To camera or not?

[Chavodel8en]

I used to have an uncle like that when I was a little kid. Unending slideshows of dramatically boring pictures while we all feigned astonishment and surprise. I still have to do that with some divers showing me endless pictures of puffers taken from above the subject. I used to joke that the level of a DM's interest in your pictures is directly proportional to the size of the tip he/she is expecting. There are dozens of excellent reference books that show all sea creatures small and large if I need to see pictures of them.

Well thats just them, Im sure all the people I show my fish pics are genuinely engrossed!! Oooo, look an olive rockfish. And there, another olive rockfish, but slightly bigger.

 

[BoltSnap]

I'm not sure I understand any of this......

Don't worry, no one does understand it. Just consider it poetry in Chinese and move on. He means well and is a very nice guy very deep down, extreme depths.

 

[BoltSnap]

Editing video and doing the White Balance and color matching

What software do you use for these tasks?

 

[Cthippo]

Yes.

For me the camera is the point. I won't do something if its just for me, but by shooting video of it or working towards being able to get video of it, I can feel like it's worthwhile. My own hangup, sure, but you won't see me in the water without at least one GoPro.

 

[bmorescuba]

All valid viewpoints from where I'm sitting. I'm at the point now where I can't dive without a camera. Focusing on photography has improved my diving by leaps and bounds. Buoyancy, dive planning, air consumption - if you don't have those dialed in, you can't get great photos. As others have pointed out, it has made me a terrible buddy, which is why I have switched to essentially diving solo (or with a photo group). Anyone who gets in the water with me knows my pace (glacially slow) and if they're willing to dive like that - great! Slowing down is the best way to see more. Spending lots of time with one subject is not a negative for me. One of my favorite dives ever was 70 minutes hovering inches above the sand, just observing yellowhead jawfish and waiting for the right shot. I started taking pics to help with species ID - I wanted to ID everything I saw on a dive. It evolved into a real passion. I enjoy sharing with others, and photographing others on trips. People have used my photos as gifts, online encyclopedias have used them in articles (even the Smithsonian!) - but no one looks at my pics more than me. It takes me back to each trip and I get to enjoy it again as a break from slogging through work all day.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

What software do you use for these tasks?

Davinci Resolve 18...hands down the best available. The free version has all you need and never had I needed to use something only available on the studio version...except for the GPU acceleration...maybe one day I will be able to afford Studio and the Resolve Micro Panel. Until then I am super happy with the product.

Great editor, industry level color grading, even has a pretty cool mixing panel for sound and music but that is more advanced than I need.

 

[BoltSnap]

Davinci Resolve 18...hands down the best available. The free version has all you need and never had I needed to use something only available on the studio version...except for the GPU acceleration...maybe one day I will be able to afford Studio and the Resolve Micro Panel. Until then I am super happy with the product.

Great editor, industry level color grading, even has a pretty cool mixing panel for sound and music but that is more advanced than I need.

Is it something to start with for somebody like me who has never done any video or video postprocessing? I am a good u/w still photographer and do well with LR (not PS).

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

Is it something to start with for somebody like me who has never done any video or video postprocessing? I am a good u/w still photographer and do well with LR (not PS).

You can definitely use it. Are you doing more photography or videography? I know people who use Resolve for photography simply because the color panel is the best around. It took me sometime to learn it but there are a ton of videos out there on it. Plus the free training guides from Davinci are quite good even if they are for land based stuff.

I do videography almost exclusively and it has the tools needed for me...and I am currently developing my own LUTs for shallow water and deep water video/photography which I will likely put up for sale one of these days.

I see Resolve like I see a Shearwater after taking the OWC or ADV, you may not need it now, but it will handle all the things you want to do in the future.

 

[BoltSnap]

Are you doing more photography or videography?

I am doing still photo exclusively now and use Lightroom for that. I want to get into videography once I update my camera.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Davinci Resolve 18...hands down the best available. The free version has all you need and never had I needed to use something only available on the studio version...except for the GPU acceleration...maybe one day I will be able to afford Studio and the Resolve Micro Panel. Until then I am super happy with the product.

Great editor, industry level color grading, even has a pretty cool mixing panel for sound and music but that is more advanced than I need.

The other thing that caused me to ditch the GoPro was that it took hours to download the video to my computer, using whatever software GoPro provided for that. And then doing anything to the video seemed to take forever. Maybe I just didn't have enough computing power in my old Dell laptop?