need some info, first video

[Jim Ernst]

i am wondering if and or how to work on a video, i shot my first video with my canon and of course i didnt have any good lighting, now this is no awsome video so i just want to use it for learning prosess, and so with the lack of lighting it has a green tint to it , now i am wondering if it is possible to edit the color in the video as we can with still photos, and if so what program, and or how to do so!! thanks for any info-help!!

 

[miket]

Most good video editing software will alow you to color correct. I prefer Adobe Premiere. It's the "photoshop of video" for me. Vegas is also supposed to have good color correcting tools. There are a few others I have no experience with (Pinnacle, Ulead, etc). On the Mac, Final Cut Pro seems to be the way to go.

You don't need lighting to get rid of the green, play with your camera's white balance settings. Set it to 'daylight" if it is set for indoors. I know with some cameras if you turn it off/on at different depths while filming it fools the camera's white balance sensors resulting in more colorful video. I feel having manual control over white balance is the best option for any underwater video camera, second to the record button.

Lights are really only good for close-ups and adding some "fill" color for things 3-4 feet away. White balance is the only way to get rid of the blue/green tint that seems to wash out underwater video. Video cameras seem to get confused underwater and push everything to the green side, and in California where the water is sometimes "green" it just makes it worse.

Hope any of this helps...

- MikeT

 

[simonspear]

Also you need to use a filter to bring back reds into the video. Like Mike said in the post above, lights wont work further away than 3-4 feet, so everything else is dependant on white balance, filters and colour correction when editing. Without a filter you will never be able to get the colour depth back into video (unless you have a great cam that can WB very well underwater and even then they usually still help).

UR Pro make filters for most housings for use as either external or internal in green or blue water.

Cheers, Simon

 

[marshallkarp]

Dove Joe's Tug last month in Key West at 65' and everything was real green. I am nearing the final editing and will have it up on google video soon, but this is will be my first color corrected video. My other videos have all been natural color and I was really torn as to leave it natural green, as that was pretty much how things were, or color correct. After going back and forth, I decided to color correct as it does bring out more hidden detail and color. I decided to gear the video more towards the audience that will most watch the video.

You divers keep in mind, if you dive Joe's Tug, the surrounding color will be green, not the clearer water that is in my video. However, I figure that that most people that will watch my video will not dive Joe's Tug, probably don't dive at all.

Just out of curiousity, I toyed around with black and white, but this made the video look too dated. It was an interesting effect, though, and if I ever want to do a Sea Hunt style video, I may use the black and white for that.

So, to sum up, my decision is based on my opinion of the main audience for the end product, like my family and friends.

My software is Pinnacle Studio Plus 9.