Red Filter - when to use, when not to?

[quikcolin]

Hi everyone,

In a week I'll be using my GoPro Hero2 with a Backscatter housing and their "Magic Red Filter" in the Caribbean. Most dives will be deep (below 60') but we will be going to two shallow reefs, which brings me to my quesiton.

When can't I use the red filter? I know depths beyond 30'? you should use it (right?)... but can it be used for shallow dives as well? Or will the use of a red filter in shallow water make everything look red?

Do I not use it while jumping off the boat into the water, then once I reach 30ish feet, stick it on?

Could someone help explain the "do's and don'ts" of Red filter use while filming underwater.

 

[diversteve]

Above about 15' with the red filter everything will have a slight yellowish cast in the Caribbean. So if you're shooting really shallow you might want to leave it off. It's actually easier to fix blue than yellow in post-production if necessary.

Depending on where you're going - below about 60' you might see some light fall-off so you may want to remove it and try to fix the blue during editing later. Or not.

It really varies, off Roatan I noticed things getting darker around 60+' in the Bahamas Out Islands I was still using it at 90+' - it's really dependent on the time of day, where the sun is and amount of available light. Shooting in vertical canyons or swim-thru's you'll notice it more than shooting over reflective white sand. Some of the fall-off can be fixed in editing also but too much and the footage starts looking washed out.

Do you have the Bacpack? (sp) And does it allow viewing while filming? IDK as I don't have a GoPro.

 

[quikcolin]

Thanks Diversteve.

I don't have the bacpac for my GoPro... but if I did, it does allow for viewing before filming... not sure if it works while filming? So it sounds like it will be best to slap it on during my decent. We're diving quite a few wrecks, and ledges.

 

[fdarden]

I use the Bacpack. The display can remain active whether or not you are filming. However it cannot be installed under water. You must change your housing door (new door included with the bacpac) and it does make the camera a bit heavier and thicker.

 

[jcclink]

Do you really mean the LCD pack? That's the only way to have a viewing screen, whether or not you're filming. The basic camera has no viewing capability.
Battery only lasts about 60 min with LCD on full time + the additional heat may cause condensation in the housing.

 

[Marty Cerven]

I use the Blurfix and URPro filters so they may work a little different to the magic filter with the backscatter setup. With the regular cyan filter I find it works best between 5-20m in good daylight but it does help out to about 30m depth in very good light and vis like in thailand 30m+ vis on a sunny day. The worse the light and vis is the shallower it will produce the best results at, filters need good amounts of natural light to work best.

Below 5m I still get better results using a cyan filter then a clear lens as blues tend to dominate from 2m to about 4.5m where the reds start to go missing pretty badly. From my experience its much easier to reduce reds then it is to amplify blues that haven't been captured properly at all. With the URPro cyan filter if your too shallow the image will go red not yellow but the magic filter may have different results. From what Ive seen the Backscatter magic filter seems to loose more colour at 15m then the URPro cyan does at the same depth but without an actual side by side comparison its hard to tell.

The footage I've seen with the magic filter at 5-12m though does get some pretty good colours comparable to what I get with my URPro ones. From what Ive seen the Magic filter looks pretty yellowish compared to a darker red colour of the URPro so different results would be expected from each filter.

There also the shallow water cyan filter by URPro that does well from just below the water to about 5m and doesn't loose most colour like a clear lens does with a GoPro at around the 3.5m mark. A good tip with filters is to keep the sun behind you at all times for best results but Ive got away with shooting towards the sun at times but best effect is from the sun behind for sure.

The LCD is a great thing to have and even though details aren't easy to spot in it you do get a pretty good idea of how the filter is working through the LCD and I use it every dive I go handheld. Fogging can be easily dealt with and shouldn't be an issue if you always use some method to ensure it doesn't happen. Thew GoPro antifog strips and the desiccant balls in the Blurfix have always worked for me and its no hassle IMHO as id hate to lose all my footage due to fogging.

 

[beleebala]

Sorry for an off-the-topic question. Marty, I saw that you had some 3D videos made with the GoPro. How do you like them? Is it a lot more time consuming editing 3D. I do not have a 3D monitor, so I cannot watch your videos.

 

[testpilot58d]

I love the LCD Backpack on my goPro. It's great for framing the shot. I shot my entire Mexico vacation (Stills and video) on my GoPro. I turn my display on and off during the dive to conserve battery. (push button on the side...comes on. Push it again...turns it off. Simple) Heat/condensation... I put my gopro in the housing in 80 deg temp on the surface, went underground and dove in 58 deg water of Bonne Terre Mine with the display on almost the whole dive...was never an issue. I was on the fence about purchasing my LCD display because of comments here on SB....I'm glad I made the choice to buy it.

 

[merxlin]

I just got back from Fiji and used the SRP Blurfix with the red filter and two 900 lumen video lights for almost all the shots, as we had cloud cover almost the whole trip. There is a bit more red than I'd like in the 15ft and above shots with bright sun but all in all I think they came out great. I'll post some clips as soon as I finish editing. I had 120+ clips to go through after 6 days of diving.

 

[merxlin]

Here's a quickly edited for length clip at a 15-20ft depth with good ambient light and the red filter: