Africa Media has developed a training syllabus consisting of direct tutorship, practical underwater photographic expeditions, practical cultural photographic expeditions, free diving training, and theoretical plus practical tuition for digital workflow and post-processing of your photographs and video.
Syllabus
Underwater expeditions
Month-long students will partake in 18 underwater SCUBA expeditions. In addition, there will be two sessions of pool-based SCUBA making up 20 SCUBA sessions in total. One pool session will focus on techniques to photograph and to work with human models underwater and the other on how best to capture macro life in water. The 18 open water SCUBA expeditions will concentrate on photographing and/or filming local marine wildlife- both wide-angle and macro subjects.
On occasions, it is necessary for participants to also do rock-pool work, dependent on their abilities and experience and the course director reserves all rights to convert one or, very occasionally, two open water SCUBA dives to SCUBA in shallower ocean pools, for the safety of participants and for learning purposes.
Cultural expeditions
Students will partake in 2 wildlife or cultural expeditions and these are generally reserved for days that are not diveable due to weather or other restrictions.
Free-diving Training
Students will partake in three underwater free-diving expeditions. One of these will be pool based and focus on techniques to successfully breath-hold underwater. The two open water expeditions will concentrate on locating and photographing local marine wildlife (such as whale sharks or humpback whales and also reef vistas or landscapes which have recently gained in popularity in art sales) whilst on snorkeling gear and one will concentrate on working with models underwater ( this last one will either be pool based or possibly in the shallow surf or rock pools).
lectures and workshops
- Extensive, intense and detailed training on UW cameras and digital underwater photography,
- The successful shooting of models underwater,
- The progression from an enthusiastic amateur to a professional underwater photographer with a positive cash-flow
- Night time photography on land incl. shooting star trails and/or the moon (if conditions permit we will certainly do night dives in Moz but not in Scottburgh)
- Shooting wide angle
- Stock Photography
- Macro underwater work
- Super-Macro underwater work
- Ambient light
- Setting up your housing and camera and maintenance
- Strobe use and creative UW lighting effects
- Shooting a video, editing with adobe premiere and adding music to films
- Software workshops on Lightroom and Premiere – specifically geared to Underwater Photographers
- Creative ideas for UW specialists
- How to correctly keyword your images for sale