Underwater Swimwear Photography for Brand Campaigns

Underwater swimwear photography

By William Drumm, underwater photographer and ocean ambassador

Allure Aqua. Underwater photography for swimwear brands, by William Drumm.

Underwater swimwear photography produces campaign imagery that cannot be made anywhere else. Fabric moves the way it cannot on land. Light refracts, shifts and paints the body in real time. Talent holds poses that read as weightless because they are. It is a look that consumers recognise instantly and that a beach shoot cannot fake.

Above water swimwear campaigns have looked broadly the same for thirty years. That is the opportunity.

Why Underwater Works for Swimwear

Fabric. Stretch, mesh, fringe and wrap details all behave differently in water. Garments that would hang flat in a studio move continuously. If a piece depends on movement, water is the only place it will ever look like itself.

Light. Refracted light produces the caustics, colour shifts and dappled patterning that have become the signature of high end editorial swimwear. It is hard to replicate in post and immediately recognisable to a customer scrolling past.

Posture. Weightlessness lets talent hold shapes that are impossible on land. Arched backs, extended limbs, suspended hair. The body language reads as effortless rather than posed, which is the entire thing a swimwear campaign is trying to sell.

Most of my swimwear clients use underwater imagery as the hero of a launch and shoot the rest of the collection dry. That is usually the right split.

What I Shoot for Swimwear Brands

• Campaign hero imagery. The three to eight defining frames for a season or a launch. Paid social, homepage, lookbook covers, editorial pitches.
• Lookbooks. Full collection coverage, usually combining underwater hero shots with poolside and surface work so the story holds together.
• Editorial and PR. Fashion editorial, magazine pitches, brand storytelling, awards submissions, press assets.
• E-commerce with a difference. On figure imagery with real attention to fit, texture and silhouette, for brands who want product photography that does not look like everyone else’s.
• Behind the scenes. Stills and video from the shoot itself. Underwater production is visually strange to watch, and the BTS reliably outperforms as campaign teaser content.

How an Underwater Shoot Actually Runs

Most brands have not commissioned underwater work before. The differences from a normal fashion shoot are almost entirely logistical, and they are my problem rather than yours.

Pre production

We start with a brief and reference imagery. I identify which pieces in the collection will carry underwater, recommend pool against open water based on the look and the budget, and lock logistics around talent, hair and makeup, styling and art direction. Two to four weeks for a campaign.

The shoot day

Four to eight hours, and a lot of frames. Talent works in short underwater intervals with surface rests between, so the pacing is unlike a dry set. I coach breath holds, posing and movement in the water throughout, and most professional models settle inside the first hour. Hair and makeup is chosen for water. Wardrobe is rotated so wet pieces dry while others shoot. The crew is small and everyone in it is comfortable in water.

Post production

Underwater post takes longer than dry post: colour correction, particle and bubble cleanup, and getting skin tones right through several feet of water. Seven to fourteen days for the finished selection. Raw selects inside 48 hours if you are up against a deadline.

Denver Based, Shooting Globally

My base is Denver, Colorado, with ongoing access to indoor and outdoor pools suited to fashion production. Heated water, which matters more than brands expect, because cold talent stops performing after an hour. Controlled light and zero weather risk. Privacy for high profile talent. Wardrobe and hair and makeup space beside the pool. Multi day scheduling.

For open water campaigns I shoot on location, with working relationships in Baja California, the Florida springs, the Caribbean, Tonga and Indonesia. Open water adds weather, light timing, water clarity and permits to the equation, and it produces images a pool never will. I will tell you honestly which one your brief needs.

Most US brands shoot their first underwater campaign in the Denver pool, because the controlled environment lets everyone concentrate on the creative rather than the conditions. Open water tends to be the second or third project, once a team knows how it performs in water.

Why Me

I have been an underwater photographer since 2006. I shot the cover of Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, underwater. I have a background in ecology and evolutionary biology, six years running marketing across a portfolio of dive brands, and an audience of 200,000 plus on Instagram with monthly reach in the millions, which is occasionally useful to a campaign and never the point.

