Improving video color

[thegemguy]

i've taken quite a bit of underwater video and would like to enhance the color. i'm alread shooting through a red filter and that seems to help but my videos still don't "pop" with the colors. i use picassa to touch up my digital photos and have great success with that but have not been able to find a program that will give me similar results with my videos. any suggestions?

cheers,
rick

 

[Papa_Bear]

How much do you want to spend? They are out there!

 

[thegemguy]

i guess i want to spend as little as necessary to get good results. i'm not a pro so i'm not expecting my videos to have a professional level of quality. however, i would like them to be a little more true to color than they are.

also, depending on the price and quality of the results, i'm not adverse to sending the videos to someone for color enhancement.

where should i start looking?

cheers,
rick

 

[Papa_Bear]

Avid, Pinnacle (?), Vegas, Premier, are higher end 300 to 3000! As far as service, anyone with the top three can do it, but it is time intensive, because you have to load it and then correct it and then export it as well. I use Avid with great results! You might try some less expensive programs and ask about color corrections

 

[drbill]

Papa_Bear has already offered my suggestions.

However, I'm of two minds regarding color correction (after all, I'm a Gemini). If you enhance the color so much that, yes, you recover much of what the true color would be under sufficient light, you create false expectations on the part of those who watch your videos. They will expect to see the same vivid colors if they go under, and may become disenchanted.

I often leave my footage uncorrected to give a more realistic view of what it looks like underwater. I'm assuming you can't do manual white balance with your set-up.

 

[gilljd]

Aha!! So, drbill, you suggest the best way of getting good balanced colour at depth is to measure the white balance at your current depth before shooting????

 

[Annie Crawley]

I agree with both Dr. Bill and Papa Bear, but I also believe to get your colors to pop that you need to fully understand lighting underwater. I wrote an article about this subject, please follow this link and you can read about lighting. When you understand this, your video will POP!

diveintoyourimagination.com - Paint Your Picture With Light!

Please let me know if I can help with anything else! I want people to have GREAT video to share with others!

Happy Filming!

Annie

 

[drbill]

Aha!! So, drbill, you suggest the best way of getting good balanced colour at depth is to measure the white balance at your current depth before shooting????

If I understand this question properly, the answer is yes. White balancing at a different depth than you are shotting will do you little good, especially if you are filming in waters like ours here off Catalina where selective (and non-selective) absorption occurs over a relatively narrow depth range compared to the tropics.

 

[rcolman]

I have noticed that in-the-water white balance, with an underwater color correction filter, is really useful down to depths of around 60' - I have tried both approaches through necessity and really notice a significant improvement.

On the other hand, actually doing the white balance during the dive can be a royal pain in the ass ...

Rick Colman

 

[Empty V]

I MWB with a "red" filter about every 20ft. The MWB also depends on the range of the camera. I use a program called "Color" which is a part of Final Cut Studio 2. Before it was acquired by Apple it sold for about $25k under the name Final Touch. I've used many editing systems including Avid and "Color" blows them away, by far. Color correction is usually an afterthought with editing applications. Try to find a stand alone application, it will most definitely produce better results.

Best of luck,

Billy