Into the deep: filming the underwater world

Canon Ambassador Nicolai Deutsch is a cameraman unafraid to go to great depths to achieve breathtaking footage, having filmed underwater content for major international brands including watch manufacturers, dive wear companies and for Netflix's 2021 documentary, Seaspiracy.

Such an open brief allowed Nicolai to bring his own vision to life when filming in the waters off the Mediterranean island of Gozo, but he required a little more imagination since its coastline isn't known for abundant marine life. The German filmmaker decided on a cinematic look to inspire divers in each frame, with well-known shipwrecks such as the 52-metre long P31, a patrol boat built in the 1960s, part of his underwater set.

Nicolai opted to film with his Canon EOS C200 beneath the surface and the Canon EOS C70 on land, with additional footage shot on a drone. Part of the reason for not using the EOS C70 underwater was that it didn't shoot in RAW at that time, although a recent firmware update means the camera now has this capability.

"When we chose Gozo, I knew there was little marine life, so I tried to focus on very strong images, to give this epic feeling and to try to get no bubbles," Nicolai says. "My approach was to be able to stop and pause the video at any time and be like: 'That's a great picture!' And that's not just an approach that I have for this project, but for many others. You want to make it exciting and look epic."

The commercial includes Nicolai's partner, Sarah, a diving instructor and underwater model, who had always wanted to try rebreather diving but had been fearful, due to its reputation of having more risks associated with it.

"We had this idea that you have to be male and strong or dive technically to use a rebreather," Nicolai continues. "The idea for the commercial was that Sarah doesn't need to go into extreme depths and can have the advantages. Anyone can do it. For us, it was a completely new type of diving, even though we are both experienced divers, which added to the challenge of the shoot."

To achieve a cinematic look underwater for this commercial, Nicolai used the compact Canon EOS C200, which captures sharp 4K 50p images in Cinema RAW Light for flexibility in post-production. The filmmaker says that framing is paramount for shoots such as this.

"An image that looks cinematic underwater is harder to achieve than on land because you are more limited in your focal lengths," he says. "For example, to create an easy cinematic look you can use a longer lens and a wide aperture to get a shallow depth of field. But underwater, you usually tend to use wide-angle lenses, firstly because of the visibility and the loss of light, and you also need to be fairly close to your subjects. That's why framing is very important."

The fact that Nicolai can achieve any angle for his scenes due to the nature of diving underwater ramps up creativity. "The nice thing about working underwater is that there are three dimensions that you can be in, and you're not limited to the gravity on the ground. You're floating around so you can find your framing. Framing and lighting are the two key factors in creating a cinematic image," he adds.

The shoot involved wreck diving alongside a night dive with small fish that reflected Nicolai's lights. The scenarios in the film needed intelligent planning of light. "Sarah wore a warm ambient light on her wrist in pretty much every shot, because it just gives extra feeling and without it the image would look completely different," says Nicolai.

"When she arrives in the frame down the stairs of the wreck, I put another light at the bottom of the stairway that makes it so much more interesting. On top of all of this, I still have my lights on the front of my camera to get some colour in the wreck, otherwise everything would just be washed out green and blue.

"So there is a lot of planning when we do these types of shots. Before we went to do this one, we spoke on land about exactly how I wanted this shot to look. I've dived this spot two or three times before and I knew that I wanted to place the light there. It's 40 metres deep, so we had to be quick because we didn't want to waste too much time on those shots."

For this project, Nicolai used a base rate of ISO800 (with the exception of filming the wreck, when he used up to ISO6400). He shot all footage in Canon Log 2. "When filming underwater try to keep the light in, so don't shoot downwards," he recommends. "If you don't have underwater lights, stay shallow. You can shoot at five to 10 metres and still get excellent colours."

Alongside the Canon EOS C200, Nicolai also shoots with the Canon EOS R5 and uses EF lenses with the Canon Mount Adapter EF-EOS R. For underwater shooting, he has found an unconventional method that offers surprisingly effective results.

"For this film, I used a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM combined with a wide-angle 'wet lens' designed for underwater work, which goes in front of the housing," he says. "I used the 18-55mm, which is super-sharp in its standard range, to film the rear of that conversion lens."