Are video lights necessary for shooting sharks/mantas (bigger pelagics)

[aleus]

Hi all,

Would like to ask if video lights are necessary when shooting bigger stuff like sharks, mantas, schools are fish?

Was on a dive trip recently and was taught by a fellow diver (who took great videos) that lights were not necessary. In fact he found them cumbersome. He said videos taken up to 15m hardly needed additional light, just proper wb.

Would love to hear some thoughts. Thank you.

 

[arew+4]

Can you shoot decent video with available light? Yes, but back ground will tend to look too purple and contrast will suffer. The deeper you are the worse it will be. If you shoot up you will get silhouettes.

Lights will help almost anywhere.

 

[aleus]

Can you shoot decent video with available light? Yes, but back ground will tend to look too purple and contrast will suffer. The deeper you are the worse it will be. If you shoot up you will get silhouettes.

Lights will help almost anywhere.

Yes, I know lights will help almost anywhere. However they tend to scare off marine life too. Hence I was asking when shooting the big stuff, do people prefer with or without lights. And if so why.

Also as an add on, how not to scare away marine life with the lights.

 

[arew+4]

Yes, I know lights will help almost anywhere. However they tend to scare off marine life too. Hence I was asking when shooting the big stuff, do people prefer with or without lights. And if so why.

Also as an add on, how not to scare away marine life with the lights.

Find out how they filmed the large animals in the Blue Planet series, mortgage everything you've got, and duplicate that.

But seriously, consider your budget, adding one 10,000 lumen light probably won't do much outside of 10-15 feet. But will have a large impact from 3-10 feet.

 

[sharknutz]

Also as an add on, how not to scare away marine life with the lights.

Little chum down the wetsuit never hurt. /s

In my experience tho, when the sharks are stirred up they'll come check you out even with lights.

 

[1fspeed]

Here's a video talking about ambient light filters for video lights, but at 2:21 these is a scene with sharks, video lights off, and later at 4:33 the same scene (but a bit closer) with video lights on. (screenshots attached)

If you haven't discovered "Behind the Mask" on Youtube, might wanna block out a few hours for some of the best underwater footage you'll see anywhere.

 

[Bob Meyer]

Depending on the lumen output of your lights, they're only effective for a short distance. So using them to shoot pelagics is pretty much a waste of time (and money). Now for anything fairly close-up, they're a must if you want accurate colors.

 

[Mike_4635]

Another thing you might consider is red filters. There are a number of aftermarket filters for the GoPro like the Flip. Normally you lose the red at 30 feet and the lower you go the more the lose. If I remember right the Flip filter for the GoPro has two or three filter options. Might find a filter system for you camera. Might contact Backscatter.