Uw Go Pro 4 And Color Balance?

[afieldofblue]

Hello all,

I've been considering buying a Go Pro 4 (silver) for UW video -
I really really love the image quality, and the moderate price tag - but have been holding back because I'm not a great fan of the UW color balance resoluts I'm seeing on footage found online so far (with the exception of shallow footage, shot above 5 meters).

I also watched promotional videos for filter systems like this here, that mention "perfect underwater colors" :

and must say I'm a little puzzled, as I personaly see weirdly balanced, often day-glo like colors on this footage.
I looked at other footage of people using auto-tune and/or Abobe after effects in post, but still haven't found anything I would consider balanced and natural, ie closer to what I actually see underwater.

Another troubling experience was diving in Raja Ampat last February/March, with a friend with a Go Pro silver 4.
Not having a GoPro myself, I've no clue as to how savvy she was with it, but this what her clip colors look like (tropics, natural light, red filter roughly 25 meters max) - I like it up to 5 meters, like the jetty, but then it gets weird imo



I was diving and filming on quite a few these dives, and this is what my footage's colors look like, on a old Lumix TZ10 looks like on exactly the same dives/conditions (that's her you see filming with the go pro btw)


While the image quality is incomparable, I must admit I really prefer the color balance on mine, which is much more closer to what I saw - But then GoPro image quality is amazing and I would really love the upgrade...

So, what's up with this?
Am I the only one finding the GoPro UW colors balance a little weird? On land colors are fine of course, downright amazing actually-
Since I don't find that much discussion on this particulary subject, I'm thinking this kind of color balance might have become the new normal on recent cameras... I'd really love to proved wrong though!

I'm always watching the same clips online, so would really appreciate some good examples of UW (diving, below 5 meters) GoPro footage, shot in natural light if possible (this can be with a filter system or edited in post), with a color balance people like / find good so I can really make up my mind on whether to buy one or not, as at the moment I'm a little lost.

thanks a bunch!

ben

 

[afieldofblue]

That bad, huh? Ok, I still can't give up on the GoPro this easily -
I'll try working on some gopro clips to switch them to some sort of low color, black and white or sepia - A bit like what is done on Pelagic Life videos
Maybe this could be an interesting way of making the most of the GP image quality without having the weird colors getting in the way.

 

[MattPSI]

Interesting that you should bring up this topic, as I too have been struggling with not loving with the day glow colors that seem to occur when using red filters with GoPro, especially at depths greater than about 50 ft by my rough estimate. The other thing is that the red filter can look funky with video lights as depth increases. Objects in the light will tend to look very red and any water in the background can take on a violet hue.

My video from Cozumel last year was shot on a GoPro 3 with a red filter on at all times (Backscatter flip system). I shot with Protune off and did some white balance correction in post. I discarded the clips with the worst color issues. I definitely found colors looked weirder the deeper I got (max depth on video about 100 ft). Here it is:
I just got back from Grand Cayman and made some significant changes to my process. I shot macro with my GoPro 3 and wide angle with a GoPro 4 with Protune on and native/raw white balance at all times. I manually white balanced each clip in GoPro Studio as CineForm files then exported as H.264 files for use in iMovie. I only used the red filter for the first couple shallow reef scenes right at the beginning of the video and the nurse shark and spotted eagle rays at the end of the video. All filter use occurred at a depth of about 40 ft. The rest of the video was shot without filters. The darker scenes and swim throughs were all shot a depths in the range of 90 to 75 ft. I'm quite pleased with the results overall. I find the filters do help to get a vibrant blue water background which can be stunning, but it can come the cost of making most other portions of your scene varying degrees of surreal colors. I'm still planning to experiment with using the red filter in the 20 to 50 ft range, but will likely not go back to using it deeper. And I'm hoping to get away from the filter all together if possible. I should also note that I got more powerful video lights for this trip. Anyway here is the comparison video:

 

[afieldofblue]

Hey, thanks! Very glad to know I'm not the only one bothered by this.
That's very nice, some sections have really really nice color balance in the Grand Cayman vid.
does this mean that shooting filterless and adjusting in post tends to give more flexibility / encouraging results?

I'll be shooting in the tropics with really strong natural light and usually less than 20 m, so don't plan on using any light except for macro and night dives (I have an archon D11V) - I'm actually getting really good results on the TZ10 with an UR filter, and so is a friend on a Canon S110 - but the image clarity is not as sharp and crisp as what you'd get on more recent cams.

I've been playing around with some go profootage i was given in After effects and managed to get things I like, not natural looking at all but still much more watchable in than the original hues - I'll post this comparison vid later - A lot of the work was getting rid of the magenta hue on the vid btw, so this might speak in favor of shooting filterless.

