6 minutes of diving off the Komodo Islands in April / feedback appreciated!

[rcaqua]

Hi all,

Finally managed to compress 6 days of diving into 6 minutes (long-ish, I know)....

My first attempt at underwater video. Many thanks to those who provided advice on this forum before I set off.

The GoPro 3 Black edition did everything that it claims to do. I used a red filter (SRP) 1080p, 50 fps, no lights. I treid Protunes and RAW in the ebginning, but the results on the screen were scary, so I went for a simpler setting. A bit of cropping here and there and very minor colour correction. Used iMovie on a Mac Air for post prod: very slow in rendering but it gets the job done in the end...

Some shots are a bit bumpy, despite the fact that I used a tray: I make a point of never holding on to anything or anyone while I film, and the currents at Komodo are at times quite robust (see the soft coral near the manta!).

The lessons learned seem to be the same as when I was doing underwater photography: get up real close to the subject (see the turtle shot...), if possible slightly underneath it. Rays and sharks do not always oblige, hence the darkish tones for those. Coral shots are far easier: shallower, more light available. Bottom line: the tool is fine, disappointing results are largely the user's fault...

The video is here:

https://vimeo.com/67943513


Feedback much appreciated (go ahead, I have a thick skin)!

Rene

 

[crux0724]

Fun video! Looks like some a great trip. It seems like your lighting is a bit low at times, I didn't see any slow motion shots so you might want to use 30fps to improve lighting in the future (slower frame rate = slower shutter speed = more light). Protune looks very raw in the beginning but when you run it through cineform it looks MUCH better. I would also recommend giving it a 2nd chance. Well done, I look forward to more videos!

 

[Linedog]

Very nice!

 

[Jeremy0530]

Try and refrain from using the stabelizer effects because it distorts the perspective and background adding undesirable artifacts. Try to shoot as stable as possible but if its a little bumpy, trying to fix it in post never yields good results (or very rarely I should say). We all know how hard it is to shoot smooth video with a gopro so a little shakiness for a first timer is just fine.

---------- Post added June 10th, 2013 at 05:24 PM ----------

But all in all it's a great start and looks like it was a very fun dive!!

 

[rcaqua]

Thanks for the feedback: no stab from now on, I'll have a stills camera to weigh us down.... lower fps, higher res for cropping and I will indeed try protune again (even though I do not use cineform, rather the beginner level iMoviewhich is slow but fine, I think...).

Thanks again to all.

Rene