"How To" underwater Fashion Photography

<p>I am looking to do a fashion shoot underwater for building my portfolio in a few weeks.</p>

<p>Does anyone know a good resource (website, blog, tutorials, videos, etc) about doing underwater fashion shoots? Lighting, equipment, techniques? I am an advanced photographer... so a slightly more advanced underwater website is desirable-- Ideally a website that specially goes through underwater fashion photography.</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

<p>Lindsay Adler<br>

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<p>a photographer i know did a shoot couple years ago in a huge pool that also serve as a training center for scuba diving. She was using flash outside water on top of the model. She where behind a huge underwater glass, and use a synchronyse swimmer that know how to move and react under water. Dress with superb dress it was fabulous.</p>

<p>After that she simply redo the same kind of shoot but on a trempolina, with projection over the model at a super slow speed and small flash...way easier, kind of look the same (sort of). Let me find her web site.</p>

<p>You describe yourself as an advanced photographer, so the usual run of underwater fashion shoots is not going to make you happy. I've seen a portfolio by a high-end photographer whose name escapes me--David O--and I'm trying to remember his technical discussion.<br>

You want clean water with no particles in it, so you've got to get a very fresh pool and keep it clean, hosing the garment and model down before they enter the water to avoid lint. You'd probably want to avoid oxygenating the water with microbubbles unnecessarily. If you use flash outside the water, you're going to get a ripple texture and unpredictable refraction effects, so you might want to consider firing the flash through a glass-bottomed object like an aquarium inserted half way into the water. Most underwater pictures are low in contrast, and you might cobble up an underwater softbox from plastic tarp that controls the light a little better.<br>

There's also the matter of "underwater face." Part of it is simply compressed lips from breath-holding, and there's also buoyancy of facial fat, so the model may need to keep good neck extension, jaws parted even with lips closed, and smile with her tongue back to close off her gullet and prevent air bubbles. She'll probably look better if you're below her shooting upward. I think she will thank you for waterproof nose inserts, and if she hasn't had the opportunity to view herself in an underwater mirror, give her that opportunity.</p>