There is a lot to be said about the use of repetition to improve your photography. I certainly found that as I was shooting the pool series early 2023. Each shoot presented new challenges that I would then take into the next one. This was a novel experience given that normally my shoots a one off events.

My final shoot of the summer was with Tanisha. She had answered the casting call I placed back in December. We were unable to shoot until mid-February. I booked the shoot for the evening based on previous experience. This timing ensured I would not be fighting bright overhead light.

The previous shoot with Morgane occurred at roughly the same time. It showed me that I could not rely completely on natural light. Therefore I made the decision that I was going to overpower it. 

As I have mentioned before, shoots in pools with sun-heated water have to be done quickly. You cannot spend time playing with the lights while the model is in the water. The answer was to set everything up before the model arrived. That way I could make sure that everything was as I wanted it.

As shown in the image the start of the post I set up my AD600 at the rear of the pool shooting into a 1.5m octabox. The camera was positioned on a boom over the over the pool and triggered from an app on my iPad.

A test shot at f8 1/160s ISO200 proved that I was removing most of the ambient light from the screen. I set the power level of the light in the mid-range and took another shot. This provided enough light on the water but also the softbox reflected in it. I moved the light back and adjusted its power level to compensate.

Once I got the reflection only appearing in a small point of the pool, I was happy. I knew that I could fix this easily in post. There was still a sky reflection in the water. I knew this would go away once the flowers were added.

This test, however, did not show how the light would affect a model. I pulled out my handy mannequin. Then, I placed her in the pool. Being plastic she actually floated which meant it was not an exact replication of a human but it was close.

I was now confident that the set up was in place and ready for Tanisha.