Underwater Digital Photography Class

Michael at the Seattle Underwater Sports store was nice enough to gather a few students for an Underwater Digital Photography Course on July 14th and 15th. We'll spend a little time in the pool Saturday farting around with gear, making sure stuff doesn't flood, and how to keep it all dry. Then on Sunday the 15th it's a two-tank dive with Rick on Bandito Charters to go take photos. The cost will be $150 plus $80 for the dive charter. There's two spots still open if you're interested. I think this is one of the most under-rated classes for divers. I can't tell you how many times I've seen divers on vacation trying to learn how their cameras work; let alone how they should work underwater. Essentially there are 3 areas where most underwater photographers go wrong:

1. Composition: How many times can you take a shot looking down at the bottom, seeing a fish's head and expect that to be interesting? Usually you see a mass of coral or sand with very little pop.
2. Lighting: We loose all reds in as little as 10 feet, without a little help with a strobe or filter the subject matter gets all green or blue and becomes uninteresting. Or we use the internal flash of our camera and all of a sudden there appears an underwater snow storm.
3. White Balance: Now this is a real technical term for camera geeks; but it's a way that even the lay photographer can adjust for underwater light and get decent shots without learning a ton of Photoshop techniques.

I'll spend some time in a future blog on this subject suffice to say that with a little practice you can have a positive effect on all of your underwater shots.