Work as an underwater photographer

You get up in the morning, grab the backpack where you keep your photographic equipment and head to the port. All the instructors are on the dock preparing the diving equipment on the boat for when the clients arrive. You have a coffee and go to your reserved space on the ship to assemble your photographic equipment.

Customers start arriving at the port. There is a bit of everything, families who want to snorkel, people who will do their first baptism, diving courses and certified divers.

Minutes later, the Boat Leader responsible for the boat makes the general briefing and introduces the instructors in charge of the respective groups. Finally, remind everyone present that the ship has a professional photographer to immortalize your experience under the sea. Say your name and raise your camera smiling at the staff.

Today is a good day, there are more than 30 divers on board and with a bit of luck you will earn a hundred and some euros doing what you like the most.

Surely on some occasion you have wondered if it is feasible to work as a professional underwater photographer. Is it difficult to find work, what is the salary, what kind of photographs sell best, what equipment do you need?

These are some of the questions that may come to you when you consider making your hobby a profession.

In this article we will clarify the possible doubts to shed some light on this so unknown trade.
What is the underwater photographer job?
The work that a professional underwater photographer develops can be different depending on the sector.

In the recreational diving industry, this figure is in charge of taking portraits of divers while enjoying their diving vacation.

There are also instructors or dive guides who earn a bonus from photos while acting as guides. Unlike the exclusive professional photographer these are more limited, since by standards they cannot use the camera while they are training divers and they can only take photos while they are guiding.

If you are starting to take your first photos, you can go through the beginner's guide to underwater photography .

Outside of recreational diving there are other sectors where you can work as an underwater photographer. For example as a freelance photographer for magazines. In scientific campaigns or for NGOs where the projects they carry out have to be documented with images. Or teaching photography courses.

In this post we will focus on the underwater photographer and his work in the recreational diving industry.

How to find a job as an underwater photographer
In Spain the figure of the professional underwater photographer is not as widespread as in other diving destinations . You can offer yourself to local dive centers and sell your photos for a commission to the center. You can also teach underwater photography courses.

Outside of Spain the matter is easier, you just have to get in touch with the companies. Whether they are companies that offer lives on board or with dive centers that make daily departures.

You will need a portfolio to show your work as an underwater photographer to companies as a resume . In addition to the portfolio, we show our blog and it gives us very good results.

work as a photographer underwater school fish
If you manage to introduce the diver along with a school of fish, you will have many numbers to sell the photo. Photo of Viajarbuceando. Sony RX100V
Where to look for work as an underwater photographer
The world is very big and there are many dive destinations that contemplate this figure. Lives on board, dive centers ... search and search. In the main dive destinations it is common for underwater photographers to work.

Some of the destinations where you can find work as an underwater photographer for example, are Thailand, Mexico, Honduras, Australia, the Red Sea, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Qualifications required to work as an underwater photographer
With a diving qualification it is enough, you do not need to be a Divemaster or a Diving Instructor . Although logically if you are an Instructor, companies will take it into account since you can be more versatile. And depending on the company, it can be a determining factor in getting the job.

Equipment needed to work as an underwater photographer
If you are a dive guide who gets a bonus on the camera, you can't dive with bulky gear either. Working as guides, we used a compact with a flash mounted on a short arm.

But if you dedicate yourself exclusively to working with the camera you will need a good team .

You will need a camera with decent quality, be it an advanced compact, mirrorless or SLR. Yes, you don't need an expensive SLR to be able to work on a boat taking photos of clients and students. A compact with a good sensor and image quality, it takes photos that can be difficult to differentiate from a SLR unless you have a very trained eye.

A wide angle is going to make your life much easier and for us it is essential. You can make portraits of families, groups of friends and include divers in beautiful underwater landscapes.

And of course, we recommend two flashes for their coverage, especially for the wide angle. Also if one breaks down and you are somewhere remote you can continue working.

The photos that customers demand the most are portraits where they are recognized, but sometimes they also buy photos of animals. Therefore a macro lens together with the angle lens will come in handy to be able to offer different photographs.

You will need a laptop to be able to edit and show the photos at the moment. And some editing program like Lightroom or Photoshop in which you can work quickly and easily with the photos.

work of underwater photographer wall
In portraits, it is important that the diver's face is recognized. Photo of Viajarbuceando. Sony RX100V
10 tips for working as an underwater photographer
1. Identify potential customers
The most potential clients are those who are starting or having their first underwater experience such as DSD (diving baptisms) and Open Water Courses. They are fascinated by what they see and it is the perfect opportunity to immortalize their first time underwater and take a photo to remember.

Other clients that also work very well and can get very funny photos are the snorkeling groups. Think that many of them are the first time that they wear fins, mask and snorkel. They also tend to do it as a family, children interact very well in front of the camera and are very photogenic.

2. Take a variety of photo series
Offer a varied assortment of photos to your clients . Full-length photos, half-length portraits, close-ups of the face.

And incorporate other elements into the composition. Landscapes where they are recognized by diving, swimming near an animal, wall or coral, equipping themselves on the boat, etc.

3. Manage the volume of photos you take
Don't take crazy photos, few and good. Daily it is possible that you take more than 300 affordable boudoir photography. Try to make sure that each photo you take is correct. Check them on the LCD screen after each shot and delete the ones that are not valid.

This will help you to be much more efficient in taking pictures and you will improve your photographic level very quickly.

The normal thing is that you have very little time from when the clients finish the dive until the moment of the sale . Sometimes you only have the time to get to port with the boat, other times the time between the clients changing and disassembling the equipment at the dive center ... Be that as it may, in that period of time you have to select the photos, edit them and the most important thing: sell them. If you have a lot of photos, you won't have time. 10-15 photos per client is optimal. So do the math.

