Barcelona, Spain
Underwater Product Shoot
Still + Motion
Set Design
Product Styling
Post-Production
Marine collagen
going deep: capturing cichlids, sunlight, and pure authenticity!
This 5 day liquid shoot came with a unique challenge and an interesting set build: capturing the product underwater, surrounded by the cichlids (an exotic fish, sourced from Iceland for this campaign), to create a deep blue ocean look with sunlight beaming through—all in real time!
Typically, for commercial campaigns, we create 1-2 highly detailed product photos a day, often shooting in plates (composites) to showcase the product in its best light. But this project took a different approach. We aimed to capture everything in a single, in-camera shot by building an underwater set in real time—no composites, staying true to life!
To enhance realism, the bottle was shot underwater in a vertical custom-built glass tank, creating photos in both 4:5 and 9:16 aspect ratios for this digital campaign - straight in camera. I opted for continuous lighting over flash, mimicking how our eyes perceive sunlight in the real world. We also chose not to retouch certain imperfections on the product to maintain its authenticity.
Next up: convincing the fish to sign modeling contracts! ;)
