I think most cameras’ auto white balance is set for use on
land. I used auto white balance all last year and still I
wanted a little more color deep when working with available
light. So I actually started to read the Sony NEX-5N
manual. Well, it is quite easy to set custom white balance.
Now for the white balance card. I found it awkward to hold
out a white card on a leash and shoot it. However, by
gluing a white balance card onto my fin with wet suit
cement, I found that I could quickly shoot my foot, and
either keep both hands on the camera or have one hand
free. It adds more color to your filming if you don’t rely on auto white balance after 15 feet of depth. As you
change depths, the light changes, so to be accurate plus add more color to the work, reshoot your fin with the
white balance card on it. This one step will really enhance videos shot at deeper depths.
Here’s an example of how well the color can be brought out in 80-90 fsw using this technique. On my Cocos
Island trip, I was dropped on the “Dos Amigos” pinnacle wall from the chase boat, and we were gathering outside
the swim-through called “The Cathedral.” Looking away from the herd, I saw those Pacific jacks and wanted to
get their spectacular color stripe as it’s different from our Atlantic jacks. I shot my foot WB card and slowly
worked my way along the wall to film the jacks. That’s when I noticed that the whitetip sharks were awake and
were competing with the jacks for food. Unbelievable…. night-feeding sharks attacking fish in the daytime. What
luck to be there at that moment. I got the shot.
Here’s the link to the shark feeding snippet where I used a custom white balance setting and a slip-on UR/Pro
red filter over the Nikonos 15-mm wide-angle lens. It is unedited so you can see the original results….
http://vimeo.com/60372854
By using custom-set white balance and a high video ISO of 3200, you can put some color back into the deep
By assigning the WB from the main menu to a softkey, its only a push of a button to access WB . 3 seconds to reset WB as needed.
land. I used auto white balance all last year and still I
wanted a little more color deep when working with available
light. So I actually started to read the Sony NEX-5N
manual. Well, it is quite easy to set custom white balance.
Now for the white balance card. I found it awkward to hold
out a white card on a leash and shoot it. However, by
gluing a white balance card onto my fin with wet suit
cement, I found that I could quickly shoot my foot, and
either keep both hands on the camera or have one hand
free. It adds more color to your filming if you don’t rely on auto white balance after 15 feet of depth. As you
change depths, the light changes, so to be accurate plus add more color to the work, reshoot your fin with the
white balance card on it. This one step will really enhance videos shot at deeper depths.
Here’s an example of how well the color can be brought out in 80-90 fsw using this technique. On my Cocos
Island trip, I was dropped on the “Dos Amigos” pinnacle wall from the chase boat, and we were gathering outside
the swim-through called “The Cathedral.” Looking away from the herd, I saw those Pacific jacks and wanted to
get their spectacular color stripe as it’s different from our Atlantic jacks. I shot my foot WB card and slowly
worked my way along the wall to film the jacks. That’s when I noticed that the whitetip sharks were awake and
were competing with the jacks for food. Unbelievable…. night-feeding sharks attacking fish in the daytime. What
luck to be there at that moment. I got the shot.
Here’s the link to the shark feeding snippet where I used a custom white balance setting and a slip-on UR/Pro
red filter over the Nikonos 15-mm wide-angle lens. It is unedited so you can see the original results….
http://vimeo.com/60372854
By using custom-set white balance and a high video ISO of 3200, you can put some color back into the deep
By assigning the WB from the main menu to a softkey, its only a push of a button to access WB . 3 seconds to reset WB as needed.
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