Getting the best colors with the Panasonic GH5

[Interceptor121]

Finally I wrote it down

Getting the best colors in your underwater video with the panasonic gh5

 

[Juergen_187]

Hi,

I came across your post just now, thanks for sharing.

About the filters: I used a flip-in orange filter when I filmed with a Sony Camcorder. That worked very well in the shallows, but from about 10 meters on I didn't use it anymore, because it started to look quite unnatural, especially the water which turned purplish. But I did not use manual white balance.

So how good are results deeper down, say 20-30 meters, GH5 with a filter plus manual white balance? As the filter cannot be removed during the dive, I'm looking for something that works at basically all depths.

Thanks,

 

[Interceptor121]

Hi,

I came across your post just now, thanks for sharing.

About the filters: I used a flip-in orange filter when I filmed with a Sony Camcorder. That worked very well in the shallows, but from about 10 meters on I didn't use it anymore, because it started to look quite unnatural, especially the water which turned purplish. But I did not use manual white balance.

So how good are results deeper down, say 20-30 meters, GH5 with a filter plus manual white balance? As the filter cannot be removed during the dive, I'm looking for something that works at basically all depths.

Thanks,

At 25-30 meters neither white balance nor filter work as there is no red or orange left and you need to use lights

 

[DiveTucson]

At deeper depths it is important to have lights and a manual white balance. This was a depth of 50 meters.

 

[Interceptor121]

View attachment 555397 At deeper depths it is important to have lights and a manual white balance. This was a depth of 50 meters.

This looks like a still frame with strobes not a video?

 

[DiveTucson]

It

This looks like a still frame with strobes not a video?

It a still frame shot with video lights no strobes. Same settings as if shooting video.

 

[Interceptor121]

It


It a still frame shot with video lights no strobes. Same settings as if shooting video.

It is not really unless you shot JPEG

 

[Juergen_187]

At 25-30 meters neither white balance nor filter work as there is no red or orange left and you need to use lights

Ok, I put my question wrong: between 10 and 20 something meters: how does the GH5 manage a reasonable color result (manual WB) with a filter? From my experience, below 10 meters filters make water look unnaturally purplish (which makes footage basically useless), so really good manual white balance seems required. The point to me is: with a GH5 setup you can't flip a filter in and out, so you have to be sure the camera can handle the filtered image really well.

 

[Interceptor121]

Ok, I put my question wrong: between 10 and 20 something meters: how does the GH5 manage a reasonable color result (manual WB) with a filter? From my experience, below 10 meters filters make water look unnaturally purplish (which makes footage basically useless), so really good manual white balance seems required. The point to me is: with a GH5 setup you can't flip a filter in and out, so you have to be sure the camera can handle the filtered image really well.

There are filters you can remove in water for the WWL-1 Keldan makes one. If you have an Inon lens flat profile you can use an Ikelite/URPRO. The purple issue has more to do with poor quality filters I do not experience it with keldan magic or URPRO
If you white balance without filters below 10 meters you just miss colours as the custom white balance maxes out at 9900K so typically around 8-10 depending on water clarity and brightness

This video should give you an idea it has markers at various depths. You can push the GH5 to around 15-18 on a good day before you need lights. Custom white balance without a filter will product blue image and loss of colours

 

[matdiver]

Hi,

I came across your post just now, thanks for sharing.

About the filters: I used a flip-in orange filter when I filmed with a Sony Camcorder. That worked very well in the shallows, but from about 10 meters on I didn't use it anymore, because it started to look quite unnatural, especially the water which turned purplish. But I did not use manual white balance.

So how good are results deeper down, say 20-30 meters, GH5 with a filter plus manual white balance? As the filter cannot be removed during the dive, I'm looking for something that works at basically all depths.

Thanks,

Hey Juergen,
I've uploaded a short clip to answer your question:

Both mantas were at exactly 30m (legal limit in the Maldives), at about 8-8.30 a.m. In both cases, the grading I had to do was mainly to reduce the red. I found that moving the curves in Vegas Pro 15 by very small amounts produced quite big changes on the screen. Filter is an external UrPro red, so removable. The result looks very good to ME, on MY t.v., as it corresponds to how I REMEMBER the dive in my mind. This is SUBJECTIVE.
PLEASE note, I'm not saying this is the way to go for everyone. Why should everyone's videos have the same "look"? For closeup, I know you can get better colours with lights, but: I don't think any lights would have illuminated a manta 7 metres away, and in any case I personally just don't feel comfortable about shining incredibly bright lights in the eyes of the fish I'm trying to film. At the very least I reckon it would p*ss them off enough to change their behaviour at a dive site over time, and at worst it might be harmful. Since I don't know for sure, I prefer to err on the side of caution, but EVERYONE is free to have their own view about this.
Cheers,
Matt
Sorry about the capitals, but I really wanted to be clear that I'l not saying that everyone should do things this way!