Underwater Photography Course?

Do_Lers

Hi there,
anyone on here ever do an underwater photography course (beginner/1-2 weeks) in either The Philippines or Thailand? I'm hoping to do one some time this year, preferably in one of these 2 places but interested to know about any you've done in S.E Asia?
Thanks a mill!

PCPhoto

I've done one in Kerry - the PADI one is fairly basic (if you know anything about photography)

have just returned from Thailand (about 4 hours ago) ... was on Koh Samui for a week and in other parts for different times..anyway ... as regards UW photography - best advice I can give is learn to dive first - be extremely comfortable with your buoyancy.

depending on what you intend to photograph Thailand has a fair amount of it - I only did 4 dives while there, I was hoping for whale sharks but didn't happen.

the important thing with UW photography is to understand that the deeper you go the less colours you have....some cameras have an underwater function - but that doesn't compensate for lack of light/colour.....an external strobe(flash) will be required if you plan on photographing deeper than 10meters .... a strobe will compensate for the lack of light.

I had brought two housings and cameras with me - a 5D with sea&sea housing and 2 YS-120 strobes - unfortunately I discovered that one of my friends who borrowed it the previous week had not told me he flooded the TTL convertor for the strobes - so I was forced to use my backup - a Canon g10 and Canon underwater housing.

oh ... if you cannot afford an external strobe you can invest in a "wet lens" ... which is a colour correction lens which sits on the outside if your camera housing - its important to get the correct colour correction lens as there is a difference in some underwater areas - green/blue water..... these will not correctly compensate for a lack of external strobe - but will allow you to get some images which can be adjusted using photoshop or similar programmes.

Anyway - while in Thailand I dived with Silent Divers - they have an English, Austrian (boss), French and Dutch (part-time) dive masters , while on the dives I also chatted with divers from Easy Divers who appeared to be all english staff/dive instructors.

Do_Lers

Thanks a million for the advice, have done quite a bit of research since your reply and it seems buoyancy is key.Hope I can manage it!
I hope to posts some of my pics if I do.
Cheers,
D