The images are tweaked in Photoshop to enhance the colors and levels, however the model–manta ray interaction and the lighting is real. Nothing was added in. Hannah Fraser had 50 pounds of weights tied to one of her legs. She didn’t have her own air supply, so she would dance for up to two minutes and then signal for a diver to swim over and giver her air. At times the swells were so strong that two divers had to hold Fraser to prevent her from getting smacked against underwater rocks. Even though they were in Hawaii, the water was cold enough that the crew needed wetsuits, a comfort that Fraser had to go without. The manta rays were shot at night in Hawaii. The manta rays feed on plankton, which are attracted to bright lights in the dark.
To get enough light for the shoot, which was documented in both stills and video, Heinrichs and the team used 16 battery-powered Sola 4000s that lasted up to three hours and pumped out almost 70,000 lumens of light. Heinrichs and Schmidt used Canon 5D Mark IIIs and 1D Xs, which they say were crucial to the shoot because of how well the cameras perform in low light.
The end goal for the shoot is to help ensure manta rays get protected by CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It’s an international agreement between governments that attempts to protect species from becoming extinct due to international economic activity. Manta rays are slow to reproduce.