Inspired by a Mystic Commercial Shoot by Edwin Schaap I wanted to shoot in a pool with artificial light to mimic the sun. I used the following equipment:
- Nikon D4s
- Nikon Lens 24-70mm
- SPL Waterhouse with Flash housing ( more on that later )
- Nikon SB910 Flash
- Elinchrom ELB 400 ( optical triggered ) with a HS head.
- Skyport Plus HS
At first I tried to trigger the ELB 400 with a radio trigger (Skyport Plus HS) however when submerged more than 50cm the trigger became unreliable. The 2.4Ghz signal is blocked by the water and I resorted to an optical trigger by mounting the Flash housing on my camera housing and configure the ELB 400 to be triggered optically.
Couple of other things I did not take into account:
- For outdoor under/over water shoots you need diving goggles
- White balance is very different un water. Red is blocked so you need to ensure you have the right balance set. Or correct in post processing.
- If I want to use a radio trigger I need to run a sync cable from my
- I need a different Quadra head for my ELB 400 if I want to shoot with either an optical trigger or a long sync cable. I have a "slow" HS head and this will not freeze the action when I shoot with 200th of a second shutter speed. I probably need the Action Head.
- If I want to use the Skyport Plus HS that will float in a water proof container. I need a very long ttl flash cable when I dive that will run to the surface. The longest is 3 meters which is probably not sufficient.
- I need to instruct the models better as I'm submersed most of the time ;-)