White balance with canon 5d underwater video issue

[jdandvalerie]

David, and JDandValerie, thanks for the suggestions on this...
I think I will try the more creative uses of the WB controls on the 3 tank and lunch Jimmy has going out Monday....
The first dive will be at first light, and their will be a blue cast to the bottom at 90 feet. Vis is still expected to be excellent.

For the night dive, if I did a Custom white balance of something large and white I could fill most of the screen with, and was so close to it that this was entirely a video light white balancing,,say 2 feet away from dome....would you expect reds to mess up the video later, or would it just fix the color of the video lights?
Oh, and David, I have the 5D Mark II.


Thanks

I don't think you'd have any reason for a custom WB while lighting up subjects like Goliaths with video lights. Here's the problem I see...to set the custom WB, you need a still photo example of what is "white" at depth...so you would need to expose your "white" object with your video lights and take a still photo, then set your custom WB based on that image. I just see too many ways this can go wrong (hot spots with video lights, reflections...etc...).

I misunderstood you initially thinking you were going to do a custom WB without lights, then turn the lights on. I should never read the messages on my phone...sometimes I miss the important stuff

The 3 tank monday would be a good "test" day. I'd be interested in knowing the results as I shoot video in only 2 ways (with video lights that are not my preference, and with custom WB in ambient light), not at all unless bright sun is overhead and I'm relatively shallow <70-80'.

 

[danvolker]

I don't think you'd have any reason for a custom WB while lighting up subjects like Goliaths with video lights. Here's the problem I see...to set the custom WB, you need a still photo example of what is "white" at depth...so you would need to expose your "white" object with your video lights and take a still photo, then set your custom WB based on that image. I just see too many ways this can go wrong (hot spots with video lights, reflections...etc...).

I misunderstood you initially thinking you were going to do a custom WB without lights, then turn the lights on. I should never read the messages on my phone...sometimes I miss the important stuff

The 3 tank monday would be a good "test" day. I'd be interested in knowing the results as I shoot video in only 2 ways (with video lights that are not my preference, and with custom WB in ambient light), not at all unless bright sun is overhead and I'm relatively shallow <70-80'.

I think Monday is the Zion/Bonaire and maybe Hole in the Wall and Mispah....lots of deeper than 80 feet
We willl see how the experimenting goes

 

[Ambassador Divers]

Hi Dan

Balancing you camera for video lights is as important as balancing your camera for ambient light. Just like on land, your camera needs to know what type of light your shooting. Flash, cloudy, florescent, tungsten....your camera needs to know what is white and it can't possibly do that until you tell it.

Pick your target distance with your lights on and shoot off a still in full auto on a white slate. The MarkII is a great camera. It will balance at any depth with video lights. Select the image as custom and enjoy your dive. That's all there is to it.