Underwater Cinematography with the A6300

[stanevansphoto]

https://vimeo.com/190419876 - Every once in a while you get the call to go outside your comfort zone. Answer the call. 
Déjà Mae and I have shot quite a few photos together but recently she asked me to shoot a video for the next song on her recently released album “Sloan” I was totally into creating something magical except there was one major obstacle… She asked if I could shoot it underwater??? Underwater cinematography is not my forte but being pushed out of your comfort zone is where creativity lives and it’s been a while since someone asked me how long I could hold my breath. For this particular project I chose the Sony A6300. It’s small shoots 4k and 120 fps at 1080p which helps slow down the erratic motion of swimming. The water housings are more economical and the dynamic range is pretty damn close to the high end Sony. The down side, it overheats like a mofo. Even in water which makes for longer breaks in between takes. I used the Meikon underwater case for a few reasons. It’s easier to open quickly to dissipate heat and cheaper since Sony keeps releasing A6000 model cameras (3 models in the last year A6000, A6300, A6500) which most of the underwater housings are incompatible from body to body, also you can adjust zoom, focus, shutter and aperture all underwater. I hate the flat light of shooting underwater so I came up with a bit of an interesting solution to provide key and fill light underwater. I took a couple of c- stands and positioned a gold fill card to reflect the sun where I wanted. So the gold fleck highlights in the water are from that. Cheap and simple continuous light sources don’t have to be expensive. Just take note of the sun’s path and adjust accordingly. If you are still reading this, I appreciate it because sometimes people don’t quite understand what goes in to making a shot but there’s a lot going on. Thanks Deja for trusting me with your vision and inspiring me to get weird. Do yourself a favor and check out her new album and her full-length video coming soon.

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