Here at MarinePix, we've been taking photos under the water since the early advent of digital cameras.
There's nothing like physically doing an activity to build your knowledge and experience... practice makes perfect as they say...
but practicing underwater photography every day is not too practical unless you've retired to a tropical beach somewhere!
Fortunately, there is a lot of transferrable knowledge to be gained from practicing above-water photography
Not only do you increase your familiarity with the controls of your camera, you'll also start to understand how to react to different lighting conditions, how to consider different compositions, what subjects to ignore, and so on.
Our above-water courses and workshops are designed to give you knowledge and practical exercises which will develop and hone your skills so you'll have them at your fingertips when you're under the water on your next dive trip! We're fortunate to have access to a 4m deep pool at our local dive centre where we also run underwater photography courses. These courses can be tailor made to your requirements or you can join one of our scheduled courses and learn alongside others. The dive centre offers kit hire and has a classroom where we can talk theory beforehand or discuss the details of post-processing your images afterwards.
So why wait until your next dive trip to learn new or refresh existing skills! Join us for a workshop and you'll be an expert before you dive in!
We really enjoy helping other people to achieve their photographic goals and our first-principles course is designed to help those who are just starting out
We offer one-to-one and two-to-one courses in underwater photography, landscape photography (including filters and long-exposure), astro photography and post-processing techniques using Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop software.
First Principles
Covers shutter speeds, apertures and ISO settings as well as a discussion about how to create a correctly exposed image. This course lasts between 2 and 3 hours and is run in a classroom environment. Depending on time we can also cover file formats (RAW, JPG, etc) and White Balancing
Guided Practice
After First Principles, it's time to put knowledge into practice. We'll meet you for an outdoor photoshoot in the South-Downs area and you can practice using the light and the scenery to create some beautiful photos. We will provide guidance, encouragement, inspiration and tips on composition too as well as reminders of the basic principles. This is normally a morning course (and may call for an early start!). Our intention is to make use of the early morning light but also give you the chance to look at your images on the computer the same day.
Post Processing
We'll show you the basic principles of post-processing in order to get the most from your images. We'll help you understand WHY post processing is necessary and HOW it can be done simply and quickly. Although we will use Adobe's "Lightroom" to show you the techniques, the principles are very easily transferred. This course will take 2-3 hours and we'd hope to work with some of the images that you have taken.
Underwater Photography
If you have a waterproof housing for your camera, we can introduce you to the principles of taking photos underwater. We'll use a local, heated swimming pool and using a series of photo-worthy objects we'll explain the nuances of underwater photography. We'll review First Principles and talk about getting the exposure of your image correct. We'll also cover some basic rules of underwater photography, coping with low visibility water, avoiding "everything looks blue" situations. Photographing animals . The course is 3 hours long with up to 2 hours in the pool. You'll get more from this course if you're a scuba diver but it's not a requirement.