SSI Digital Underwater Photography Course
Every diver sees the reef. Very few know how to bring it home.
You surface with a head full of color and look down to find your photos murky, blue-green, and blurry. Photo & Video closes that gap, taught privately and built entirely around your own camera and housing.
Availability: Contact us for booking information
The Reef Was Right in Front of You. The Camera Was in Your Hand. Something Is Missing in Between.
You surface from a dive with a head full of color: a frogfish you almost missed, a sea turtle that held still for three seconds, light filtering through the water column in a way you have never seen before. Then you look at your photos and none of it is there. Murky. Blue-green. Dark. Blurry. The reef was right in front of you. The camera was in your hand. Something is missing in between.
SSI Photo & Video closes that gap: how water affects light, how to work your specific camera underwater, and how to actually capture what you are seeing. Private course, built around your own camera and housing, including a classroom session on digital photography fundamentals plus practical application dives. $249 per diver (group) or $349 (private). Prerequisites: Open Water Diver, minimum age 10.
Your Photos Are Not Bad Because of Your Camera. They Are Missing a Specific Skill Set.
If your underwater photos consistently come out blue, blurry, or flat compared to what you actually saw, that is not a camera problem. Water changes light in specific, learnable ways, and underwater photography requires technique most divers never get exposed to.
This is exactly what continuing education is for. Not to prove you are advanced. To close the specific, learnable gap between what you see and what your camera captures.
Photo & Video Is for the Diver Who Wants to Actually Bring the Dive Home
This is usually the right next step if any of these sound familiar.
Your underwater photos never match what you actually saw
Learn exactly why water washes out color and contrast, and the specific techniques that fix it.
You just bought an underwater camera or housing
Private instruction built around your specific equipment means you learn your actual gear, not a generic system.
You struggle to hold still enough to get the shot
Photo & Video and Perfect Buoyancy are the two most commonly paired specialties, since stability is foundational to good shots.
You have a trip coming up and want better results than last time
Build real technique before your next trip instead of hoping for better luck with the same approach.
Choose Your Optimize-Lane Course
You want to capture what you're actually seeing
Best for divers who want real technique with their own camera and housing.
You want the stability that makes photography possible
Best paired with Photo & Video, since stability is the foundation every good shot depends on.
You want better subjects and context for your shots
Understanding what you are looking at and where to find it makes you a more effective photographer.
Before and After
Most divers can describe exactly what changes after this course. Here is what that looks like in practice.
| Before | After |
| Washed-out color and flat, blue-tinted photos | Vivid, accurate color using technique suited to depth |
| Blurry shots from camera shake or poor buoyancy | Stable, sharp images |
| No idea how your housing's controls actually work | Full command of your specific camera and housing |
| Guessing at settings underwater | Deliberate, repeatable settings for the conditions |
What You’ll Train
A private course built entirely around your own equipment and images.
Cover the physics of underwater photography: reflection, diffusion, refraction, and color loss at depth, the foundation for every technique that follows.
Hands-on instruction specific to your actual equipment, covering settings, controls, and how to use them effectively underwater.
Apply composition and technique in real conditions, with your instructor coaching you through your own camera.
Review and edit your actual photos from the application dives, building real, applicable skill instead of generic examples.
Course at a Glance
| Price | $249 per diver (group) · $349 per diver (private) |
| Format | Classroom session plus practical application dives plus editing classroom |
| Personalization | Built entirely around your own camera and housing |
| Prerequisites | Open Water Diver (any agency) · minimum age 10 · you must own or have access to an underwater camera and housing |
| Certification awarded | SSI Photo & Video · lifetime certification, recognized worldwide |
Ready to bring the dive home?
SSI Photo & Video · Austin, TX
Private course built entirely around your own camera and housing. Call (512) 451-3425.
Signup now!!Photo & Video Sits in the Optimize Pathway
Optimize is about tools and efficiency. Photo & Video is about getting more out of your dives through a specific, valuable skill: actually capturing what you see.
Control / Comfort
Perfect Buoyancy in particular pairs directly with this course, since stability is foundational to good photography.
Optimize
Nitrox, computers, equipment, and other tools that make diving more efficient and rewarding.
Explore & Enrichment
Marine ecology and species identification help you find and understand better photo subjects.
We Build Divers We Would Trust With Our Own Families.
The best divers don’t chase certifications. They build capabilities. Photo & Video is a clear example of capability over certification: it is the difference between a card and actually being able to share what you saw with people who were not there.
This course runs privately and uses your actual images throughout, not a generic curriculum that ignores your specific setup. Tom’s has been Austin’s only SSI Dive Center since 1982. We were teaching scuba in Austin before any of the other Austin dive shops opened. Over 18,000 certified divers and over 400 five-star Google reviews.
Built Around Your Specific Gear
Every session, including the editing classroom, uses your actual camera and your actual images.
Open Longer Than Any Other Austin Dive Shop Still in Business
Four decades of helping Austin divers improve their underwater photography and videography.
Strongest When Combined With Perfect Buoyancy
Stability is the foundation of good underwater photography. These two specialties are commonly taken together.
One of Austin’s Largest Instructor Teams
Private scheduling built entirely around your availability.
We follow DAN dive safety protocols.
Tom’s follows Divers Alert Network (DAN) safety standards and recommends DAN dive accident insurance for every certified diver. Safety is not a checkbox on our website. It is the foundation of how Tom’s has operated since 1982.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. This course requires you to have an underwater camera and housing, since the entire curriculum is built around your specific equipment.
Call (512) 451-3425 to discuss your specific equipment. The course can often be adapted, though dedicated camera systems generally provide more learning opportunity.
It is not required, but strongly recommended. Buoyancy stability is foundational to good photography, and many students find combining the two specialties most effective.
Both. The course covers digital photography and videography fundamentals, including how water affects each differently.
Yes. All students complete an SSI Medical Statement before any in-water activity.