Blog by: Ultralight Brand Ambassador, Andrea Michelutti
I like a setup that lets me react fast, because underwater things change in a second. Every underwater photographer knows the feeling: you drop in rigged for macro, and suddenly a pelagic swims by. Or you are set up for wide-angle, and you spot the most perfect, tiny nudibranch. The ocean doesn’t care about your setup; that is why my main goals underwater are speed and adaptability: I hate missing a shot because I’m busy unscrewing gear.
Here is how I keep the wet lenses ready on the arms
With my compact camera and my Ultralight Camera Solutions gear, I’ve built a rig that lets me switch from macro to wide-angle in a matter of seconds. I achieve this by keeping my additional wet lenses mounted directly on my ULCS arms. Instead of fumbling in my BCD pockets and risking scratches, I can switch them rapidly when the situation changes.
Lighting must be equally adaptable: that’s why I keep a snoot mounted above the camera, within reach.
The ULCS AC-AQD04 quick release allows me to detach it in moments to shoot from different angles, pan by hand, or hand it to an assistant. No twisting, no struggling, just unclip and go.
Even when I keep the snoot mounted, I need total control over the light direction. This is where the Ultralight Cutout Clamps make a huge difference. Standard clamps can sometimes limit how far you can fold an arm, but the cutout design gives me an extra range of motion: it allows me to position the torch or the snoot at extreme angles that would otherwise be completely impossible.
Cutout Clamps for torch and snoot
This is the quick-release system for the snoot
To optimize everything and avoid tangles, I also wired my fiber optics directly along the arms. Two fibers are attached to one port, constantly connected to the two strobes on the sides of the housing. A third fiber sits on the other port, permanently connected to the snoot. If you’ve ever tried to plug and unplug fiber optics underwater with cold hands, you know how frustrating it can be. This setup allows me to use the snoot and the strobes simultaneously without ever having to touch the cables.
Here is the permanent fiber optic routing
This configuration gives me total creative freedom. For example, I can shoot with the two side strobes to light the subject from the front, while simultaneously backlighting it with the snoot to get a dramatic, creative effect.
A result achieved using front strobes and backlit snoot simultaneously
Double snoot
This setup gives me the kind of versatility I really want underwater, and lets me shoot completely different subjects on the same dive. A perfect example is my photo Ad Astra: It was a cloudy day, what in Italy we call “cielo a pecorelle”. I was originally shooting macro, but when I saw the rays of light, I converted to wide-angle instantly. I was lucky, but also ready: the jellyfish was perfectly positioned in front of the sun, looking like a starship going “Ad Astra”.
Ad Astra
Moving with the full rig underwater
Looking at the rig in these behind-the-scenes shots, it might seem difficult to move around with so much gear. In reality, you get used to it very quickly. Thanks to the lightness of the Ultralight arms and clamps I don’t need a lot of floats to keep the rig close to neutral. When the arms and clamps hold everything solidly in place without slipping, and the quick releases let you swap components effortlessly, a complex setup actually becomes very intuitive to handle underwater. Less bulk, more stability, and much easier to handle than it looks.
If you have any questions about the rig or the ULCS parts I use, just drop me a mail through the contact section on my website: www.andreamichelutti.net, or message me on Facebook or Instagram.
