Rig set up and lighting questions.

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Storm

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Location
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
# of dives
50 - 99
Before we "dive" in to this, let me preface this with the following:
  • Not new to diving
  • Not new to UW photography
  • Not a GoPro newbie either, but fairly new to UW video shooting
The rig I am setting up is a GoPro Hero 6 Black, in a Supersuit, on a dual arm tray (generic)with twin Big Blue AL1200XWP-II lights, and color correction 2 filters. This new rig will replace my old Hero 3 Silver (with no lights on a selfie sick) set up.

I'm pretty comfortable with my old UW photography set up for stills and a lot of that theory technology transfers to video, but I didn't use filters in the past, just lights, and I typically only the rig with me when hitting sited below 40 feet, so matching my WB to my lights was the only real priority. It was also for stills so individual pops and not constant filming.

I understand that when going shallow and using ambient light a red filter helps bring back those red and orange tones lost through light diffusion, but I have also read articles (and watch a ton of videos) that say "just use the Hero 6 auto white balance and no filter). So for shallow dives, will a red filter improve much over the Auto WB? If using a red filter, will Auto WB be thrown off, thus requiring using a custom WB. Like I mentioned above, I seldom bothered with snorkeling, or shallow dive, so not sure the right configuration for the GoPro when there is enough ambient light to work with.

I have always done custom white balancing when shooting stills at depth (great than 40 feet), but that was matching the camera WB to the same temperature as my lights as it was only my immediate subject in the shot.. I, mean, unless you diving with the sun in your pocket as a light , you're not likely going to get enough light penetration from most entry level lights to do "underwater landscapes" or reefscapes.

So I guess the main questions are:

Under what conditions and when do you use:
  • Bare bones GoPro with just Auto WB;
  • Bare bones GoPro with a red filter (and what WB balancing would you use)

If using twin lights, do I even worry about filters when at depth?

Is just matching WB to the temperature of my lights is good enough, or do I have to do custom WB and keep adjusting it during the dive, despite the fact that I artificial lighting?


Now a Rigging question as well

GoPro are not huge cameras, neither is my tray and arm set up Any suggestion on small floats/float arms for a smaller rig like this. Would prefer to have the rig neutral when at depth.

All help is appreciated.
 
Hi Storm - I don't think there's a universal answer since opinions vary (a lot due to local shooting conditions). I would use no filter and AWB near the surface. I'd then pop on a red filter at depth, still with AWB. Manually setting WB would be difficult in the field unless you could review your footage, determine the best WB, set it, and hop back in the water. Remember that this would change depend on depth, available light, etc. AWB is usually good enough and easy. You could also try AWB in Protune flat mode with the intent to color grade the footage.

Here a full article and video tutorial: GoPro Filters, Lights & Color Correction

You would use EITHER video lights or red filter, not both. I explain this using graphic aids in the video linked above.

Lastly, floats are going to depend on the arms you're using and total weight of the rig with lights.

Hope this helps!
 

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