Orange filter vs. Lights

[KiiY]

For underwater video I have one light which is a Light & Motion Sunray (probably halogen) and seems very bright when I turn it on out of water. But using it underwater it hardly seems to have any reach or effect on colors at all until I get it within about a foot of the subject.

On the other hand, my housing has an orange filter which I accidentally partially flipped on during a safety stop... and the color looked way better than anything I've gotten with the light.

I'm wondering if I should just forget the light and use the filter, or try to scrape together the money to buy more powerful lights.

I'm really new to scuba diving and have only used my housing on 5 dives so far, so there are probably lots of variables that I don't understand. Can anyone offer me any advice or point me to any good online resources to learn more?

Thanks!

 

[diversteve]

Probably the best resource for filter usage is UR/Pro's website. (they probably made yours) http://www.urprofilters.com/

In clear water, I use my red filter exclusively from about 15' to below 60' - without lights. Deeper than that a good set of HID (High Intensity Discharge) are probably a good idea. Ultralight makes better aluminum arms for your light. http://www.ulcs.com/

A couple of useful u/w video resource sites:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/underwater_douglas.html
http://www.uwdigitalvideo.com/

Also Amphibico has a couple of articles from u/w videographers on their site:
http://www.amphibico.com/video_tips.asp

 

[KiiY]

Steve,

Thanks for the advice and links. They were very helpful.

My Gates housing allows me to manually white balance. I'll definitely use it the next time I get to dive.

 

[drbill]

I am one of those videographers who does not correct using filters. Some have commented on the greenish or bluish cast in my footage, but my feeling is that this is what divers will actually see underwater. If I use color filters, I am creating a scene that will create expectations in the eyes of divers who have not dived kelp forests. Of course I am in the minority on this.

I do use my lights when I am shooting an isolated subject closer than 3 feet.

 

[ronrosa]

I am one of those videographers who does not correct using filters. Some have commented on the greenish or bluish cast in my footage, but my feeling is that this is what divers will actually see underwater. If I use color filters, I am creating a scene that will create expectations in the eyes of divers who have not dived kelp forests. Of course I am in the minority on this.

I do use my lights when I am shooting an isolated subject closer than 3 feet.

This is an interesting point of view. I guess it follows your documentary style of editing. Although using your lights seems to contradict it.

Reminds me of highend audio gear, where the consumer chooses between highly accurate gear where you can hear the bad and the good versus "distorted" gear that makes everything sound good.

 

[drbill]

My shooting is strictly with an educational POV, rather than aesthetic. I want to show behaviors, interactions, etc. and provide informative commentary that will give viewers a good feel for what they might see rather than wow them with "artificial" colors.

However since an orange filter is available for my housing, I just may try experimenting with it to see how I feel about the results.

 

[peterbkk]

I'm wondering if I should just forget the light and use the filter, or try to scrape together the money to buy more powerful lights.

I'm really new to scuba diving and have only used my housing on 5 dives so far, so there are probably lots of variables that I don't understand. Can anyone offer me any advice or point me to any good online resources to learn more?

It is not really a "Vs" or an "either / or" issue. It is a question of what is best for the actual footage that you are trying to capture. You will learn to look at a scene and the subject and make the best decision whether to add the filter or turn on the lights, or both.

Unfortunately the human eye /brain is very good at adjusting itself so it is not a case of "what you see is what you get". Your brain will automatically reduce the amount of blue/green and increase the amount of red. So you need to learn to appraise a scene very carefully.

One advantage of the HID lights is that they are color balanced to daylight, whereas your halogens will be much more red than daylight. If you use the halogens and the filter together, you may get too much red in the result - depends on distance, subject and water clarity. However, if you have HID lights, you may be able to use the filter and the lights together, except in some conditions.

As a general rule of thumb, I add the fliter once I get deeper than 5 meters. I add the HID lights when I get deeper than 15 meters. But I take out the filter, if shooting something closer than about 70 cms. And, if the subject is more than 3 meters away, I turn of the lights as they will only be illuminating the backscatter.

But, rules of thumb only have so much value. You need to look at every scene and decide what the light conditions are, how close is the subject and what you are trying to achieve.

The next part of the exercise is to get some good editing software (eg Apple Final Cut) and make the final color adjustments in the comfort of your home. But, even here, life is not simple. You need to adjust for the medium that will be used to view the finished product. If it will be a TV set, hook a TV set up to your conputer and adjust the colors so they look good on that display. If you adjust for the computer monitor, the colors wont look good on the the TV - they are quite different...

Regards
Peter