What you have to aim for is to get the best photos from the camera. Thus, you will not waste time discarding photos or need to edit them. Focus on the sale .

work as an underwater photographer Efra
Photo of แว กอ เซ ม แวด อ แม, with Efra taking photos of clients as they prepare for the dive.
4. The sale is the most important
Manage your time well, so that you have time to make the sale. If you have 20 or 30 clients on board, time is of the essence. What cannot happen is that you waste time in the processing. Or that you take more photos than usual and then you don't have time to sell them. The sale is done hot and it is very important that shortly after the last dive you start selling the photos.

If after a day's work, the boat docks at the dock and there are still clients to whom you have not shown the photos, it will be very difficult to sell them. In this case, you will have wasted your time taking photos and processing them.

5. Diving equipment
Use good hard fins. Think that in each dive you will have to photograph between 20 or 30 divers. You will have to go looking for the groups underwater and depending on the destination, sometimes you will have to deal with currents.

Unlike the guides who quietly dive with their group, the photographer has to collect portraits of all the divers and search for them during the dives. Sometimes the dive guides will choose different itineraries within the same dive. You will have divers at different depths and snorkels on the surface.

Get ready to flap beautifully, good fins will be very useful.

Try to have all the possible spare parts, especially when you are in remote destinations. Think that if you break an O-ring of the flash or the housing, it will be very difficult to get a replacement. The same can happen to you with a battery charger, a computer cable, the optical fiber of the flash, etc. Stock up on torics, batteries, memory cards and everything else that can be replaced before starting at the destination.

Get a good padded backpack for your photographic equipment . The equipment may have to be transported daily and many of the components are very delicate. A good backpack with a compartment for the computer, the lenses, the flashes, the case, cables, batteries ... is essential.

work as an underwater photographer include coral
Adding elements in the composition such as corals will beautify the shots. Photo of Viajarbuceando. Sony RX100V
6. Make a catalog of fish in the area
Get a selection of photographs of animals and landscapes in the area. As we have already said, the portraits of divers are the most demanded photos and for which they are willing to pay. But if you have a fauna catalog, you can offer it as a complement. You will always have time to photograph an animal during the dives and enlarge or improve the catalog.

Take advantage of the star animals to photograph them together with the divers. In all destinations there are star animals, those for which people pay to go diving there. A client near a manta ray, a leopard shark, a turtle and even if you hurry me some clown fish is a sold photo.

7. Don't harass customers with photos
Many clients don't like having a photographer flash them continuously. Dose the sessions with the dives, if you do 3 dives a day you can take between 3 and 4 photos per dive.

Over time you will develop a sixth sense and you will know how to recognize who more or less lends itself to the camera. You can always ask them before shooting if they are uncomfortable with being photographed.

8. Collaborate with the Divemasters and Instructors
It is very important that when you portray the divers you do not obstruct the work carried out by the instructors. It may be the case that in a baptism or a course the clients are not comfortable in the water. In this case, do not pester them, wait for the next dive that they are calmer.

The same happens when they are doing the exercises, if you take photos of them at that time you will be distracting their attention and hinder the work of the instructor.

work as a diver underwater photographer
Interact with the divers, sometimes a simple OK improves the photo. In some cases, the more experienced even remove the regulator. Photo of Viajarbuceando. Sony RX100V
9. Take photos of the Instructors and Divemaster
This will help you remember which group each diver belongs to, especially when you have a lot of clients.

In addition, the instructors will thank you and collaborate in the sessions to help you get good photos.

You can also use their photos for your photography portfolio if they give you their permission. The photos that accompany this article belong to Instructors and Divemasters.

10. Safety first
Be wise, you will always dive alone . Be very aware of the risks and dive conservatively. Remember: the first is your safety, the second is to maintain the integrity of your photographic equipment and the third is to take the photos.

Always dive with a buoy. Although the vast majority of times there are divers around you, there will be many occasions when you will find yourself completely alone. For example when you are looking for a group and you have no idea where it is. In this case, when you run out of air you will have to emerge and you will have to signal your position.

Enjoy and have fun. Although the vast majority of photos will be of divers, you will always have time to portray animals and landscapes.

work as a photographer underwater animal jellyfish
Jellyfish are an easy complement to incorporate into the composition since their movement is very slow. Photo of Viajarbuceando. Sony RX100V
How much do you earn from working as an underwater photographer?
It all depends on the dealings with the company and the quality of the tourism. It is not the same to sell photos to a backpacker who goes with the right thing, than to a wealthy family that is taking the holidays of the year.

To give you some examples, we in Mexico charged $ 50 for a pack of photos and 70% was for the company. In Thailand we had different photo packs that ranged from $ 30 to $ 80. Depending on the company, 60% or 70% went to us. In Spain we have sold videos, it is an alternative to photos, at € 60 per video. And photos at € 5 per photo.

In the end, you can get an average salary of between 1200 - 1500 euros depending on the destination and the company. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

It may seem like a good salary but remember that the photographic equipment is put by you and it and you are going to subject it to brutal wear and tear. Your camera's shutter is limited and flashes will sooner or later start to fail. Therefore, it is important to save part of the salary for these tasks.

work as a photographer underwater star animal
Take advantage of experienced freedivers to get photos like this one. Photo of Viajarbuceando. Sony RX100V
We hope that the article helps you clear up any doubts about this world. Working as a professional photographer is not impossible. We are dedicated to this and the truth is that we love it and we are very grateful.

Whenever we can, we prefer to work as photographers rather than as instructors. In recent years, whenever we have been able is what we have done.

Wanting is power and if you have really considered working as an underwater photographer, our advice is to jump into the pool and try.