The course
1 day · 2 coached dives · camera included
PADI Digital Underwater Photography Specialty in Hurghada · One day · €250
Bring home pictures that look like what you actually saw. Consequently the course runs over one day, with two coached dives on Red Sea reefs and a camera included, so you learn composition, color and lighting on real subjects rather than in a classroom.
1 day · 2 coached dives · camera included
€250 per person · boat, lunch and transfers included
Junior Open Water Divers and up · ages 10 and up
The PADI Digital Underwater Photography course in Hurghada costs €250 per person and takes one day. Specifically, the package covers two supervised photography dives, use of a digital camera and housing, PADI materials and certification, standard scuba equipment, a full-day boat trip, lunch and drinks, marine park fees, hotel transfer within central Hurghada and a post-dive image review. Furthermore, the minimum age is ten with Junior Open Water Diver or higher, and you need no photography experience at all.
In other words, the PADI Digital Underwater Photographer specialty teaches a certified diver to prepare a camera and housing, hold position without touching anything, recover the color that water absorbs, and review each frame before shooting the next. Therefore it follows the standards published by PADI. Red Sea Diving is a PADI dive operator based in Hurghada, Egypt, and has run diving and liveaboard trips on the Red Sea since 2000.
| Course | PADI Digital Underwater Photographer, a recreational specialty course |
|---|---|
| Price | €250 per person |
| Duration | 1 day |
| Dives | 2 supervised photography dives |
| Equipment | A digital underwater camera and housing are included, subject to availability |
| Minimum age | 10 years |
| Prerequisite | PADI Junior Open Water Diver or higher, or an accepted equivalent, plus medical fitness for scuba diving and comfortable basic buoyancy |
| Experience needed | None, since the course suits action cameras, compacts and full systems equally |
| Method taught | The PADI SEA loop: Shoot, Examine, Adjust |
| Not covered | Professional strobe systems, advanced lenses, detailed editing workshops and depths beyond your existing certification |
| Location | Boat and reef sites around Hurghada, Egypt |
| Availability | Year-round, although camera numbers are limited, so reserve ahead |
| Included | PADI instructor, two coached dives, camera and housing, PADI materials and specialty certification, standard scuba equipment, 12 liter cylinders and weights, full-day boat trip, lunch and drinks, marine park fee, hotel transfer within central Hurghada, post-dive image review |
| Not included | Advanced camera systems, external strobes, private instructor, nitrox cylinders, 15 liter cylinders, personal memory card, editing session, transfers from El Gouna, Makadi Bay, Sahl Hasheesh, Soma Bay or Safaga, accommodation and flights |
| Operator | Red Sea Diving, a PADI dive operator based in Hurghada, Egypt, since 2000 |
Taking a camera below the surface is the easy part. However, water absorbs warm color within the first few meters, so reds and oranges vanish and everything turns blue. Meanwhile movement blurs the shot, and suspended particles bounce your light straight back into the lens as backscatter.
Above all, unless your buoyancy is genuinely good you either damage the reef or spend the dive fighting to hold position instead of framing.
Consequently the course fixes those problems in order: choosing a suitable camera, preparing and checking the housing, preventing leaks and fogging, using the basic controls, approaching marine life responsibly, composing properly, working with natural light, correcting color loss, reducing backscatter, reviewing your own images and protecting coral while you work.
In short, SEA is a three-step loop you run on every frame rather than a theory you read once.
First, take the photograph with the settings, distance and composition you have chosen.
Then review it on the screen and check focus, lighting, color, framing and exposure honestly.
Finally, change your position, your settings, your lighting or your composition, and shoot again.
It sounds obvious written down. In practice, however, most divers shoot fifty frames and examine none of them, which is exactly why their pictures never improve. Working the loop deliberately underwater changes results within a single dive.
Importantly, the feedback comes between the two dives rather than at the end, so you can act on it while you are still in the water.
To begin with, your instructor covers camera systems, housing preparation, O-ring inspection and care, leak prevention, basic exposure and focus settings, natural versus artificial light, attaching the camera safely and shooting etiquette.
Next, camera handling, holding neutral buoyancy while shooting, working with natural light, getting to the correct distance from your subject, basic composition and running the SEA loop.
Afterwards your instructor goes through selected frames with you and explains exactly what to change: focus, framing, exposure, color, camera angle, distance and background choice.
Subsequently you apply the feedback and push further: close-up work, reef scenes, moving subjects, manual white balance, artificial lighting and stronger composition. Ultimately you pick your best frames together.
Confirm the camera model and the exact package with us before booking, because camera availability is limited and worth reserving early.
A suitable digital underwater camera is included in the €250 package, subject to availability confirmed at booking. However, damage caused by misuse, by opening the housing incorrectly or by ignoring the instructor’s directions may not be covered, so treat the housing with the respect it deserves. We transfer your photographs to you after the course wherever the equipment allows.
