Does taking picture underwater require red filter?

[timz]

Hey everyone... i am extremely new to underwater photography. But I have been doing photography as hobby dor about 10 years.

I would like to ask, is red filter required when taking underwater photograpy with build in flash/aftermarket strobe light??

 

[Storker]

No.

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[NAM001]

timz

without the flash you may need the filter as the deeper you go the more reds that are filtered out by the water. The red filter attenuates the blue spectrum in an attempt to make the blues and red more in line as strength goes. if you use a flash or a light you have a local source of lighting and thus no loss of the reds that occure with depth. AS such no filter is needed to correct for the red loss.

 

[spoolin01]

A flash is only good to a couple of feet. A red filter will produce better colors for things at greater distances, though it also has distance limits. Above 15 ft or so the filter is not needed and produces unnatural results. Below maybe 40 ft or so, it does little good.

 

[sphyrnidus]

And a lot can be corrected afterwards with the software

 

[pjhansman]

And a lot can be corrected afterwards with the software

Especially if you shoot in RAW mode

 

[Storker]

No.

Let me elaborate a little:

If you use a filter with strobes, you need to gel your strobes as well. Otherwise, you'll get weird colors. Most strobe users don't use colored filters, that's considered a rather advanced technique.

For ambient light shooting, you may consider filters. It's less important if you shoot raw than if you shoot JPEG, but it may help if you shoot raw as well, by decreasing the exposure in the blue and green channel and thus increasing the red channel signal somewhat. Video shooters seem to swear by filters, since consumer video cameras don't give raw output.

However, remember that a filter can't add color, it can only remove color selectively. At depth, there is no red light, so you'll quickly lose the intensity of the reds and yellows unless you use some kind of artificial lighting. Also, in cold-temperate waters, the amount of light at depth is so low that you really don't want to remove any of it. Especially during winter, I have to shoot at ISO 1600+ to capture any ambient in the background (avoiding a totally black background) and still have half-decent shutter speeds.

Some light (pun intended) reading:
Filters and Ambient Light Photography :: Wetpixel.com
Complementary filters and wide-angle underwater photography :: Wetpixel.com

 

[timz]

Thank ypu everyone for your experience and inputs...

What about adjusting the White Balance. Say about 20m-25m. What would be thre white balance setting if we're setting it in Kelvin.

 

[Storker]

JPEG or raw? If raw, don't worry, just adjust in post. Camera WB has no effect on the data stored in the raw file. If JPEG, bring a slate or something to check against. The WB varies too much with depth and plankton to predict at all.

If it's possible with your camera, shoot raw. Period.

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[timz]

Thanks Storker... appreciate ur input. I am a little excited with thr upcoming canon g17.

But it may not be available on the market before my next 2 dives trip