1. Going too deep 2. Staying too far away from the object 3. Using automatic white balance 4. Choosing the wrong shooting angle 5. Chasing after animals
I started underwater filming more than 30 years ago, already a land based photographer at Amsterdam Airport I bought a sqea&sea underwater camera with strobe. I then went off on a last minute holiday to the Sudan and found myself diving with the current underwater photography world champion, Fred Demiglio. He was not my guide but he did give me advice. First allways try to have a strobe, set TTL. He told me my strobe was great for Macro, that meant GET IN CLOSE. Second do not chase the fish. Set up and they will come to you. This was ridiculously true. I was head in a hole and suddenly dragged out by my feet. Fred and André explained to me afterwards, there was a 2mtre Grey shark biting my fins. On my first weeks underwater photoshoot I won my first Photograpic competition. The first prise was a a dive holiday, second prize the T shirt. I got the T shirt. I have never forgotten First Light, secoind Power, then Camera. When I turned from Silver to Electronic I had what my colleagues called GOPRO on steroids. That is Gopro4/7 with 5 LEDs. Underwater is not about sdhallow, and filters, it is about light. Currently I use 2 strobes for still and two big LED for video.
Thank you. Feel free to have a look at one of my newer videos and the setup/background I use at the moment. I’d be curious to hear how you like that. czcams.com/video/Pue9k45xAts/video.html or czcams.com/video/wqWObvBFLM4/video.html
Vielen lieben Dank für deinen Kommentar und die lieben Worte. 😊🙏🏻 Du filmst selber auch unter Wasser, wie ich aus deinem anderen Kommentar heraushöre. Womit filmst du denn?
@@MatthiasLebo Hallo Matthias! Ja, ich filme unter Wasser seit 1994. Die Liste meiner verwendeten Gehäuse ist lang. Momentan benutze ich die Sony AX 100 im Gates und im Sealux. Als Backup eine Go Pro. Wenn ich mal die Zeit finde, dann mache ich einen Vergleich beider Gehäuse.
Wow...sehr cool. Bevor ich auf die GH5S im Nauticam gewechselt habe, war ich auch mit der AX100 im Gates Gehäuse unterwegs. Ist auch ne geile Kombination, nur leider halt kein 10bit 4-2-2.
Thank you Jérôme! 🙏🏻 And thanks for helping Andy out with ideas for the housing for his Sony. I know you're the expert when it come to taking Sony cameras underwater. 👍🏻
Nice video! I have a question about the dolphin footage on this video, they seem to look colorless and I was wondering if that a particular color grading you wanted to use or another reason.
They lack a bit of color because the water was quite murky and therefore there was not much contrast in the recordings. I tried saturating the images more, but I just wasn’t happy with the results. So I decided to keep them less saturated. It was a compromise. 😉
I would never stack a red filter and macro lens on top of each other. If you're using a macro lens, thus filming close up shots, you should be using artificial light to light up your object, and if that's the case a red filter is not needed for accurate colors as your video light is going to take care of that.
I'm an underwater video ography were here in Puget sound and I have a question what is the correct video light arm length... What is the sweet spot for the light cone theory?
That very much depends on various factors, i.e. how wide of a beam your video lights have, how good/bad the visibility is, ... Most important is that the two light beams meet just in front of your main object. That should give you the best possible results.
there is no cheap answer, i have a nauticam housing for my A7Riii and it's not cheap . flooding your camera is not something you want so a vacum system is a must...
@@laeicawezlar4417 So Leapfrog sells the Leak detection and vacuum pump as an add on? If I were to not go deep diving right now and just wanted to do shots above the water and sometimes dip in quickly, would the leapfrog be recommended?
Hi Jimmy Yes I either use a white slate or the a patch of white/grey sand to manually white balance at different depths. Does this help or do you need a video explaining how to do manual white balance underwater?
@@MatthiasLebo Thanks Matthias, it very help for me, I took the under water footage is very blue before, not beautiful like yours. I know how to set manual white balance on GH camera, so will try it in next diving travel.
@@MatthiasLebo thanks for your answer as I had this question too. If you could go into some detail it would be interesting. I suppose that one should use something that is submersible ... either cloth or plastic or metal ... and usually it is important to have something trustable with real white or real grey for the white balance on the ground ... probably underwater WB is less precise and anything white will do. Also it would be relevant the distance of the object .... as the white balance will be different from 30 cm or 3m due to the water coloring.