Equally, you are welcome to use your own camera or action camera provided it is rated for the planned depth, and many divers get more from the course that way. Therefore send us the camera brand and model, the housing model, its maximum depth, any lenses you have, your lighting setup, and the specific problems you want to solve. Your instructor then prepares advice around your actual kit rather than a generic system.
Notably, neither of the two things that matter most is a camera setting.
Above all, a photographer has to hold position without touching anything. Poor control damages coral, frightens the subject, stirs sand into your own frame, creates backscatter, blurs the shot and irritates everybody else on the dive. Therefore, if your control needs work, Peak Performance Buoyancy before this course is time extremely well spent.
Meanwhile, water eats red and orange first, which is why unedited images look blue. You get the color back through correct distance to the subject, manual white balance, filters, video lights, strobes, suitable settings and careful processing afterwards. Which method wins depends on depth, visibility, available light and your camera.
No photograph is worth more than the reef or the animal in it. Therefore never stand on coral, never chase marine life, and never touch or reposition an animal for a better angle. Similarly, keep your equipment clipped and controlled, avoid blocking other divers, keep watching your depth and gas, stay near your buddy, follow the guide, and leave the site exactly as you found it.
Patience produces better pictures than pursuit does anyway. Indeed, the animals that stay put are the ones that let you compose properly.
Hurghada offers colorful coral gardens, dense reef fish, moray eels, blue-spotted stingrays, turtles, macro subjects for anyone who enjoys the small stuff, several Red Sea wrecks and wide underwater landscapes with the visibility to shoot them. Meanwhile dolphins turn up naturally on some sites and never on demand.
Wildlife and visibility depend on natural conditions and cannot be guaranteed on any given day. What we can promise instead is a site chosen with photography in mind rather than a general reef tour.
Furthermore, Enriched Air Nitrox pairs well with a camera, since longer no-decompression limits on repetitive dives mean more time to work a subject properly. It never replaces gas monitoring, depth control or buddy awareness.
We can arrange a separate photography workshop for snorkelers, although it does not include scuba dives and the certification options need confirming before booking.
Junior divers keep the depth and supervision limits of their existing certification. Meanwhile our procedures are set out on the diving safety page.
Gallery
Why us
Above all, full emergency equipment, a documented action plan and a briefing before every dive.
Indeed, more than two decades of diving and liveaboard operations out of Hurghada, on every Egyptian route.
Furthermore, you practice with a suitable camera and housing without buying anything first.
Moreover, you apply every technique on real Red Sea dives from our own boats, with feedback between them rather than at the end.
Because the feedback is based on the frames you actually took, it beats a slideshow of somebody else’s portfolio.
In addition, buoyancy, marine life respect and environmental protection run through the whole course.
Questions
The complete course costs €250 per person, including two dives, camera use, standard equipment, PADI materials and certification.
One full day, including two photography dives and the image reviews between and after them.
No. The course suits beginners using action cameras, compact cameras or more advanced systems.
The course includes image review and basic improvement advice. However, we can arrange a detailed editing workshop separately.
Yes. A suitable digital underwater camera is included, subject to availability and advance confirmation.
Yes. Send us the camera and housing details before the course so your instructor can prepare advice around your own system.
The package covers basic camera equipment. Professional strobes, advanced lenses or lighting systems may carry an additional charge.
Yes. The complete package covers standard scuba equipment, a 12 liter cylinder and weights.
Yes. We can normally transfer your photographs after the course, depending on the camera and storage system you use.
PADI Junior Open Water Diver, Open Water Diver or an accepted equivalent for the scuba version of the course.
Ten years, for qualified Junior Open Water Divers.
We can arrange a separate underwater photography workshop for snorkelers. The activities and certification options need confirming before booking.
Dolphins are encountered naturally in the Red Sea, although sightings cannot be guaranteed and animals must never be chased or disturbed.
It does not normally expire. Regular practice is the only real way to keep improving.
Photography rewards better diving more than better gear. Specifically, Enriched Air Nitrox buys you time on the subject, while Peak Performance Buoyancy fixes the one thing that ruins most frames.
From there, Deep Diver opens the deeper walls, Wreck Diver gives you the wrecks, and Night Diver is where the color comes back under your own light. Meanwhile our daily diving trips are the cheapest practice you will ever get.
Send us your certification level, your preferred date, your hotel and your camera details if you want to use your own system. Subsequently we confirm availability and the camera within twenty-four hours. For liveaboard diving in Egypt see also redsealiveaboard.net, and read the current guidance from Divers Alert Network.
Prefer to talk? Message us on WhatsApp or write to info@redsea-diving.com.
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This page was last reviewed by the Red Sea Diving instructor team in September 2026.
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