Consumer video cameras today have the power to adapt to available light in many cases.
Has anyone been getting good results with no lights, just using a red filter and letting the camera do the rest?
One tip that will make all the difference is: every ten feet, adjust the white balance. If your setup does not allow manual white balance, try the manual setting for fluorescent lights, which will add some red back to the picture. Sometimes a housing manufacturer will add a control to your housing if it's at all possible. Be sure to investigate as it makes all the difference.
Read more in the White Balance Discussion
This video was shot in several destinations, with no lights and at depths of up to 100 feet. There have been some simple color correction in Finalcut Pro, but not much really. All the work was being done by the camera's auto iris, but with regular manual white balance adjustment.
[video=youtube_share;BGzf9Jx1ilU]http://youtu.be/BGzf9Jx1ilU?hd=1[/video]
Not bad eh? Accurate color from a $600 camera. (Canon HV30 in an Equinox HD6 housing )
Deeper or Darker conditions may yield results that are accurate representations of what the eye is seeing at the time, but might not look as great to viewers. It depends on what you want.
In the White Balance Discussion there are a couple of good examples of twilight and 100+ fsw deep shooting with no lights.
Has anyone been getting good results with no lights, just using a red filter and letting the camera do the rest?
One tip that will make all the difference is: every ten feet, adjust the white balance. If your setup does not allow manual white balance, try the manual setting for fluorescent lights, which will add some red back to the picture. Sometimes a housing manufacturer will add a control to your housing if it's at all possible. Be sure to investigate as it makes all the difference.
Read more in the White Balance Discussion
This video was shot in several destinations, with no lights and at depths of up to 100 feet. There have been some simple color correction in Finalcut Pro, but not much really. All the work was being done by the camera's auto iris, but with regular manual white balance adjustment.
[video=youtube_share;BGzf9Jx1ilU]http://youtu.be/BGzf9Jx1ilU?hd=1[/video]
Not bad eh? Accurate color from a $600 camera. (Canon HV30 in an Equinox HD6 housing )
Deeper or Darker conditions may yield results that are accurate representations of what the eye is seeing at the time, but might not look as great to viewers. It depends on what you want.
In the White Balance Discussion there are a couple of good examples of twilight and 100+ fsw deep shooting with no lights.