large_diver
Contributor
Yes - correct, both filter and lights. I guess as others have said here and elsewhere, there is never enough light underwater even in clear water and with good video lights if shooting at any sort of distance beyond 1-2 feet and especially at deeper depths where natural light is dim. You can offset this with better lights and longer/wider light arms...but again, never perfect. The filters are a crutch that helps offset this....using both lights/filters has generally worked well for me. Some people prefer to use their post production software instead of filters to help with colors and exposure, since the filter color effect can sometimes be off depending on conditions/water clarity. I do this too, but feel like using all 3 (lights, filter, software) produces pretty good results. Macro is a different story - you can see my Backscatter macro lens in my rig picture, which I use with lights and no filter since that lens works best at a fixed distance of 3-5 inches from the subject.
Here is another example of how getting good footage is always a moving target - footage from Belize shot 2 weeks ago. This is using a red filter (Backscatter) and the same light set-up. I shot this using my Hero4 Black set as follows = 2.7k, 60 fps, medium FOV, Protune on. Some of the footage looks dynamite; in some off it the color looks slightly off (especially some of the yellow tube sponges). Again - variable light conditions, variable depth (I used the Backscatter 20-50 foot red filter for all footage), variable distances to the subject. Visibility was generally pretty average while we were there (down to 50 feet in come cases due to passing storms). I edited this in FinalCutPro and used the image stabilization in the software.
Belize 2018 - The Diving
