Great Results without Red Filter. Would it have been Better with?

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TomsOn

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Location
Southern California
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I am a long time photographer and have just started Diving. I used my Osmo Action set 60FPS, Auto W/B. I am pretty good with Premier Pro and color correction. So I am happy with my first two videos. One in the British VI and one diving Kelp Forest at Catalina. I am going to Cozumel for 8 days of diving and I bought some more gear as the first videos were on a selfie stick. New gear Action Cam two handed mount, two video lights 1000 lumens each.

My question to the guys that have been doing this is... Would my results be better with a red filter on the Lens? My initial thought after processing the first few is that I was able to pull out the colors and I hate to lose light by adding a filter.

BVI

Catalina Island, California
 
I think you made a great decision to get the lights! Any shadow areas/close ups will be well saturated and properly colored. Personally, I think adding filters will cause more problems post production than without (especially the areas your lights lit up). I have a similar setup, and the only time I felt the color was completely off was when I used the gels.
 
I am a long time photographer and have just started Diving. I used my Osmo Action set 60FPS, Auto W/B. I am pretty good with Premier Pro and color correction. So I am happy with my first two videos. One in the British VI and one diving Kelp Forest at Catalina. I am going to Cozumel for 8 days of diving and I bought some more gear as the first videos were on a selfie stick. New gear Action Cam two handed mount, two video lights 1000 lumens each.

My question to the guys that have been doing this is... Would my results be better with a red filter on the Lens? My initial thought after processing the first few is that I was able to pull out the colors and I hate to lose light by adding a filter.

BVI

Catalina Island, California
I think they look great! Do you feel like 2000 lumens is the sweet spot between enough illumination and not having near subjects washed out? Have you used your setup on a night dive?
 
I think they look great! Do you feel like 2000 lumens is the sweet spot between enough illumination and not having near subjects washed out? Have you used your setup on a night dive?
I just put this rig together for my Cozumel trip - leaving Sunday for 8 days. Funny thing is that this is a 2,000 lum max setup. Maybe $160 cage system. We'll see how it works. Not taking it more than 80ft. At least that is my expectation that it should hold up for that. Do you like my high end buoyance set up? Mainly I wanted to get the lights offset as much as possible to reduce backscatter.
 

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I just put this rig together for my Cozumel trip - leaving Sunday for 8 days. Funny thing is that this is a 2,000 lum max setup. Maybe $160 cage system. We'll see how it works. Not taking it more than 80ft. At least that is my expectation that it should hold up for that. Do you like my high end buoyance set up? Mainly I wanted to get the lights offset as much as possible to reduce backscatter.
What kind of light did you use in the BVI?
 
Lights for video and no red filters are essential. My Big Blue VL4200P video lights can also be switched to red lights.

TG6 & BIG BLUE VL4200P.jpg
 

Video lights are great as you can use them for night diving even if not taking photo or video. I bring a dive torch on dives to search under low visa areas even on day dives. This video from a night dive.

 
You can see the effect that your video lights have demonstrated in the first 15 seconds of the Ginger Island video. As the shot opens, the reef looks kind of monochromatic blue-green, but as you get closer to the reef, and the video lights start to become effective, you see progressively more vibrant colours.

In general, as a "Rule of Thumb", supplemental lighting, whether constant lights or strobes for still photography will only be able to light up at a distance of an out stretched arm. If you can't reach out and touch your subject, you probably will have challenges lighting it properly. (It should go without saying, that I am not advising anyone to reach out and touch anything, I am merely putting the distance into an easily imagined context.)

A red filter, like so many things in life is a compromise. It doesn't work by restoring red to your image. It works by filtering out all colours except red. You will lose about 1.5-3 stops of light. The advantage, however is that by removing the other colours, it will result in the appearance of having the colours restored, and it is totally independent (withing reason) of the distance between you and your subject.

Both methods (light v. filter) have their advantages and both have their drawbacks. For most of us, there really is no simple answer to which is better. To a large extent, like so many things, the answer tends to be "It depends." The other option is how comfortable you feel in adjusting the colour in post production.
 
Like Hoag says...maybe yes maybe no. I think very clear water in Cozumel tends to reward filters but ymmv.

you should get a couple filters and try your gopro with and without,,,maybe even the same subject, same angle. Lights of course can made filter unneeded if real close to subject or night diving. Can never have too mny damn lights.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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