 

[afieldofblue]

Here are the After Effect processed edits I was mentioning (gopro footage is not mine, and chosen for size rather than actual content):

Raw GP footage:


Edited:


Raw GP footage:


Edited:


Again, this is not natural looking at all, but still less disturbing than the original in my opinion

b

 

[MattPSI]

I think it looks better with your color process too. Definitely more natural, but I like to see more of a vibrant blue in the shallow tropical water, as it really can look that way with the naked eye. It seems very difficult to achieve more vibrant blue backgrounds and reasonable WB on subjects without a red filter in my experience so far (quite limited). My 5 year old son recently asked why I was changing the color in my videos because it was like lying about it. Ultimately I feel that UW video is art and therefore the color you choose to present is a big part of it. So my Cozumel video is more of a "psychedelic slow motion trip" and the GC video uses almost no slow motion and I spent a lot of time crafting a different color "look" that appealed to me. But neither video look exactly like what I saw with the naked eye. The first pelagic video you posted doesn't look like they used any colorizing beyond the typical post processing techniques to me. I would guess that they did manual WB underwater and that they had REALLY great video lights. It is beautiful and they created a particular WB "look" that varied in different scenes. I found that I didn't always prefer to max out the WB correction for all of my ambient light shots in post as the look didn't always appeal to me. I think using Protune and Native WB on GoPro is a great way to go regardless of whether you use a filter or not.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Hi, @oppo. I dive exclusively w/ a GoPro w/ a red filter. If you search for my exact same username on Instagram, you can see what it all looks like. These are all at depth. I hope this helps--let me know if you have any Q's!

 

[afieldofblue]

Thanks - I finally took the plunge and bought one (4 silver) yesterday, with an UR red filter as this is what I found more convincing, and I won't be adjusting / flipping filters since this will be more of a backup camera for now.

Now I have to look into pro tune settings, to find something versatile - I'll probably start with native white balance i guess

Otherwise the pelagic life videos are shot on a canon 5D (5D mark iii canon camera with a 16-35mm f2.8 lens or 7D tokina 10-17mm lens), mostly in natural light though - So far the best white balance / colors I've seen in natural light where on big cameras like the 5D or Lumix GH4 - but we're talking about 3000 USD + with a housing -
or, for a reason yet unexplained, on old pre-2012 compacts like the Lumix TZ10 / SZ7 or the Canon S110.

but at its price, GoPro image quality is unbeatable, not to mention how convenient the size is.

 

[Qasar]

Hello Oppo

Don't know if your still on line, just saw this post today.
I have dived for years with a Gopro 3 + red filter.
The situation is quite simple if you think about it.

1. What you see UW is not what you want to see on your video... Explanation: red is disappearing as soon as 5m. So, your eyes are only seeing the remaining colors (it's a bit more complex, but refers to many good articles on that). You want to have a more colorful movie/picture than what you see.
   
2. Two options:
   1. adding white light through a video torch. This is needed for close up but UW the range for a 1200 lum video torch is 1 to 2m, so the rest of the video is still badly colored.
      
   2. Using a red filter.
      1. The missing red couldn't be added in post prod if you don’t use filter, try it and you will see. So, using a red filter add some red in the movie and then you can play in post prod with this level.
         
      2. The other important point is that the amount of missing red is depending of many factors, depth, color of the sea, visibility, weather... so you cannot consider that you can have an automatic good result whatever the depth or camera orientation. The videos advertising for filters are a bit misleading in this area... There is NO point and shoot automatic with guaranty result, good colors whatever the depth UW.
3. As a consequence of the above, the only way with a gopro to have decent color is to adopt protune with raw mode. Like that the result is constant, no random color correction (in fact auto white balance) by the camera, changing abruptly the color because the light has changed a little.
   
4. Then you have to use an editing software with color correction. I would suggest the easier and best one for me is Color finesse 3 that is coming as a plugin with after effects, but is also available as standalone or plugin for premiere pro. The gopro editing software doesn’t offer enough options to properly color grade uW videos.

Hope this help
Here is a video with post prod: https://vimeo.com/166625828
Here is a video almost without post prod more for the ambiance: https://vimeo.com/133892274

 

[afieldofblue]

Hi and thanks...
As explained above after post 1, I finally was convinced by post editing / color grading tests I tried out in After Effects, and ended up buying the go pro 4 silver with a UR filter, since this is what seemed the most convincing for my purposes. I'll be using it as a back up, to my TZ10 (also with an UR filter btw ) pounted on the casing for our next trip, shooting this kind of stuff

I'll be using pro tune and shooting in medium 1080 30 fps for more light and to match the TZ10 fps as discussed here:
Gopro4 Settings For : Strong Ambient Natural Light (tropics), Dives Less Than 20 M (65 Ft), Wide ?

cheers

b