I recently attended a photoshoot over at Tankspace in Nottingham. It is a specialist photography studio with a very specific set-up: i.e. a large tank of water.
I first showed some images from this set for the 'Monomad' Competition, and now its time to show off some of the colour images...
But first, its worth taking a little time to explain the set up:
Inside the studio, there is a large tank of water. It measured approximately 5 1/2 feet tall and 10 feet wide. There was 2 large LED lights lighting the tank from the top, and then there were 2 smaller LED panels, one on each side of the tank. On one side of the tank was a large tent-like structure which is where we (the photographers) were stood.
One of the problems of taking photographs through glass, is that there are annoying reflections, which will spoil the final image. With this set up of the water being fully lit, and the photographers being stood in the dark, there were no reflections, which mean we could focus on taking pictures.... and lots of pictures were taken on this day....
In the space of 6 hours I took almost 2000 pictures.
Two. Thousand. Pictures. (that is NOT a typo haha)
Why was this...?
Well, the trouble with the model being submerged in water, is that she can't hear us. In fact, with the lighting set up of the water being well lit, and the photographers in darkness, she can barely see us.
This meant that there was a lot of trial and error involved. The model swam back and forwards a couple of times and then paused to breath, and then went again. We had cameras set on 'burst mode' and took as many as we could. Hoping that at least one image out of a long sequence would work.
So some out takes. Here the pose is ok, but her face is dark. We asked if the model could try again, but turn her head towards the light....
Thats better, we can now see the detail of her face...
...yep her face is nicely lit... not sure about the pose though, this side on position is not very interesting.
Um.. Can the model angle her body towards us slightly?
Ah, now that is more interesting... but you've forgotten about the light... can you keep that body angle, and turn your head towards the light please?
There we go! Now theres a keeper!
As you can see, there was a lot of trial and error, and when I say it was hit and miss, there were definately more misses than hits.
But when it worked, and all the elements came together, the results were pretty good!
Now lets quickly put that image into Photoshop:
I re-cropped it slightly, and removed some of the distacting bubbles near her head. Then I adjusted the colour slightly by adding a hint of purple/magenta. All that was left to do was to slightly sharpen her head and shoulders and voila! A completed image.
Now to go through all the rest of them!
When I was first invited onto this shoot, I had no idea what to expect. In the end I had a fantastic day, and in amongst the thousands of shots I think I got some beautiful images. I'll share the best of them on here over the next few weeks, but for now I will leave you with a little teaser of what you can look forward to :-)
If you have any thoughts or opinions on this article then I'd love to see your comments.
And if you really like the content then maybe you would like to upvote or re-hive it.
Check out my website for more of my work.
Hi @dannewton,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am
Underwater photography is one of my favorites. Thanks for sharing here with us this amazing post and these awesome shots! Keep up the great work.
Thank you, it was really different set-up to what I am used to, and surprisingly challenging, but the results are totally worth it :-)
Definitely well worth it based on what i can see! =)
This is SO cool I always always wanted to do an under water shoot I had no idea there was a place in Nottingham.
https://www.tankspace.co.uk/
Heres the website... can be a bit pricey to rent out for the day (a group of photographers and I did this one together to spread the cost), but totally worth it for such a unique set-up
if you do it again and have space I would love to come along!
do they loan you waterproof casing?
Nope... you don't need any specialist equipment as you do not go in the water, its a decent sized tank that has glass on one side so you can see into it
The model does 'her thing' in the water and we photographers stand next to that 'window' and take pictures
ah so you don't get the camera under at all? interesting ! I was always a bit nervous of it as I struggle a bit with underwater lol. Has that always been how it's done? I swear I used to see the photography go under too.
Very interesting! Loved this post.
I'm glad you enjoyed looking at it as much as I did shooting it :-)
That was Really nice and pretty cool!!!
When I was in highschool we have an activity answering the Questions: on what age will you gonna die? what you to be a cause of your death?
I answered on my cause of death is Drowned, cause on that time I'm a Photographer under water. Hahaha sounds funny, but i really want to become a good photographer under water, which is far from reality coz I don't know really how to swim hahah
Thanks for sharing this content of yours. It was really cool!!
No worries on drowning on this one, there was a guy on the other side watching everything underwater, ready to take action if a model got into difficulty. And all the photographers were stood nice and dry outside looking through the 'window'
Fair play to the models on this one... strike an interesting pose, without limbs or fabric or even bubbles spoiling the shot, and only having 20-30 seconds to do it before they have to come up for air, I'm not sure I could do it haha
Thia is crazy! So cool man, awesome shot that last one!
Cheers man, watch this space, there are lots of awesome shots to share soon (once I finish editing all of them lol!)
For a very long time, I would like to go underwater with lots of lights. Last time I started organizing Covid fu..-ed up. Your work came out so nuce. Congratulation. Makes me rethink and want to organize a second attempt.
Thank you for the inspiration ;-)
Covid has ruined a lot of plans hasn't it. I'm not underwater lol (I don't like getting my feet wet haha!)... but I can see that you are a lightpainter. It would be really cool to see what you are able to do underwater
I look forward to seeing what you manage to create with your shoot :-)
Thank you for sharing the process. So cool!
These pictures are almost angelic in form! I bet this set-up is used in the movie industry a lot.
These are great shots and edits! Keep up the good work!