@@MatthiasLebo I would love to see that specific video on using a slate to manually set the WB. I am having trouble doing that in mid water, holding the slate with one hand and holding my camera and manipulating the buttons on it with the other hand. Please advise. Thanks.
what about a grey card recorded in front of the camera, each time you start recording in order to fix the white balance in post production, if i don't have a manual white balance in my camera
That's probably not going to do much as long as you are in "Auto WB", because the camera will change the WB settings throughout the clip making it pretty much impossible to get a consistent WB adjustment in post. I'd recommend using red or magenta filters if you're camera doesn't have a manual WB option.
@@MatthiasLebo in go pro camera there is the "native wb ".color and temperature is not processed by the camera so it should be as raw as possible as final result.
I know buddy, my audio back then was terrible. I think it has improve quite a bit since then. See for yourself on my latest video: czcams.com/video/OO7sDX_3CqE/video.html
1. Going too deep
2. Staying too far away from the object
3. Using automatic white balance
4. Choosing the wrong shooting angle
5. Chasing after animals
Heroic, appreciate it mate
I started underwater filming more than 30 years ago, already a land based photographer at Amsterdam Airport I bought a sqea&sea underwater camera with strobe. I then went off on a last minute holiday to the Sudan and found myself diving with the current underwater photography world champion, Fred Demiglio. He was not my guide but he did give me advice. First allways try to have a strobe, set TTL. He told me my strobe was great for Macro, that meant GET IN CLOSE. Second do not chase the fish. Set up and they will come to you. This was ridiculously true. I was head in a hole and suddenly dragged out by my feet. Fred and André explained to me afterwards, there was a 2mtre Grey shark biting my fins. On my first weeks underwater photoshoot I won my first Photograpic competition. The first prise was a a dive holiday, second prize the T shirt. I got the T shirt. I have never forgotten First Light, secoind Power, then Camera. When I turned from Silver to Electronic I had what my colleagues called GOPRO on steroids. That is Gopro4/7 with 5 LEDs. Underwater is not about sdhallow, and filters, it is about light. Currently I use 2 strobes for still and two big LED for video.
Very practical advice. Thanks!
Thanks and you're very welcome. 😊
👌Great video Mathias, I appreciate your time.
Thanks for your feedback mate. 🙏🏻😊
Great video! Much prefer this background as well! Thanks Matthias!
Thank you. Feel free to have a look at one of my newer videos and the setup/background I use at the moment. I’d be curious to hear how you like that.
czcams.com/video/Pue9k45xAts/video.html
or
czcams.com/video/wqWObvBFLM4/video.html
@@MatthiasLebo I’ll take a look thanks Matthias! Went underwater with my R5 for the first time today, no walk in the park! Haha
Sehr gut, Matthias! Du sprichst mir aus der Seele! Very good Matthias! Very true!
Vielen lieben Dank für deinen Kommentar und die lieben Worte. 😊🙏🏻
Du filmst selber auch unter Wasser, wie ich aus deinem anderen Kommentar heraushöre. Womit filmst du denn?
@@MatthiasLebo Hallo Matthias! Ja, ich filme unter Wasser seit 1994. Die Liste meiner verwendeten Gehäuse ist lang. Momentan benutze ich die Sony AX 100 im Gates und im Sealux. Als Backup eine Go Pro. Wenn ich mal die Zeit finde, dann mache ich einen Vergleich beider Gehäuse.
Wow...sehr cool. Bevor ich auf die GH5S im Nauticam gewechselt habe, war ich auch mit der AX100 im Gates Gehäuse unterwegs. Ist auch ne geile Kombination, nur leider halt kein 10bit 4-2-2.
Verry interesting !
Thanks mate 🙏😊
cool video, thanks
Thank you Jérôme! 🙏🏻 And thanks for helping Andy out with ideas for the housing for his Sony. I know you're the expert when it come to taking Sony cameras underwater. 👍🏻
Thanks. Some feedback about your video. The audio transitions/intro are significantly louder than your voice.
Nice video! I have a question about the dolphin footage on this video, they seem to look colorless and I was wondering if that a particular color grading you wanted to use or another reason.
