Photography workshop at Irena Stangierska's

All divers have one thing in common – a love of the beauty they find underwater. It is not important whether we are enchanted by colourful reefs, wrecks scattered on the seabed, lush and varied littoral in the lakes, harsh and majestic caves or a bit of everything. Underwater we find something that delights us and draws us back like a magnet. That’s why we decide to take the plunge again and again and look forward with longing to the next interesting places.

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Over time we develop our diving skills, complete and replace equipment to feel more comfortable, more safe, so that we can conduct more and more demanding dives. Many of us also reach for the camera, reaching the stage when they want to bring this unidentified “something” from the depths to the surface. Some document their journeys, others hunt for specific shots, and still others conduct the so-called bloodless hunting for local fauna.

Unfortunately, most of the effects are not satisfactory. The main reasons are the lack of skills and knowledge about underwater photography, its techniques and subsequent digital processing. Many of us, looking at our own photos, do not even realise how much better they would look if we had basic knowledge and skills in operating graphic programs. We can try to learn all of this ourselves, or we can enlist the help of professionals…

Workshops run by experienced professionals are always such an opportunity. Personally, I took part in such courses twice and I know how many important things I didn’t pay attention to, how many I never heard about and how many I thought: it’s impossible, my equipment is too weak etc. Well, it is possible, almost everything is possible and bad photos are usually not the fault of the camera/lens/light but our shortcomings.

That is why I recommend the workshops organised by Irena Stangierska in Egypt to all those who would like to learn how to take photos underwater and process them on the computer. Together with her photographic mentor Piotr Stós, they will teach you how to create wonderful photographs, full of colour and detail, which will be unique souvenirs from your future expeditions.

Asking Irena what prompted her to organise an expedition combined with a workshop, I learned the following:

“This is the first workshop I am organising. Similar thoughts have popped into my head from time to time, but like everything, they needed to mature before they could be taken on. I decided to take on this challenge for several reasons. Firstly, there is a lack of good workshops in Poland on computer processing of photos. I would also like to establish more contact with the diving community involved in photography. However, common exchange of experience is always an important aspect of further development. I believe that my knowledge and experience can help others, but I also realize that I can learn a lot during such workshops. So it’s looking to be another interesting adventure!”

Although the list for the workshop is almost closed, I encourage anyone interested to contact Irene at her email address: irena.stangierska@gmail.com. She has promised to keep a few places free especially for our readers! I’m also sure that this is only the first of many similar training sessions, so if you can’t go this time, definitely get the information about the possible next edition!

Plan of photographic workshops:

Day 1 – arrival, organizational meeting
Day 2 – preparation and configuration of photographic equipment
– Dives 1 and 2, lecture: “Choice of subject, composition and selection” and “Model in underwater photography“
– tasks for the next diving day
Day 3 – dives 1,2,3
– lecture: “Colour and exposure in underwater photography”,
– preparation for night diving, night diving, selection and analysis of
– selection and analysis of photographs taken, tasks for the next diving day
Day 4 – photographic dives 1,2,3,(4)
– lecture: “Underwater photo processing in a graphics programme part 1″, selection and processing of selected photos
– selection and processing of selected photos, tasksfor the next diving day
Day 5 – workshop dives 1,2,3,(4)
– lecture: “Underwater photo processing in a graphics programme part 2″, individual
– selection and processing of selected photos, tasks for the next diving day.
Day 6 – photographic dives 1,2,
– final selection and presentation of the material obtained during the workshop

The workshop is led by: Irena Stangierska and Piotr Stós
Equipment requirements: camera with underwater housing + external flash.