Many divers own their personal digital camera and enjoy taking photos of the underwater world. With many pictures not looking the way they were intended, there is a rising need for information with respect to the use of digital underwater cameras. Therefore PADI has developed a 2-step specialty course to fill the information gap.

Of course there is a corresponding workshop available for teaching this new specialty. The workshop has a duration of 2 days and includes the following:

Happy Divers & IDC College has implemented two programs for divers (and skin divers) and two programs for Divemaster, Assistant Instructors and Instructors to fill the information gap.

After completion of the workshop and 2 dives the participant can apply for the Specialty Course Instructor status. Minimum certification level to teach the PADI Digital Underwater Photographer Specialty course is a PADI Divemaster. PADI Divemasters and Assistant Instructors can qualify to become a “PADI Digital Photo Pro”. With this qualification they can conduct “Discover Digital Underwater Photography” (Level 1) and “Digital Underwater Photography” (Level 2) under supervision of a PADI Instructor. The necessary training can be obtained from a PADI Course Director.

This program covers automatic photography without the use of artificial light. You will learn about the possibilities of a point-and-shoot camera, how to use manual white balance, ISO settings and colour correction filters. You will also learn how to use histograms, about some important features of file-formats, resolution, picture composition, sorting and organizing.

With so many divers taking a digital camera underwater, you can expect questions on photo related subjects in your day-to-day work as a dive guide or instructor. To provide you with the knowledge needed to respond to those questions, PADI created the “Digital Underwater Photography Workshop”, which will make you a “PADI Digital Photo Pro”– the intent is just to make you more professional in your day-to-day work.

With the first part of the workshop as a base, it is easy to expand your qualifications to become a “Digital Underwater Photography Instructor”, allowed to teach Level 1 and 2 courses. After the workshop we will continue with the instructor part, which will also take a complete day. We will do another practical session (this time in open water) and will use the pictures taken during that dive to learn how to evaluate pictures and how to give hints, tips and advise to improve results in following dives. Both the level 1 and 2 courses use the automatic functions of the digital camera and do not require an enormous amount of knowledge on photography principles – the courses are easy to handle and easy to teach.

As a diving professional, you have hardly any other choice than to improve your knowledge of digital underwater photography – a digital camera is slowly becoming a “standard” piece of diving equipment, just as a BCD or a mask. Your clients will expect knowledge of “all standard equipment items” and will not understand when a professional knows all about a BCD, but little about digital cameras.

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