PADI Digital Underwater Photographer Instructor

The Digital Underwater Photographer Instructor course qualifies PADI professionals to teach the Digital Underwater Photographer Specialty, one of the most consistently popular specialties among recreational divers. Underwater photography draws people in for good reason, and this course prepares you to guide students through it properly, from their first attempts at a level shot to genuinely thoughtful composition.

The course focuses on how to teach rather than simply how to shoot. You will work through how to plan and run the specialty course itself, structuring sessions around composition, lighting and camera settings in a way that makes sense underwater, where conditions change constantly and students are managing buoyancy at the same time as a camera. Guiding students through reviewing and improving their own images is covered too, since that feedback loop is where real progress happens.

Because this is a Specialty Instructor course, it also covers the standards and certification requirements you will need to run the programme to PADI's expectations, along with practical safety considerations specific to photography-focused dives, where divers can become absorbed in a shot and lose track of depth, air or their group.

For instructors at Diving Academy, this is an appealing specialty to add given how much interest divers already show in underwater photography. Like other Specialty Instructor ratings, it also counts toward Master Scuba Diver Trainer status.