White Balance Question

[scorch]

Excuse my ignorance as I am just getting ready to shoot my first underwater video.

My question is regarding white balance. Since my housing does not allow for me to take advantage of manual white balance I was wondering if this technique would work...

Let's say I took a picture (non-white balanced) of my dive slate at say 60ft., carribean waters. Now topside, before loading my camera, and knowingly diving similar conditions, I use this picture to manually white balance. Would this have the same effect as white balancing to the slate when actually underwater?

If this would work, could I have a bunch of pictures taken of the slate at different depths, locations, conditions and use these topside to white balance based on the conditions I am about to dive in?

Or...

Is this just a waste of time because WB can be taken care of post, with similar or better results?

Any advice/comments are greatly appreciated.

 

[crpntr133]

Dude you will kill yourself (literally) if you don't manual white balance!!

I am sure that there are better ways but it should work. Keep in mind that every dive to 60 isn't going to be the same white balance setting.

Put the camera on auto a dive. Edit with your software and enjoy. White balance isn't going to stop the world.
BTW, only joking about killing yourself. Just a spin off of the BP/W threads.

 

[ronrosa]

Film in auto white balance. The method you describe won't work, plus whatever benefit it might provide would only be good for that depth.

LOL, crpntr133. Some of those guys really are closed minded. You should read some of the pony bottle threads.

 

[aHeavyD]

get your self a red filter this will help, Also a lot of cameras white balance themself when starting up. I do this all the time at depth, I just turn the camera off them on, I use the sand, a white mark on my fin and even use the sun when I power up. it does help. check your camera book and see if it white balances at start up.

 

[crpntr133]

get your self a red filter this will help, Also a lot of cameras white balance themself when starting up. I do this all the time at depth, I just turn the camera off them on, I use the sand, a white mark on my fin and even use the sun when I power up. it does help. check your camera book and see if it white balances at start up.

Forgot about this trick. Haven't tried it myself but have heard that it does work.

ronrosa, I have read a lot of those pony threads. I just bought a 13 after figuring that unless I am doing deco that it should get me back from 100"+ with stops. A lot of crap to wade through just to figure this out. Also I am slinging it

 

[aHeavyD]

Forgot about this trick. Haven't tried it myself but have heard that it does work

why would you want to forget about this
I dive with a red filter and it helps a lot,
On the Sony camera I have,turning it on and off does help, it states it right in the book the the camera automaticaly white balances on power up. By doing this a depth it does help. It's not perfect. I never said it was as good as a camera that has white balance.
crpntr133:
If you have a better suggestion on how to help I'm all ears.
Scorch:
here are two videos I shot. The red filter helps the most. I shoot the camera for fun. I do not color correcting when I edit. Just editing is enough work for me.
trips from last year, Blackbeard
Cayman Brac trip

 

[CheddarChick]

Heavy...Very Cool.....

 

[MN Lakeman]

Heavy - I think you read the post incorrectly - he said "forGOT" not "forGET" about this trick. Which Sony & housing setup do you have? I too have had terrific results w/ the red filter (supplied by Ikelite):

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?e...ei=UTF-8&yid=mnlakediver50&fr=&.fdbk=mail:v/0

Sony HC-42 DV & Sony DCR-150 stillshot

 

[MichiganDiver]

I am familiar with the UR Pro filters for underwater video. What other filters by other manufacturers can you recommend? (Tiffen, etc.)

 

[crpntr133]

why would you want to forget about this
I dive with a red filter and it helps a lot,
On the Sony camera I have,turning it on and off does help, it states it right in the book the the camera automaticaly white balances on power up. By doing this a depth it does help. It's not perfect. I never said it was as good as a camera that has white balance.
crpntr133:
If you have a better suggestion on how to help I'm all ears.
Scorch:
here are two videos I shot. The red filter helps the most. I shoot the camera for fun. I do not color correcting when I edit. Just editing is enough work for me.
trips from last year, Blackbeard
Cayman Brac trip

aHeaveyD, I'm not sure where you went on this one. The trick of turning it on and off just simply slipped my mind. Not saying that it is good or bad.

Personally I am like aHeaveyD, edit the crap and don't worry about the white balance. One of my first ones I edited took me forever to do. The sad part is that it really didn't turn out that much better. I like to go with the more natural look of everything. Nondivers seem to enjoy it more.
Now if it is totally trash then that is a different story.