waterone
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Close up and in the dim/darkness, lights have their place for sure, even more so if you are taking video trying to pull photos. I am by no way against light use at all, I am more speaking about shooting video past 5ft which is where most of the video I like most happens. I dive the Sound as well as many other places with less than stellar viz and/or light penetration. After 5ft the light isnt wide enough to cover the entire FOV and that is where most of my issues arise. But I still prefer my stick (and light if I set it up) over a tray for just my gopro and light.
(Just an example as it isn't a good shot) As you can see in the pic I took below, while a small video light that this guy has in this photo, it doesn't go far, I think it was around 2000 on a fairly clear morning at 70ish ft. When I have tried to video scenes like this at a distance with a video light on it turns out worse...for me. But I am very far from a good video/photographer.
This one was with only a video light but with my sony camera. If I didn't use a light here as you know it would be a nice soup green at deeper than 50ft and nice dark shadows since these guys love to sit in the holes.
Your right about the lack of focus with close ups with the gopros but people have done well with an additional lens. So maybe something to look into if you want to go that route.
You are also right in clearer water it does work much better when not using a light as compared to the Sound. This is a still pull and edit from a video, but even close without a light most things turn our decent for a video camera (could be much better but I am still learning color correction). Sure, on this shot being closer a light could have been pulled off and probably looked better, but I have much more video of it swimming at me from about 20 feet away. Instead, when editing my videos together I just color correct the entire portion of video and it looks pretty good to me.
(Just an example as it isn't a good shot) As you can see in the pic I took below, while a small video light that this guy has in this photo, it doesn't go far, I think it was around 2000 on a fairly clear morning at 70ish ft. When I have tried to video scenes like this at a distance with a video light on it turns out worse...for me. But I am very far from a good video/photographer.
This one was with only a video light but with my sony camera. If I didn't use a light here as you know it would be a nice soup green at deeper than 50ft and nice dark shadows since these guys love to sit in the holes.
Your right about the lack of focus with close ups with the gopros but people have done well with an additional lens. So maybe something to look into if you want to go that route.
You are also right in clearer water it does work much better when not using a light as compared to the Sound. This is a still pull and edit from a video, but even close without a light most things turn our decent for a video camera (could be much better but I am still learning color correction). Sure, on this shot being closer a light could have been pulled off and probably looked better, but I have much more video of it swimming at me from about 20 feet away. Instead, when editing my videos together I just color correct the entire portion of video and it looks pretty good to me.