The thing that actually matters for a swimwear brand is narrower than any of that. Plenty of fashion photographers will do an underwater shoot. Very few of them are genuinely at home in water, and it shows in the frame rate. Water is where I work. I can direct talent in it, solve problems in it, and shoot at the pace a paid campaign requires rather than the pace a novelty shoot allows.

That is the whole pitch.

What It Costs

It depends on scope, deliverables, usage rights and travel, and honestly the range is wide. A half day in a Denver pool and a two week open water production in Baja are not the same species of project.

So rather than guess at a number that will be wrong for your brief, every project gets a written proposal after a short discovery call. You get a real figure, with options, and no surprises later.

Standard inclusions: pre production planning, shoot direction, talent coaching in water, lighting, all camera and housing equipment, post production and colour correction, web and print resolution deliverables, and a round of revisions on the final selection. Talent, hair and makeup, styling, art direction, extended usage rights and travel are quoted on top.

If you are an emerging brand with a tight budget and an interesting idea, say so. I still take those on.

Start a Conversation

If you are evaluating underwater photographers for an upcoming swimwear campaign, the fastest route is a short discovery call. We talk through the collection, the campaign goals, the timing and the deliverables, and I come back with a written proposal.

If you already have a brief and dates, email them over with any reference imagery and I will respond within a working day.

Looking for something other than swimwear? The main Allure Aqua page covers fashion, fine art, portraiture and product work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do you shoot underwater swimwear campaigns?

My base is Denver, Colorado, with ongoing access to indoor and outdoor pools suited to fashion production: heated water, controlled light, no weather risk, privacy for high profile talent, and wardrobe and hair and makeup space beside the pool. For open water campaigns I shoot on location globally, with working relationships in Baja California, the Florida springs, the Caribbean, Tonga and Indonesia.

Do models need to know how to freedive or hold their breath?

No. No prior diving or freediving experience is required. I coach talent through breath holds, posing and movement in the water on the day, and most professional models are comfortable within the first hour. If a brand has already booked talent, I recommend a short pre shoot pool orientation.

What kind of swimwear works best underwater?

Almost all of it, but pieces with movement produce the strongest images. Fringe, wrap details, sarongs, cover ups and flowing one pieces all do things in water that they cannot do on land. Structured pieces work too and simply need different posing. I review the collection in pre production and tell you which pieces will carry the campaign underwater and which are better shot dry.

How long does an underwater swimwear shoot take?

A typical shoot day runs four to eight hours. Models work in short underwater intervals, a pose is five to thirty seconds and then a rest at the surface, so the rhythm is different from a dry studio day. Pre production for a campaign is usually two to four weeks.

How long do final images take to deliver?

Standard turnaround is seven to fourteen days for the curated, edited selection. Raw selects can be with you inside 48 hours if you have a hard publication deadline. Underwater post production takes a little longer than a dry shoot because of colour correction and bubble and particle cleanup.

What usage rights do brands receive?

Standard packages cover a single campaign across digital, social and standard editorial use for one year. Expanded rights, including broadcast, out of home, perpetual licensing and talent re use, are quoted separately based on scope.

Can our team be on set?

Yes. Brand reps, art directors, marketing leads and stylists are welcome. The pool studios I work with have monitor feeds so you can review images in real time. For pre launch campaigns and talent under NDA I run closed sets with signed crew NDAs.

Is an underwater shoot harder for a brand to manage than a normal photoshoot?

From your side, no. The complexity is mine. Pre production involves a little more planning and post production takes slightly longer, but the brand experience is close to a standard fashion shoot. You are hiring me specifically so the water is not your problem.

Do you work with emerging swimwear brands?

Yes. I take on capsule shoots for smaller brands when the brief is creatively interesting. If the budget is tight, say so up front and we will work out what is possible.

How much does an underwater swimwear campaign cost?

It depends on scope, deliverables, usage rights and travel, and pool work in Denver sits at a very different level from an international open water production. Every project gets a written proposal after a short discovery call, so you get a real number rather than a guess.