Orange or Red filter

[coralgirl]

I am new at underwater photography and videography. My current camera does not have underwater WB setting on it. I am tempted to buy a red or orange filter, but don't know which one is the best one to use.
I dive in tropical water and up to 20m deep.
Which one should I get?

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

does your camera have manual WB setting? If so, then you can make your camera act as if it has a red filter in front of it.

 

[Interceptor121]

Get a blue water (red) filter or a magic filter. Even with manual white balance results are better with a filter

 

[herman]

For photography, forget the filter unless you are diving fairly shallow, only a few meters and do so at a constant depth. Filters are depth dependent, the amount of filter needed is directly linked to the depth you are at and to make matters worse, it does not "add" red back but rather reduced the amount of other light colors available which has the effect of reducing the already low amount of ambient light. No one filter will be correct at more than one depth and as depth increases, so does the need for more filtering. Only by learning to use color balance correctly can you do an adaquate job of restoring color without adding a strobe....which is the best option. For topside photography and snorkling, filters have their use, underwater, proper camera operation and strobes are the best options.

 

[coralgirl]

does your camera have manual WB setting? If so, then you can make your camera act as if it has a red filter in front of it.

How do i do manual wb? Do i specified the kelvin temprature on my camera? Please elaborate

 

[Interceptor121]

I disagree
Filters work down to 20-25 meters and are the only option to do some wide angle photography without a massive set up if you don't have a camera that shoots RAW which seems to be the case with the OP

For photography, forget the filter unless you are diving fairly shallow, only a few meters and do so at a constant depth. Filters are depth dependent, the amount of filter needed is directly linked to the depth you are at and to make matters worse, it does not "add" red back but rather reduced the amount of other light colors available which has the effect of reducing the already low amount of ambient light. No one filter will be correct at more than one depth and as depth increases, so does the need for more filtering. Only by learning to use color balance correctly can you do an adaquate job of restoring color without adding a strobe....which is the best option. For topside photography and snorkling, filters have their use, underwater, proper camera operation and strobes are the best options.

 

[herman]

I did not say they did not work but you simply can not install 1 filter and expect it to correctly color balance for more than a few meters of depth change. The amount of the non-red colors of the light specturm that the filter must remove increases with depth, there is no way around that. You must remove more and more of the non-red colors as depth increases otherwise the colors quickly become off balanced again. The only way to acheave that is to stack filters or use filters of differing amounts for different depths. Stacking or stronger filters then removes more of the available ambient light. Removing so much of the available light which creates more issues, less light means more exposure time making shots much more prone to motion induced blur. RAW, while a nice feature to have, it is not necessary to manually white balance a shot, many (most?) cameras allow manual white balance. All that is normally required is a knowledge of how to use the controls on the camera and some form of white reference (dive slate does fine).

 

[Interceptor121]

I know how manual white balance works pretty well and with a filter is better than without. It would be useful to understand what camera the Op has got before jumping to any conclusion

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

How do i do manual wb? Do i specified the kelvin temprature on my camera? Please elaborate

If the camera has manual WB, you can, when you are underwater at the depth you want to take the picture, point it at something white that is roughly the same distance to the subject. If you don't have such thing to point it at (especially if the subject is relatively far away), you can point it at a patch of sand that is similar distance, or toward the sun. Then you constantly re-do the WB based on your depth, subject distance and color of the water.

If all you want is a fake red filter or all that fiddling is too much, then get a picture of some underwater subject that looks bluish or a picture that you will likely take, point your camera at the background and set your WB that way. You can see how the WB looks by taking a picture of that picture and see if it looks better.