photographer and confident that I could continue improve on my own.

If I remember correctly the class was $150. For 5 days we had class in the mornings and did 2 dives in the afternoon. Film was turned in at the end of the day and our slides were ready for critiquing the next morning. We were asked to submit one or two of our best shots daily and at the end of the week we had a group slide show. Everyone got a 8x10 print of their best photo of the week. We had about 15 people in the class with 2 photographers and each one of us got individual attention from them both during the week. This was back in 1999 before digital.

I would think incorporating Photoshop techniques would also be very helpful. I'd love to sit down, one on one, with someone who truly knows how to use PS for underwater photos.

Chippy if you do one I would consider coming over to take part.
BTW - hope you are OK after meeting with one of your inhabitants. And when is the report from Sharm? I'm going there finally 28th December
Mania

short answer is: it is the instructor that makes a good course. If you were teaching it, it'd be a good course.

When I teach them it is one on one (maybe two). Each course is tailored to the student's knowledge, needs and goals.

Discussion of the photos after the dive is essential, of course. Multi-day courses work best for me so students can hit the water again and work on some things we went over.

Digital is fabulous because you can do a quickie review on the boat between dives.

I'm willing to discuss what I have done so far if you want...PM me

I think a weekend course would be ideal, with the Saturday being devoted to the theory - equipment, maintenance, then the photo theory, followed by a dive on the Sunday morning followed by a review and lunch, then an afternoon dive and final review, etc.

I was thinking of adding in a basic photoshop tips during the Sunday at the reviews, and maybe throw in a free copy of Elements to the person that’s made the most progress during the duration of the course (providing I can get people to part with enough cash to make the whole thing worthwhile!!)

At the end of the day, I’m no pro, but hopefully I could at least minimise the trial and error period I went through when I started out and offer some sound advice - mostly gleened from the excellent advice I’ve had on this board!

Sounds like a good basic class plan, depending on how deep you want to cover everything.

I agree....I've learned alot from the folks here.

I'd take your course.

Ditto on the learning from SB. I'd still have blue blurry pictures instead of nicely white balanced - under and over exposed - blurry pictures. Amazing how far I've come .

SeaYoda:

I'd take your course.

Ditto on the learning from SB. I'd still have blue blurry pictures instead of nicely white balanced - under and over exposed - blurry pictures. Amazing how far I've come .

Click to expand...

me too
if i was closer i'd definately be up for that, my photo's this far are very disapointing

I've considered organizing a photo type course as well.

Right now, I teach NAUI Advanced classes which are supposed to be an introduction to certain specialties. Well, obviously when people choose Underwater Photography as one of their elective dives, my briefing can go a bit overboard, and the feedback I've got from people has encouraged me.

Although I'm far from a pro, and consider myself a very new amateur at best, I've found that I do have some useful knowledge that people seem to be very interested in.

Let me know how your course goes.

You guys are all more than welcome to come along, just remember to pack the drysuits, hoods and gloves

From the email exchanges that have gone on with these fellas, I can see that I'm going to be turing up to find them all kitted up ready to get in the water!!! The next question's going to be "what settings do i use to get pics like yours" and then they'll be off!

I don't think they're too up for leaning the theory. When I mentioned "a morning of theory lessons", I kind of got a "ya what" response! :11:

I think I might make sure I get my fee before I turn up!!??