Descend into the blue and reveal the wonders below. Welcome to Deartline’s dedicated space for underwater photography contests, awards, and challenges. This is the ultimate resource for photographers who brave the depths to capture the breathtaking beauty, alien landscapes, and vibrant life hidden beneath the waves. We gather opportunities that celebrate the unique skills, specialized equipment, and artistic vision required to create stunning images from the world’s oceans, seas, lakes, and rivers. Explore calls for entry, find deadlines, and connect with prestigious underwater photo competitions and engaging dive photo challenges designed to showcase your subaquatic artistry.
Next underwater photo contest
reFocus Awards World Photo Annual 2025
List of underwater photography competitions
Discover your next opportunity to make a splash in the photographic world! Our regularly updated calendar lists dedicated underwater photography contests, awards, and challenges from across the globe, alongside relevant categories in broader competitions. Organized by deadline, you’ll find calls for everything from vibrant coral reef scenes and majestic marine wildlife encounters to intricate underwater macro subjects, mysterious wreck dives, and even freshwater explorations. This list features opportunities for all levels, from passionate hobbyists to seasoned professional underwater photographers.
Know of an underwater photography contest or dive photo award not featured here? Send it to us.
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December 2025
What is Underwater Photography? Exploring the Submerged Realm
Venturing beneath the surface with a camera opens up an alien yet breathtakingly beautiful world. “Underwater photography” is precisely that: the art and science of capturing images while fully or partially submerged in water, whether in the vast oceans and seas, the mysterious depths of lakes and rivers, or even controlled environments like pools for specific creative projects. This demanding yet rewarding genre inherently links photographic skill with proficiency in aquatic navigation, typically through scuba diving, freediving, or snorkeling, each offering unique perspectives on the life and landscapes hidden below.
The subjects an underwater photographer might pursue are as diverse as the aquatic environments themselves. Central to many underwater photo competitions is the depiction of marine life, a spectrum that ranges from encounters with awe-inspiring megafauna like whales, sharks, playful dolphins, and ancient sea turtles, to the vibrant, bustling communities of fish that adorn coral reefs. Delving even deeper, the intricate and often bizarre beauty of tiny invertebrates – nudibranchs, shrimp, and countless other critters – becomes accessible through specialized macro photography techniques. Beyond the fauna, submerged vistas and environments themselves offer compelling compositions: think of sprawling coral gardens pulsing with life, ethereal kelp forests swaying in the currents, hauntingly beautiful underwater caves, or dramatic volcanic rock formations.
Man-made elements also draw the lens, with wrecks (pecíos) of sunken ships and planes transforming into vibrant artificial reefs, each a silent testament to history and a haven for new ecosystems. Furthermore, the creative interplay of divers and models within the aquatic realm offers unique opportunities, capturing the human element exploring these depths or interacting with the water in artistic ways. A particularly challenging but rewarding approach is the split-shot (or over/under) image, which masterfully captures the scene both above and below the waterline in a single, captivating frame, bridging two worlds.
Why Enter Underwater Photography Awards?
Sharing your unique visions from beneath the waves by participating in underwater photography awards can propel your passion and career in significant ways. More than just accolades, these competitions offer a range of benefits that can make a real difference:
Illuminate a Hidden Universe:
Your images bring the often unseen beauty, mystery, and fragility of aquatic ecosystems to a global audience, fostering wonder and appreciation.
Champion Marine Conservation:
Many underwater photography competitions are deeply linked to conservation. Award-winning photos can powerfully highlight environmental issues, support research, and drive change.
Recognition for Extreme Dedication & Skill:
This genre demands significant investment in gear, training (diving and photography), and often challenging conditions. Winning an underwater photo award is a testament to this commitment and specialized expertise.
Money, Expeditions & Projects:
Prestigious underwater photo challenges and awards often come with substantial cash prizes, sponsored dive trips, new camera equipment, or grants that can directly support your ongoing passion and projects.
Boost Your Profile & Career:
Success in these contests enhances your credibility, potentially leading to publication opportunities, gallery representation, or commissioned work.
Essential Techniques for Underwater Photography Contests
Success in underwater photography competitions hinges on mastering specific techniques that address the unique challenges of shooting beneath the surface:
Perfect Your Buoyancy: The Foundation of Good Shots: This cannot be overstated. Stable, neutral buoyancy is absolutely fundamental. It allows you to approach subjects calmly and get close without disturbing them, maintain a steady camera position for sharp images (especially at slower shutter speeds or with macro subjects), avoid damaging fragile marine environments like coral reefs, and prevent stirring up silt or sand that ruins visibility. It’s as much a diving skill as a photography skill.
Get Close, Then Closer (The Mantra of Underwater Photographers): Water acts as a giant filter, significantly reducing contrast, color saturation, and sharpness with distance. The less water there is between your lens and your subject, the clearer, more colorful, and more impactful your image will be. This often means using the appropriate lens (a wide-angle or fisheye for large scenes and animals, a macro lens for tiny critters) and skillfully and respectfully maneuvering yourself into the optimal shooting position.
Strategic Strobe Positioning for Clarity & Creativity: Understanding how to position your external strobes is an art form in itself. The primary goal is often to illuminate the subject while minimizing or eliminating backscatter. This typically involves positioning strobes out to the sides and slightly forward of your camera housing. Experiment with different angles, power settings, and even single-strobe setups to sculpt light, reveal textures, create dramatic shadows, or achieve specific creative effects.
Nail White Balance & Post-Processing for True Colors: Given water’s color-filtering properties, shooting in RAW format is highly recommended for maximum flexibility in post-processing. While some photographers use custom white balance settings underwater (with a slate), many rely on correcting color casts in software like Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop. Learning to accurately restore natural colors and enhance contrast without overdoing it is a key skill.
Understand & Anticipate Marine Life Behavior: Patience and keen observation are vital. Spend time learning the habits and patterns of your intended subjects. This allows you to anticipate their movements, approach them in a non-threatening way, and be in the right place at the right time to capture natural, compelling behaviors without causing stress or disturbance. (This respect for wildlife is paramount).
Dive Deeper: Find Your Underwater Photography Contest
The underwater realm holds infinite beauty and critical stories waiting to be told. Underwater photography competitions and awards offer a unique platform to share these submerged wonders, elevate your craft, and contribute to a greater understanding and appreciation of our planet’s aquatic ecosystems.
Use Deartline to discover the latest opportunities. Apply these insights, prepare your most compelling images, and let your underwater vision make a global impact.
Explore our list of photography competitions and find the perfect competition to showcase your underwater world!