Underwater photography comes with many challenges, but underwater portrait photography is another difficulty. So, can you create the look and style of an underwater portrait session at home? Well, photographer Gavin Hoey thinks you can, and what’s more, you won’t even get your feet wet!
The secret to Gavin’s underwater look is Mylar. Usually used in horticulture, Mylar is a shiny sheet perfect for creating the ripples of light and shade you’d expect to see underwater. But as Gavin demonstrates, lighting can be trickier than you imagine.
Once the fake underwater photo session is done, Gavin completes the look by taking you through some post-processing steps using Photoshop. He starts by adding a shallow depth of field effect with the Tilt-shift filter, showing you how to create unique light rays using custom-made (and totally free) Photoshop Actions.
Gavin Hoey is a freelance photographer, writer, and trainer of all things photographic. His work is regularly featured in photography magazines, websites, and videos. Gavin has a real passion for sharing his photography and Photoshop knowledge. In 2008, he started recording and uploading video tutorials to YouTube.
Timestamps and Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:42 Why this background and Mylar 2:03 Getting the key light wrong and right 2:45 Underwater color effect in camera 3:25 Adding a fill flash for the shadows 4:25 Defying gravity and faking buoyancy 4:55 Underwater portrait session 6:13 Photoshop a shallow depth of field effect 7:35 Photoshop in some rays of light 9:30 Outro
