Many of us have had the pleasure of seeing stunning visuals of marine and coral life in the specialized field of underwater photography, but very rarely have we been exposed to contrived situations underwater involving people. Mick Gleissner, with his fascination for diving, photography and beautiful women, decided that he would undertake the unique challenge of Underwater Fashion Photography.   The challenges presented in underwater fashion photography are multiple and unique to each shoot. The photographer is at perpetual mercy of the weather, visibility, the model’s skills, the integrity of the camera equipment and set design.   Directing Since communication underwater is severely limited to the use of basic hand signals, much of the directing lies in the preparation and briefing prior to the shoot. Gleissner first presented his vision to storyboard artist, James Neish, who then created elaborate visuals for the models. The storyboards illustrated for each of the models very specific poses and their placements within the set design. The culmination of all the training in relaxation, breath holding, bubble making and strategic hair movement the models receive come together in a shoot. An ideal shot captures a relaxed model posing in the right place with eyes open, her hair flying upward and out of her face and bubbles just above her head. The hair and bubbles are considered the icing on the cake – the stamp of proof that the shot took place underwater. The longer the model is able to hold her breath increases the number of shots per shooting window.  Her relaxation training teaches her to pose in this challenging environment without looking tense or panicked. Her bubble training allows her to release bubbles at a particular pace (as too many bubbles can block her face altogether). Her hair training prepares her to coordinate her jump with all the aforesaid directions. The myriad of all these factors certainly limit the opportunities for success! Unlike photography above water in which changing the camera lens is relatively easy and accessible, underwater photography requires a camera with an underwater housing that are fitted for a single-sized lens. Hence, a shoot may require three separate cameras with different lenses and housings. Gleissner usually descended with one camera, having decided ahead of time which lens he would use. However, at times, extra cameras carried by extra divers were required. For shots requiring mobility, Gleissner wore scuba gear. However, for the shots that required a static shooting angle, he wore custom-made shoes weighing 8 kilograms for greater negative buoyancy. Set Design Unique to Mick Gleissner’s Underwater Fashion Photography is set design. Recreating a basketball headboard, boxing ring and bench press demanded tremendous creativity and engineering and perseverance. Alfred Alesna, Chief Set Designer, and his production crew spent days of trial and error to create set designs that would sustain in an underwater environment.    In the example of the boxing ring, which took several days to prepare, Alesna first tried using the seabed as the platform and planted four poles. However, Gleissner, dissatisfied with the unkempt look of seagrass requested a red carpet to be used as the platform on which the girls would pose.  Keeping the buoyant red carpet planted to the floor of the sea would prove to be an enormous challenge, and one that involved many creative but failed attempts. Al esna achieved success by building a steel platform onto which the carpet spanned. The platform was supported by steel poles. Lead weights anchored the platform, and fishing lines secured the poles firmly to the scaffold and the ground.  Four divers, one in each corner, lowered the scaffold using lift bags to control the descent of the heavy steel.  Hooks were used to secure the ropes to the poles. A minor problem surfaced with the ropes: they were buoyant and floating upward rather than hanging down as they do in a typical boxing ring. Alesna used invisible fishing lines to force down the ropes. The creative use of bright colors (red for the platform and blue for the ropes), particularly for underwater sets in which lighting tends to be more muted  had a brilliant effect in making the underwater design resemble an actual boxing ring. Visibility Good visibility and a strong sun go a long way in creating an ideal photo opportunity. Visibility, or transparency in the water, is greatly affected by the strength of the current which in the least ideal conditions move a lot of sediment and make the water murky. On such days, underwater shoots are simply not advisable. Gleissner and his team used tide and time table prediction provided by the Coast Guard to study the size and direction of currents to schedule photo shoots. Tides and Currents Tides are created because the Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. The resulting gravitational pull of the moon creates tides. Each day, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides.  When the sun and moon are aligned, there are exceptionally strong gravitational forces, causing very high and very low tides which are called spring tides, though they have nothing to do with the season. When the sun and moon are not aligned, the gravitational forces cancel each other out, and the tides are not as dramatically high and low. These are called neap tides. When the tide is highest and lowest, the low current provides an ideal shooting time not just for visibility, but also for the model, who does not have to fight the current to assume a natural pose. Divemasters There are three divemasters per model: one divemaster who is responsible for the model’s safety and providing her air through a regulator, one divemaster who oversees the shoot and carries a spare tank, and one divemaster who handles props. With the photographer, videographer and model also underwater, sediment can easily stir up thereby causing visibility to suffer. To minimize movement, Gleissner’s team built a long hose device that connects to the scuba tank and regulator. The long hose could be thrust quickly toward the model without the divemaster having to swim toward her. Post Production A strong sun creates ideal lighting conditions for an underwater shoot. However, below 3 meters, the water absorbs all the red color, so only green/bluish colors are visible. Gleissner used two 100 watt halogen lights to compensate for the color.  In particularly dim lighting conditions, color corrections can be made in post-production. Photoshop also allows for the removal of free-floating particles.