Using a filter and lights at the same time.

[Marty Cerven]

I posted some of this in another thread but thought it may be better on its own as its a little off topic there. I know its not recommended practice but it doesnt hurt to try when you have more then one GoPro to play with. This was done with HD2 cams as my HD1 cameras are on holidays in Whistler still

Hey Marty - Normally I wouldn't recommend using a CY color correcting filter with lights for the most part. Your introducing Red back into the color spectrum with artificial light and additional Red with the CY filter. But hey let's test and see what it looks like. Heck, it's another reason to get wet. LOL

I am very interested to see how the Shallow water does with lights. Look forward to seeing your tests.

I did do a short dive to about 10m with a cy filter and a clear filter using all my lights, 2x sola 500s and 2x TUSA 300s. The vis was crap but surprisingly even the CY filter with lights had no issues and the cameras auto WB did a pretty good job. Vis was down to 1m with the strong northerlies that cancelled our boat dives wiping out this side of Port Philip bay too. Nothing of interest was in the video as I was lucky enough just to see my dive buddy lol and a couple of pier pylons a few centimeters before I would have hit them. I will be redoing this test over the Easter period hoping to get some dives beyond 20m and see what happens.

Here is a short edit all except the first shot jumping in the water was with the swcy filter. All 4 lights were on for most of these shots (i made a basic diffuser for the TUSA lights to smooth out the light) and the filter caused no issues with the lights surprisingly. Some sections got a little red and so some correction is done in this edit but the raw video will show both clear lens and filter unedited.

[video=vimeo;39632462]https://vimeo.com/39632462[/video]

I did do this side by side, here is a raw video comparison comparing a swcy and clear lens using the lights in the setup below.



Here is a pic of the Setup I used here

 

[MaxBottomtime]

The clear filter is much nicer. Colors are natural and sharp. The video on the left has a red tint throughout the video. I would not use that unless your lights burn out.​

 

[Marty Cerven]

Thanks Max, I actually expected it to be worse though with a little work it will be more useable I think. Ideally removing the filter is the best option when using lights but Im just trying to see if you can get away without so you can get wide shots and close shots without needing to remove the filter by just correcting it in post. I will try the same test on deeper dives where it will be interesting to see how the lack of distant colours gets effected with or without a filter.

Software correction can pretty much fix the red tinge but I didn't quite get it right still on the first video. I have redone this on the vimeo upload which should be up soon and Id like to know your opinion. Even though Im just pretty much getting the footage back to where it is without a filter just by adding more to the workflow so its not ideal just doing this to see if its possible lol.

 

[Cali_diver]

Thank you for doing this! This is exactly what I was looking for! I unfortunately do not have two lying around so I love the side by sides. Looking forward to seeing the the deeper dives!! We are leaving on Friday so hurry up and go deep!! Thank you again!!

 

[Marty Cerven]

I hope to get some deeper dives over the Easter weekend, Im on a waiting list to do some shark dives but not sure if any spots will come up there, and at the moment its looking a little unlikely.

Otherwise I will try get on some boats over Easter but the winds and swell forecast for Melbourne isn't looking too good again,winds over 25 knots and swells well over 3m most of the weekend. Seeing our dives got canceled last Sunday because of 25 knot northerlies and 2.5m swells unless they got this terribly wrong its not looking good :depressed:.

Looks ok for the surf contest at Bells beach though with large swells and northerly offshore winds most of the time so may end up just going there and watch some good surfing if there's no decent dives available.



May need to wait another week for some deeper dives, the beauty of living in Melbourne lol. Every time Ive had a chance to do some proper diving the weather has put an end to it over the last few months, Bass straight south of Melbourne is one of the wildest stretches of open ocean in the world so getting good diving conditions is a little rare and frustrating.

I replaced the link to the first video in the first post to one with a better white balancing throughout, giving an idea of how the red tinge can be removed in software comparing it to the raw side by side video.

 

[Cali_diver]

Great we are going to Belize on friday so we too will experiment with filters and lights!!! Be safe!!