This is how the first underwater fashion show was filmed in Spain

Commercial and leisure space X-Madrid hosted the first underwater fashion show in Spain, which was recorded for posterity by Gonzalo Perez Mata.

Marepolis, the largest diving and freediving center in Spain, hosted this innovative campaign in which two professional freedivers, Juanda Alcazar y Mari Massage, they put themselves at the service of several clothing brands. The result of this initiative was reflected in a fashion film shot over several weeks of filming by the underwater photography expert Gonzalo Perez Mata.

The piece was recorded with a Canon 5d mkiv with a focal 16-35 2.8 III, protected from water and the pressure involved in recording at a depth of 20 meters with a 230mm case and glass dome Nauticam. Regarding lighting, key for this project, it was done with a main spotlight of 30,000 lumens and two 9,000 spotlights from the brand Bigblue.

The challenges of the project

Pérez considers that the main challenges of this project were the “creative"The idea arose from the shopping center space itself along with the protagonists of the piece, according to the director of the film. fashion film: “The project was born from This development in-house It allowed Pérez to have “total freedom” to face the filming: “Filming underwater in a 20-meter-deep pit and with models in apnea is a challenge, but on a visual level it was very attractive.”

Beyond the use of the previously detailed technical solutions, the key to the project lay in the recording time management. “The water temperature, without being excessively cold, is designed for diving with a wetsuit, which has forced us to do more sessions than planned,” says Pérez. To this, we must add other critical elements specific to this fashion film, such as recording a piece “inside a 7-meter-diameter, weightless tube,” the risk that “the lighting assistants sneak into the shot” or the difficulties of underwater filming: “In my case, I was wearing a wetsuit and scuba diving equipment, but you carry a camera that takes up both of your hands and you have to be careful to compensate for your ears and buoyancy while you are centered in the frame.”

The keys to underwater recording

Underwater recording is a universe in itself, given that, in Pérez's words, “light behaves differently.” This implies that the light transmission is lower, which makes it mandatory to work with a dome when working with angle or wide angle lenses so that the angle of view of the lens is not reduced by refraction. “Using a sensor full frame and a wide angle, the ideal is to use a large dome and a diaphragm that is as closed as possible to avoid aberrations caused by the curvature of the glass. Even though I brought powerful lights, I had to use an ISO of 1000,” Pérez specifies.

He color treatment It is another of the keys to underwater recording. Pérez explains that “the depth and distance of the subject from both the camera and the light source directly affect the color temperature.” In other words: the more water there is between the model and the camera (or the model and the light) the more colors will be lost. Applied to the case of connection in the editing of short shots with general shots.”

https://youtu.be/ZOywmlg0nkU