Water Session II

On August 6^th I did two lovely water sessions.

For this session I used:

Photography Equipment	Props/Miscellaneous
Cannon 80D Trigger 2 strobes 2 c-stands 1 Backdrop stands Black backdrop Blue tarp Sandbags 1 medium octa box 1 rectangular soft box 1 light stand 1 speedlight 1 extra small octa box Circular polarizer	120x60 inch inflatable pool Water 6 bricks River stones Floral foam Fake flowers and plants Ladder Kitchen pot Smoke genie Towels

 

The set up

When I do a water shoot, I become very concerned about safety, because water and electricity do not mix.  So, it was very important things were grounded, sandbagged, and secured in place.

Let’s talk about the pool first. The pool is a large inflatable kiddie pool, that we place on top of work out mats, on screened in porch. I then placed a large 12x20 backdrop across/in the pool, then proceeded to fill it with water.  I then placed six ½ blocks of floral foam tied to bricks into the water.  These were the base to place the pond foliage (flowers, greenery, grasses, etc.) into. Behind the pool I hung a large blue tarp which served to purposes to block the sun coming in, and act as a background.  I then placed the backdrop stand across the back of the pool and draped floral garlands from it. To complete the pond, I tossed some fake water lilies and lily pads into the pool.  

Now for the lights.  As I mentioned I placed a blue tarp at the back of the pool to block the sun coming into the porch.  I then placed a c-stand in the back left hand corner. To that c-stand I attached a strobe with a medium octa box. I raised the light up slightly and pointed it slightly down and towards the front right-hand corner of the pool.  I then placed a second c-stand on the front right-hand corner of the pool. To this stand I attached a strobe with a square soft box.  This light was pointed towards the center back of the pool.  I then placed a speed light with a small octa box attached onto another small light stand. This light I moved around based on the model’s position to add that extra pop of light to the face.

Camera Settings

For this session I used a circular polarizer on my camera to reduce the reflections of the soft boxes within the water.  The combination of the black backdrop and the water can create a nice mirror causing all the equipment to reflect in the photos, a circular polarizer minimizes that effect.  Because I was using a polarizer, I had to bump my ISO up to 400 to compensate for the loss of light. I used F9 to ensure a decent depth of field, and ensure focus and a shutter speed of 1/250s. My focal length ranged from 18mm to 80mm with most of the images being taken at 18mm.

The Photos

I did two sessions with this set up.  I’m going to talk about one image from each.

The first is from the session with the lovely Ayla, who was doing a version of Ariel from the Little Mermaid. I had the idea to copy one of the images from the movie with the dramatic splashing water. Unfortunately, I remembered the scene backwards and instead of having the water splash from the back I had it coming from the front.  Even though I had it reversed the photo still came out kind of cool.  To get the splash I had my assistant fill a kitchen pot full of pool water and toss it towards the model.  We did this several times at different angles to get the right type of splash.  I used a shutter burst with a high-speed flash sync to capture the image.  I post I did all the basic adjustments, increase the clarity slightly, and reduced the grain in the image.

This second image comes from the session I did with Justin Case, who was doing Kokomi from Genshin Impact. The pond setting worked very well for this cosplay as this character’s element and attack is water based.  The only issue we ran into was the hair was so long it liked to tangle in the plants. Thankfully, that was more of an issue towards the end of the session then the beginning and we were able to work through it.  (Note, when doing a water session with a wig, make sure it is extra secure, if you think it is secured enough, it’s not, add more Bobbi pins.) The image below is one of my favorites from the session. I like how it is soft, and elegant.  Usually I like seeing the eyes, but I think the downward gaze works for this image and shows off the lovely eye makeup.  In this image the speed light was to my left pointed at the model’s face to give it just that extra pop of light. You can see a bit of the reflection from the medium octa box in the water, but I like to think of that reflection as possibly a reflection of the moon or a break in the forest canopy letting the light in.  In post I did all the basic adjustments, increased the clarity, and reduce the grain in the image.

Overall, I felt both sessions went fairly well, for being the last two water sessions of the season.  I only offer these sessions in the summer, due to the temperature because I must shoot them outdoors. I have also decided that I will only be offering these sessions during specific time periods because of the amount of prep and breakdown time involved. For a standard water session without the pond, it takes about 3 hours to set up, due to filling the pool and then a day to take down due to draining the pool. When I add the pond elements in, it takes me about an additional 1-2 hours to set up as I need to get the plants in place. Then the take down takes two days due to draining the pool and allowing everything to completely dry before it is packed for storage. Now each time I do a pool session my set-up time gets a little better but it is still a very labor-intensive set to put together, compared to some of my other sets.  Just for comparison some of my studio sets take about two hours to set up, including lighting, and about the same amount of time to take down.  Now this doesn’t mean I’m going to stop doing water sessions, this just means I’ll be more strategic about when they are offered.

Credits:

Models:

Ayla (Instagram: @themermaidmaid and @geekbellydance)

Justin Case (Instagram: @jjustiincase)