Hi everyone, I have just got my DM and have been offered a job at a friends shop. He has said that most of my income is going to come from taking and selling photographs to tourists after their dive. While I have had no experience doing this underwater before I have had a fair amount on dry land. Now I need to grab a camera and a housing before I go, and I am struggling to find one that fits my needs. It has to be able to take video as well as stills (or not if i strap a GoPro to the top) and it needs to be good enough quality to sell the photos/video. They dive off one dive site that is less than 10m so im not sure a strobe/vid light will be necessary but you tell me! My budget an absolute max of £2000 but that is a bit of a stretch. Thanks a bunch
Selling tourist dive photos
- Thread starter Olliely
- Start date
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Mark Derail
Contributor
Yes, I always buy them. 100$ a DVD "Tip Included".
- like that if they say no to the cd - they know you're Expecting A Tip.
I would use two cams - the GoPro HD strapped to a conventional UW cam with a least a strobe. Just download the entire video w/pics in a directory on your desktop, burn from there. If two couples dove with you, you give the same CD to both of them, etc.
IOW keep management simple. A cheap Win7 laptop w/DVD burner is less than £200. You can buy a used camera (say an S95 w/housing) for less than £500 - perhaps even with a strobe included.
Tell them you put "bonus material" on the DVD. Like when you dive alone (not alone, not with customers, on your day off) - you'll be practicing, taking videos & pics. Include a "best of" on the DVD.
The bonus material - name the JPG of the critter the name of the critter, thus "Angel Fish Paradise Reef 2012.jpg" and you can watermark your pics subtly.
Free photo software - GIMP or Paint.Net.
Will be an easier sell if you mention the bonus material "has all the local dive sites" and all the local species identified. Even if the pics are found through Google (just don't remove someone elses' watermark credit)
Always Use A Strobe ! Will give your shots more depth, and besides it looks badass UW. Someone saying no to the 100$ DVD might change their mind because the equipment you use looks badass.
So a video cam strapped to your UW cam - recording start to finish - let your customer edit the video if they wish to. Just dump it to them. Some cameras allow watermarking with date & time directly into the Jpg.
If you shoot RAW - you'll have an editing nightmare - and be unable to give your customers their DVD "within minutes" after their dive.
Don't count on customers coming back later...Cash in on the "spur of the moment" purchase. That's why a laptop, and you can get a 12v car adapter for use on the boat.
FWIW, you may have to give "a cut" to the captain...unless like most boat dive ops in tourist areas - DM's are only paid per tip - no salary.
So if you're not Instructor level - no pay, tips only. If that's the case, don't give a kickback of the DVD to the captain.
With the above - I would gladly pay you 100$. Laptop + GoProHD + red lens + housing + blur fix + Canon S95 w/housing w/strobe (two are better). You should be able to get all that for 1500$ USD - no where near your 2000 pound budget.
Joke - American at a pub in England, wanting to say a lady looks like a million bucks, decides to convert into local currency. - Wow, you look like 2 million pounds !
- like that if they say no to the cd - they know you're Expecting A Tip.
I would use two cams - the GoPro HD strapped to a conventional UW cam with a least a strobe. Just download the entire video w/pics in a directory on your desktop, burn from there. If two couples dove with you, you give the same CD to both of them, etc.
IOW keep management simple. A cheap Win7 laptop w/DVD burner is less than £200. You can buy a used camera (say an S95 w/housing) for less than £500 - perhaps even with a strobe included.
Tell them you put "bonus material" on the DVD. Like when you dive alone (not alone, not with customers, on your day off) - you'll be practicing, taking videos & pics. Include a "best of" on the DVD.
The bonus material - name the JPG of the critter the name of the critter, thus "Angel Fish Paradise Reef 2012.jpg" and you can watermark your pics subtly.
Free photo software - GIMP or Paint.Net.
Will be an easier sell if you mention the bonus material "has all the local dive sites" and all the local species identified. Even if the pics are found through Google (just don't remove someone elses' watermark credit)
Always Use A Strobe ! Will give your shots more depth, and besides it looks badass UW. Someone saying no to the 100$ DVD might change their mind because the equipment you use looks badass.
So a video cam strapped to your UW cam - recording start to finish - let your customer edit the video if they wish to. Just dump it to them. Some cameras allow watermarking with date & time directly into the Jpg.
If you shoot RAW - you'll have an editing nightmare - and be unable to give your customers their DVD "within minutes" after their dive.
Don't count on customers coming back later...Cash in on the "spur of the moment" purchase. That's why a laptop, and you can get a 12v car adapter for use on the boat.
FWIW, you may have to give "a cut" to the captain...unless like most boat dive ops in tourist areas - DM's are only paid per tip - no salary.
So if you're not Instructor level - no pay, tips only. If that's the case, don't give a kickback of the DVD to the captain.
