Question Blue Filters - To use or not to use?

[adiRHIT]

I have a question for you guys... I know that for video lots of pro's recommend using blue filters on the lights so that you can white balance for mixed natural and strobe lighting underwater. But what about for stills? Wouldn't it make sense for stills as well? Because your foreground might have the correct white balance based on your strobes, but the ocean in the background wouldn't be the right shade of blue... and although we shoot raw, wouldn't it be practically harder to color correct only the background?
How are you guys handling this in general? Is there a certain depth past which you switch to blue filters?

 

[Barmaglot]

I've seen (online) some people try it, but it isn't nearly as popular for stills as it is for video. For one thing, the problem is not nearly as acute - strobes, being about three orders of magnitude more powerful that video lights, simply light up a much bigger area, producing vivid, pleasing colors. The blue filtered light + red filter on lens combination that is used for video is more about filling in shadows with natural-looking light, and then color balancing the whole thing. It removes the jarring transition between artificially lit foreground and naturally lit background, which is a lot closer to the lens with constant lights than it is with strobes, but it also produces somewhat desaturated colors across the whole image, and is a pain to manage, as you need the filters to match your frequently-changing ambient conditions and each other.

 

[adiRHIT]

I've seen (online) some people try it, but it isn't nearly as popular for stills as it is for video. For one thing, the problem is not nearly as acute - strobes, being about three orders of magnitude more powerful that video lights, simply light up a much bigger area, producing vivid, pleasing colors. The blue filtered light + red filter on lens combination that is used for video is more about filling in shadows with natural-looking light, and then color balancing the whole thing. It removes the jarring transition between artificially lit foreground and naturally lit background, which is a lot closer to the lens with constant lights than it is with strobes, but it also produces somewhat desaturated colors across the whole image, and is a pain to manage, as you need the filters to match your frequently-changing ambient conditions and each other.

Ok… so for video it makes sense but for stills not recommended… will try and give my feedback…