Light, vs Depth in Tropical waters

[Remy B.]

I appreciate your opinions on this I like to make a nice video in Curacao and have some questions.

How much light do you need in Tropical waters at 50m for filming during day dives, with a Go Pro-3

Diving here in Nederland I notice that too much light makes ****** pictures, and I only have a 400Lumes light, but the waters are dark and with sediment, I understand that sediment and light don't get together, I make nice pictures in shallows in tropical waters, but as I get deeper I see the pictures don't get that much color, then I was using a 300Lumes light, now I have a 400Lumes wider light had not used it in Tropical waters yet, but this time I go a little deeper and with Camara with red filter settings and a Go Pro video and no red filter.

Is a photography and Videography course worth the money ? will they really teach you about light vs depth and conditions or does it just grasp the surface

Thanks

 

[ronscuba]

50m, meaning 50 meters or 164 feet ? Not much light at that depth. Ditch the filter and use the light.

All the diving I have done in Curacao has been 100 feet or shallower.

For 50 feet, with a 400 lumen light, I would use the filter only for wide angle and medium angle. Lights for macro. Closeups, depends if is is sunny out, filter or lights.

You have a flip filter ?

 

[Remy B.]

it is 50 meters, it will be a technical dive, but I never had taken video at that dept, thanks for the tip, I will carry both of my 1000 lumes torch in case the video light from 400 doesn't work, I hope the video comes out ok

 

[Freewillow]

I have taken video @ 42 meters here . At that depth, 400 lumen will not help you. I have a 1200 lumen video lamp. This one is useful @ less than 1 m eter from any object at that depth.

 

[drbill]

I used to dive and film repeatedly to depths of 160-200 ft (~50-61 m) here in the somewhat murky temperate Pacific. My lights were Sola 1200s and I was able to get excellent close-ups. There was enough light even at those depths to record wide angle but of course they "reflected" the limited light at those depths.

 

[Remy B.]

Thanks Willow, what kind/brand light you have ?

 

[Remy B.]

Hi Bill, how many lights do you have ?, I dive a lot in Curacao and visibility is normally always good, but I don't want that all the video and pictures to be Blue, with the camara I will do closeup or macros, I believe the 400 will be enough but for the video I only have the 1000 Lumes torch and is not wide angle

 

[tursiops]

At 50m you will ALWAYS get blue pix/video, and the typical reddish filters just add red to blue and you get purple, and darker because of the light lost through the red filter.

You MUST add in your own light to put any color back into the picture/video. This is easy enough for closeup/macro, but difficult to impossible for wide-angle scenes.

An alternative at depth is to shoot black and white, not color. Now contrast is your only issue.

 

[Freewillow]

I have an Archon light. Good value for the money. I hope you have been able to see the video with the hammerhead sharks. This was taken without a lamp. Pretty useless at that depth and distance. DO NOT USE A RED FILTER. It will only darken your picture. Rather use a software that can contrast and rebalance your colors. I am using lightroom from adobe. It is quite good.