With the above - I would gladly pay you 100$. Laptop + GoProHD + red lens + housing + blur fix + Canon S95 w/housing w/strobe (two are better). You should be able to get all that for 1500$ USD - no where near your 2000 pound budget.
Joke - American at a pub in England, wanting to say a lady looks like a million bucks, decides to convert into local currency. - Wow, you look like 2 million pounds !
Mark Derail
Contributor
Just having a strobe makes a big difference. Try to buy a "kit" used that already has a strobe.
Doesn't need to be big or very powerful - however - no matter the camera quality, it's the strobe that makes a good picture.
Of course for macro this doesn't apply; you're so close to the subject. But to get a nice shot of tourists with a reef background & fish, the better the strobe, the nicer the depth & the colors would be.
Don't be surprised that the strobe costs the same as a camera + housing, or even more.
On ScubaBoard, in the photo sections, look at posts done by other users. They state the equipment that was used. If not, I ask them to!
Should give you a general idea.
If you're going "new" then consider the Micro 4/3 cameras; Olympus has a good line, Panasonic too. Both companies sell their own housings; however you can find Chinese clear plastic knockoffs for cheap, they just have a lower depth threshold.
A 4/3 setup will be more expensive than a Canon S95 + housing, but will be more future-proof. Interchangeable lenses.
What I do NOT recommend is using a single camera for both video & stills; switching between the two UW can be a pain, and as a DM your focus should be your wards - not the camera. So keep it simple.
Most *for sale* on SB are in the US; so shipping will cost you dearly. Try to find locally. A dedicated camera store might not have in stock but can order.
Do your homework, and come back & say to us, "I have narrowed it down to these choices..."
AND
if you SEARCH, you'll find such threads already, quite recent.
Doesn't need to be big or very powerful - however - no matter the camera quality, it's the strobe that makes a good picture.
Of course for macro this doesn't apply; you're so close to the subject. But to get a nice shot of tourists with a reef background & fish, the better the strobe, the nicer the depth & the colors would be.
Don't be surprised that the strobe costs the same as a camera + housing, or even more.
On ScubaBoard, in the photo sections, look at posts done by other users. They state the equipment that was used. If not, I ask them to!
Should give you a general idea.
If you're going "new" then consider the Micro 4/3 cameras; Olympus has a good line, Panasonic too. Both companies sell their own housings; however you can find Chinese clear plastic knockoffs for cheap, they just have a lower depth threshold.
A 4/3 setup will be more expensive than a Canon S95 + housing, but will be more future-proof. Interchangeable lenses.
What I do NOT recommend is using a single camera for both video & stills; switching between the two UW can be a pain, and as a DM your focus should be your wards - not the camera. So keep it simple.
Most *for sale* on SB are in the US; so shipping will cost you dearly. Try to find locally. A dedicated camera store might not have in stock but can order.
Do your homework, and come back & say to us, "I have narrowed it down to these choices..."
AND
if you SEARCH, you'll find such threads already, quite recent. 
Peter_C
Contributor
Ya' know, I am not sure I like the idea of the DM having to source their income directly from customers. Shouldn't they be paid by the shop they work for? I understand a DM works for tips to though.
FWIW I just got an opportunity to watch a DM in Hawaii charging around looking for the "Money Shot", yet not paying attention to his newbie paying customers. It just didn't seem like a healthy situation for the newbie divers. The camera should come second. Please at least keep that in mind while guiding tours.
The bigger the camera housing and strobes are, the more money you can charge for the DVD! It has a WOW factor, and the photos and video therefore must be good.
FWIW I just got an opportunity to watch a DM in Hawaii charging around looking for the "Money Shot", yet not paying attention to his newbie paying customers. It just didn't seem like a healthy situation for the newbie divers. The camera should come second. Please at least keep that in mind while guiding tours.
The bigger the camera housing and strobes are, the more money you can charge for the DVD! It has a WOW factor, and the photos and video therefore must be good.
Agree with Peter_C that the DM's focus should be on the safety of the customers, not on taking pics. That having been said, many years ago my wife and I were in Cozumel and the DM had a camera. Near the end of the dive he had each diver/dive group pose near a particularly nice coral outcropping for a single picture. Afterwards, he offered the picture to us for something like $10 or $15. Not having an UW camera at the time, that seemed like a reasonable price for a picture that would be fun to show our parents/friends. I thought it was a nice touch, and a good way of mixing photos and safety.
Either way, Olliely, as a newer UW photographer myself, I can tell you that taking really good photos underwater, particularly wide angle ones in mediocre viz, is quite difficult. Plan on quite a bit of practice to get shots good enough to sell. For professional results, you'll probably need both a strobe and a wide angle lens, neither of which is cheap.
James
Either way, Olliely, as a newer UW photographer myself, I can tell you that taking really good photos underwater, particularly wide angle ones in mediocre viz, is quite difficult. Plan on quite a bit of practice to get shots good enough to sell. For professional results, you'll probably need both a strobe and a wide angle lens, neither of which is cheap.
James
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