When Are Video Lights Needed?

[yceltikci]

I just got back from Cozumel and my first salt water video experience. I'm going to tell you now what I'm wish I knew before I left. GET A RED FILTER. I use a light cannon too and I can tell you it's pretty much worthless above 90 feet in most conditions - unless you're within two feet or so of the subject. The ambient blue light is much stronger than the video light.

Mark

Dear Mark,

What I feel good about underwater videography is that blueish feeling. Unless you're shooting macro or close-up video of u/w creatures, I think leaving the red filter on deck is a better idea...

I mean it's already blue out there!... Why try to change it?

Rgrds.
Yener

 

[ronrosa]

Just wondering at what point do you need to add video lights to your rig? Not a pro or anything - just for casual diving and videoing my trips and my sons. For example - say diving in Cozumel. Vis 90 to 100. Are lights needed at all? Dusk or dawn?
Deeper than a certain depth? Also, to give you some idea where I am at, my housing is self made out of pvc pipe, my camera is an old Sony camcorder (not even digital :11: ). Anyway, just wondering. Thanks.

A red color correction filter goes a long way. As a hobbyist, 99% of the time I use lights for night dives only.

 

[yceltikci]

A red color correction filter goes a long way. As a hobbyist, 99% of the time I use lights for night dives only.

What about cave dives?

Yener

 

[ronrosa]

What about cave dives?

Yener

Sorry, no cave diving for me. Just swim throughs, which I like to film as a "light at the end of the tunnel" shot.

 

[howard4113]

Dear Mark,

What I feel good about underwater videography is that blueish feeling. Unless you're shooting macro or close-up video of u/w creatures, I think leaving the red filter on deck is a better idea...

I mean it's already blue out there!... Why try to change it?

Rgrds.
Yener

Yener,

I think what we're all trying to achieve is a video presentation the way that the human eye sees it. We all know that uncorrected imagery taken with incandescent light look much too red -- and uncorrected imagery taken with florescent light looks much too green. We all use white balance or filters to correct for the light temperature in those situations. Unfiltered / uncorrected underwater video colors look nothing like what I see thru my mask. When I dive, the sand at 40 feet looks white to me -- but not to a camera! Yes it's blue down there - but it's not a monochrome blue world. The sponges are pink, the algae is green, squirrelfish are red, and yellow tangs are yellow. I like to see them that way in my video too!

Regards,
Mark

 

[BILLB]

I use a Sony Digital camera and use the red filter. What a difference from the videos without the filter. The color shift is apparent even at shallow (30 feet) depths. I have two HID 40 watt lights. Even with these I can only use them for close ups and I must remove the red filter or the HIDs lighted object will look red!

I use Pinnacle for editing and it has some color enhancements but it will not restore a blue underwater video. Photoshop does wonders for stills but I have not seen the same thing for video.

 

[yceltikci]

Dear Mark,

I think what we're all trying to achieve is a video presentation the way that the human eye sees it. We all know that uncorrected imagery taken with incandescent light look much too red -- and uncorrected imagery taken with florescent light looks much too green. We all use white balance or filters to correct for the light temperature in those situations.

What an eye sees and what a camcorder records are theoretically the same. I mean that when you are down at 60-75' your eyes also do not see the red. nor the camcorder lenses.

Unfiltered / uncorrected underwater video colors look nothing like what I see thru my mask. When I dive, the sand at 40 feet looks white to me -- but not to a camera! Yes it's blue down there - but it's not a monochrome blue world. The sponges are pink, the algae is green, squirrelfish are red, and yellow tangs are yellow. I like to see them that way in my video too!

What you suggest here, as far as I understood, is that unlike camcorders our eyes see the correct colors whatever the depth is. I strongly disagree with this opinion.

Most of us had accidents ending with small cuts and scratches down there. And we all surprised to see ourselves bleeding green like aliens..

So, if you say that "I want to see what real colors there are" then I'm OK with filters and lights. But if you say "I want to see what my eyes see" then yo need nothing but your camcorder (of course the housing ).

I think I can express myself.

I like this discussion anyway.

Regards
Yener

 

[howard4113]

Dear Mark,
What an eye sees and what a camcorder records are theoretically the same. ......
What you suggest here, as far as I understood, is that unlike camcorders our eyes see the correct colors whatever the depth is. I strongly disagree with this opinion.
.......I think I can express myself.

I like this discussion anyway.

Regards
Yener

Yener,

It is a well known FACT that the eye adjusts to light temperature and sees white as white under both flourescent and incandescent light - even though a camera (uncorrected!) will show one as distinctly green and the other as distinctly red. That's why we have white balance - to make a scene appear as it does to the EYE! No different underwater. I will concede that the eye does see a blue hue - however a yellow octo hose looks yellow (perhaps greenish yellow) - not a monochrome blue.

Mark

 

[ronrosa]

Yener,

It is a well known FACT that the eye adjusts to light temperature and sees white as white under both flourescent and incandescent light - even though a camera (uncorrected!) will show one as distinctly green and the other as distinctly red. That's why we have white balance - to make a scene appear as it does to the EYE! No different underwater.
Mark

You can even further say manual white balance can improve above and beyond what the eye see's. I know that what I see looking through my camcorder lens after a manual white balance looks more colorful than what I see with my eyes. This is especially true at the deeper depths.

 

[meekal]

HOWARD4113 - if you're looking for a RED FILTER for your system contact these guys.

A B Sea Photo
(310) 645-8992
9136 S Sepulveda Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90045

they can make ANY size red filter to fit any camera. i was on my way to FIJI last summer and we were roaming around waiting for the flight and stumbled across them. they were able to measure and cut and fit a red filter for my OLY5050z on the spot. they're real good folks. give them a buzz and i'm sure they'll be able to fix ya right up.