They lack a bit of color because the water was quite murky and therefore there was not much contrast in the recordings. I tried saturating the images more, but I just wasn’t happy with the results. So I decided to keep them less saturated. It was a compromise. 😉
Mistake #6 - Avoid filming in Murky water ;)
I was thinking the same thing! Not the best footage to use unless you're going to use it as an example of a mistake 🤣
Hey Matthias! Thanks for the video! btw, what`s your setup for film underwater? thanks!
You’re welcome mate. In this video here I talk about my underwater video setup: czcams.com/video/__4mbBrlx58/video.html
hello Mathias, does it work also with the red filter plus the makro lens at the same time? Did you try this as it is not shown in the video?
I would never stack a red filter and macro lens on top of each other. If you're using a macro lens, thus filming close up shots, you should be using artificial light to light up your object, and if that's the case a red filter is not needed for accurate colors as your video light is going to take care of that.
I'm an underwater video ography were here in Puget sound and I have a question what is the correct video light arm length...
What is the sweet spot for the light cone theory?
That very much depends on various factors, i.e. how wide of a beam your video lights have, how good/bad the visibility is, ...
Most important is that the two light beams meet just in front of your main object. That should give you the best possible results.
Average aperture to use? As some housing don’t allow changing it
If you can’t change it within the housing keep your aperture to f8 or higher.
Do you have any affordable recommendation for an Underwater housing? For sony A7 iii or A7 ? Your underwater stuff looks beautiful.
there is no cheap answer, i have a nauticam housing for my A7Riii and it's not cheap .
flooding your camera is not something you want so a vacum system is a must...
@@UnderwaterPhotoBali thanks for the advice. Ill ill look into the nauticam and definitely stay away from the cheap products. :)
@@AndyHTu here is how i put the A7Riii in the housing . czcams.com/video/vGQ1dqZym5k/video.html
Andy H. Tu i had no problem using seafrogs housing for my A7iii, buy the vacum pump and leak detection system for extra assurance
@@laeicawezlar4417 So Leapfrog sells the Leak detection and vacuum pump as an add on?
If I were to not go deep diving right now and just wanted to do shots above the water and sometimes dip in quickly, would the leapfrog be recommended?
where was this?
Egypt 😊
Mistake 2 I learned that one myself, mistake 3 I'm working on that anyway, mistake 4 also working on that as well. Mistake 5 been there done that.
Hello，could you share how manual The white balance underwater? do you use grey card? thanks a lot
Hi Jimmy
Yes I either use a white slate or the a patch of white/grey sand to manually white balance at different depths. Does this help or do you need a video explaining how to do manual white balance underwater?
@@MatthiasLebo Thanks Matthias, it very help for me, I took the under water footage is very blue before, not beautiful like yours.
I know how to set manual white balance on GH camera, so will try it in next diving travel.
@@MatthiasLebo thanks for your answer as I had this question too. If you could go into some detail it would be interesting. I suppose that one should use something that is submersible ... either cloth or plastic or metal ... and usually it is important to have something trustable with real white or real grey for the white balance on the ground ... probably underwater WB is less precise and anything white will do. Also it would be relevant the distance of the object .... as the white balance will be different from 30 cm or 3m due to the water coloring.
Thanks for your comment. I will make a specific video about this topic soon. 👍🏻
@@MatthiasLebo I would love to see that specific video on using a slate to manually set the WB. I am having trouble doing that in mid water, holding the slate with one hand and holding my camera and manipulating the buttons on it with the other hand. Please advise. Thanks.
what about a grey card recorded in front of the camera, each time you start recording in order to fix the white balance in post production, if i don't have a manual white balance in my camera
That's probably not going to do much as long as you are in "Auto WB", because the camera will change the WB settings throughout the clip making it pretty much impossible to get a consistent WB adjustment in post. I'd recommend using red or magenta filters if you're camera doesn't have a manual WB option.
@@MatthiasLebo it is an action camera with the "native wb" option. It is a good idea to get a pure white balance point in post or nothing changes?
What do you mean by “native WB option”?
@@MatthiasLebo in go pro camera there is the "native wb ".color and temperature is not processed by the camera so it should be as raw as possible as final result.
Man, you HAVE to improve sound... your voice is to low for the music in the separators and intro.
Not good.
I know buddy, my audio back then was terrible. I think it has improve quite a bit since then. See for yourself on my latest video: czcams.com/video/OO7sDX_3CqE/video.html
@@MatthiasLebo indeed. Completely different.
;)