Underwater Model "Trash the Dress"

Hi All,

Here are a few of my favorite photos from a shoot I did this weekend. The way this all came about is that a very popular local makeup artist wanted some photos for her brochure showing how her wedding makeup won't run in the Houston heat and humidity. What better way than w/ an underwater photo eh?

So...let me know what you think:

This one's kind of interesting because you can see the makeup artist peeking down into the water from the upper right. I decided to leave her in because it adds a cool effect:

Lighting for these was a SS-200 w/ umbrella and a DS125 w/ umbrella. Both triggered by a small strobe on my housing.

Hope you enjoy,

James

PS: I'm thinking about talking about this a bit at my talk at Visions in the Sea - do you all think that's an appropriate topic?

Cool pix James.

I'd love to hear more about it at Visions. Not only does the situation throw up some unusual lighting challenges, but your method allows underwater photographers to take these types of shots with the kit that they already have, without needing to buy or hire studio lights etc.

I bought my Visions ticket last week! Really looking forward to coming along as a punter this year, rather than a speaker. Hoping to pick up lots of tips.

I also like the effect of having the make-up artist in the shot.

Alex

I like the pictures, especially the 3rd one, but I'm not sure how well they work for their intended purpose.

At least at this size, other than the lipstick, it is not obvious that the model is wearing makeup. (not your fault, but it seems to me the makup artist should have done more of a theatrical makeup job that really brings focus to the makup )

And two, with the solid black background I'm not sure that it will be obvious to the general public that the model was underwater. Of course it would increase the cost considerably to do the shoot on a reef, but a nice blue background with fish swimming around would help to convey the aspect that this model is underwater.

If I were to choose one shot from these for a brochure or something it would be #3; nice even lighting, 'bride' looks nice and relaxed, nice hair highlight, nice layout of the model and dress. The lighting and compositions in #4 and #5 I do not think would work for the purpose.

Nice idea James. Do you have one strobe/umbrella in the pool and the other topside?

Hi All,

Thanks for the feedback. I really only need one good photo for the makeup artist - and she (and the model) also like the 3rd (dress in hand) photo the best. I'm very pleased w/ the results - partly because they are so unique and partly because the shoot was really challenging.

I shot these at night so was using the * button for focus once and then banging away underwater. I did some closeup shots (head and shoulders) that really showcase the makeup, but unfortunately for those sets, I had the focus set for normal wideangle work so they are blurry :-( What a bummer!

For some reason this shoot was really hard. The pool was deep, and the model was really constrained moving around in that big tent of a dress. We had to be pretty careful. I think I only shot <50 photos in 2 hrs shooting.

Jeff: yes, the lighting is one strobe w/ shoot-through umbrella above and one w/ shoot-through umbrella on a stand on the bottom of the pool, just behind the camera at left. At ISO160 I was able to shoot them on 1/2 power and still get F11 - weird eh? I wasn't complaining.

Cheers

James