How to Be an Underwater Photographer

The underwater world offers some of this planet's best photographic opportunities. With so many fascinating forms of life and unusual landscapes undersea, there are a vast number of great photographs that you can take. If you want to become an underwater photographer, you must first get the correct training in underwater diving and photography, as well as the correct equipment. Although it can be a challenging freelance career, it can also be very rewarding.

Instructions

    • 1

      Sign up for a scuba-diving course. Before you can take photographs underwater, you need to be able to handle yourself underwater. An Open Water diver course will teach you to safely use scuba equipment and the risks of scuba diving. If possible, you should follow this up with an Advanced Open Water course to develop your skills.

    • 2

      Purchase a camera and underwater housing. Do not spend too much money when you first start out; just buy the basic equipment to start you in underwater photography. You can upgrade your equipment as you get better, but the housings and cameras are, in general, very expensive, so it is better to start with a cheaper model against the risk of leakage.

    • 3

      Take a Digital Underwater Photographer specialty course. The Digital Underwater Photographer course teaches you about the basics of underwater photography, such as white balancing for color absorption, positioning your subjects with light and the use of strobes in water. It also will teach you how to edit your photos on a computer to create the best effect.

    • 4

      Practice your underwater photography as much as possible. The bonus of using memory cards rather than film means that you can point and shoot and not worry about wasting film, because you can always delete bad photos. Take as many photos as possible, practicing the techniques you learned in your courses. This includes honing your diving skills, such as buoyancy, which is crucial to taking good photographs underwater.

    • 5

      Practice your photography on land. Using your camera on land as much as possible allows you to polish your shooting skills: framing your subject, focusing the camera and positioning the subject according to light. The more you practice, the better you will become.

    • 6

      Take advanced underwater photography classes from experts. They will pass on tips to help improve your photography, along with special procedures for taking pictures of certain creatures.

    • 7

      Submit your work to competitions and your portfolio to publications.