Under the sea

Sea level rise is a pressing problem, and if we don't start doing anything soon...

Saw a local photography contest on the topic of sea level rise, but I couldn't participate since I'm studying abroad. Well the topic was still very interesting so I took this just for fun.

OK THIS IS NOT A DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION/PHOTOMANIPULATION. Here's the setup:



Cut out some paper human-shaped figures, bought a DIY clock (and threw away the motor ) and had a clear plastic container made.

I stuck the figures and clock hands onto a piece of white card using black blutack (You can actually see the blutack underneath some of the figures) and placed it behind the container half-filled with water. Oh yea I stirred the water with a blue marker to give it a nice aqua color.

I fiddled around with the lights for an hour to make the water look acceptable. When the lights were too high, there'd be a harsh ugly shadow inside the water body. When they were placed too low, the water's shadow killed my white background. So I had to reach a compromise: diffusing the shadow of the water on the white background to a certain extent that it'd turn out to be a nice gradient (from very light blue to white).

It was pretty difficult to keep that ice cube in place. The surrounding temperature was like 35°C (about 95°F) and the cube kept melting and/or floating around. Nailed it after dozens of shots.

Some color and contrast tweaks in Lightroom, and here you go, a photo that looks like an digital illustration haha.