Under and over the water

Here is a post for The Black Light Magazine on a photoshoot, where I was not involved as a photographer. In fact, the most challenging part for the production planning, and I avoided even most of that, being on travel in The Netherlands. Moving into the area of technically challenging shoots, where we have to rely on other people (e.g. a diver in this case) to press the trigger for me and my associates. One aspect that I am still trying to reconcile is the apparent lack of creative control that comes with delegating the actual shooting part. Perhaps, this is the inherent difference between the skills and the vision of the camera operator and the director. I should start looking at the shoot from the director’s chair and learn to enjoy the view.

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During a recent underwater photoshoot, which involved a marathon body-painting session by three artists working simultaneously on two models and a diver sitting on the bottom of the pool with the gear that is typically used for photographing marine creatures, we came across a rather unique challenge. Our objective was to show the models in fluorescent makeup swimming underwater, while simultaneously showing their environment, i.e. the reflections of the free surface and the colour of the water itself.

Capturing the images of the models was relatively straightforward. They were illuminated with underwater strobes cover with custom UV filters. “Straightforward” doesn’t mean “trivial”, though. The diver-photographer actually to shed some blood by cutting his finger on the edge of the filter. Luckily, there were no no bloodthirsty creatures in the pool…

The challenge was to simultaneously illuminate the environment (i.e. the water) with studio strobes placed at the edge pf the pool. Since they were positioned above the surface, they could not be triggered with a radio trigger on the diver’s camera, since the triggering signal does not travel well under water. A makeshift solution was to stick one of the underwater flashes over the surface and trigger the studio strobes optically. The major drawback of this approach is that it significantly reduced the already scarce amount of light available underwater for illuminating the models.

A modified triggering method, that we are going to thoroughly test in a follow up photo shoot will involve floating a wireless trigger, coupled with an optical sensor, in a sealed glass container on the surface of the pool, giving it access to both the underwater flashes (optically) and the above-water studio strobes (via radio).