Cuba - Los Jardines de La Reina, Gardens of the Queen

[PeterN]

For the first clip I used an Insta 360 camera since drones are not allowed in Cuba.  The remaining video was taken with a GoPro 11 and a wide angle wet lens.  Mounted on a tray with two, Light and Motion Sola 3800 video lights.  Comments and constructive criticism always welcomed.  Thanks for watching.

 

 

[humu9679]

15 minutes ago, PeterN said:

For the first clip I used an Insta 360 camera since drones are not allowed in Cuba.  The remaining video was taken with a GoPro 11 and a wide angle wet lens.  Mounted on a tray with two, Light and Motion Sola 3800 video lights.  Comments and constructive criticism always welcomed.  Thanks for watching.

 

 

 

Thanks @PeterN That was great!

[SwiftFF5]

That brings back lots of good memories of a great trip.  Thanks

[Elvandar]

Really good video! 
One thing I noticed, was the redness on some subject, caused by the camera that can't decide if balance on the subject or the background! I have the same problem, and I need to experiment a bit and turn off the torch for wider scene!

Was fun to see the ray going away, and then meeting the shark and they both startled xD

[PeterN]

8 hours ago, Elvandar said:

Really good video! 
One thing I noticed, was the redness on some subject, caused by the camera that can't decide if balance on the subject or the background! I have the same problem, and I need to experiment a bit and turn off the torch for wider scene!

Was fun to see the ray going away, and then meeting the shark and they both startled xD

Yes I have to agree about the White Balance.  My weak point for sure I need to wrap my head around that with the GoPro.  

 

The ray - shark encounter happened so fast!  Also, if you look at I think the last Grouper shot with his mouth open and look closely there is a lobster in his mouth.  The dive master just feed him but unfortunately I didn't get that shot.  Another shot that eluded me was the crocodile.  Went looked for it twice but it never made an appearance.   Argh .......

[Elvandar]

I totally missed the lobster, a whole one too 😆

It's like this one I posted with the cleaning shrimp on the mooray, and my friend did not saw them until I told him 😁
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCFptQJtFYV/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
In his defense, I should reupload it with a better framing and quality, this was from the phone


With "the crocodile", you mean a crocodile fish, or an actual crocodile?

[PeterN]

7 hours ago, Elvandar said:

I totally missed the lobster, a whole one too 😆

It's like this one I posted with the cleaning shrimp on the mooray, and my friend did not saw them until I told him 😁
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCFptQJtFYV/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
In his defense, I should reupload it with a better framing and quality, this was from the phone


With "the crocodile", you mean a crocodile fish, or an actual crocodile?

No actual crocodile !!  Apparently they feed them raw chicken and you can photograph or take video of them from the water.  Yes - I know it sounds crazy, but wow how cool would that be ..... of course as long as you don't get bit.  

[SwiftFF5]

It is a very cool experience.  I got some great sots of a crocodile swimming within a few feet of my camera.  Really awesome stuff.  Perhaps I will try and re-edit just that part of my Cuba video for the group here, if I get some time.  It was a little shaky as I recall, because everything was happening very quickly.

[PeterN]

21 hours ago, SwiftFF5 said:

It is a very cool experience.  I got some great sots of a crocodile swimming within a few feet of my camera.  Really awesome stuff.  Perhaps I will try and re-edit just that part of my Cuba video for the group here, if I get some time.  It was a little shaky as I recall, because everything was happening very quickly.

I would love to see the footage of the crocodile.  That would have completed my video in my mind, however we can't forget we are dealing with nature and it just didn't happen.  A hurricane tore through the area a week before so perhaps that was a factor.  

[SwiftFF5]

Yeah, quite likely.  They tend to hang out in a fairly shallow area.  I will see what I can put together.

[SwiftFF5]

@PeterN

 

OK, I threw together a short video. It isn't edited well, and I kept in some of the jerky motion to show more of what the experience was like.  I hope you enjoy it.

 

https://youtu.be/oZFgh80ZIsQ

 

Edited November 22, 2024 by SwiftFF5

[PeterN]

3 hours ago, SwiftFF5 said:

@PeterN

 

OK, I threw together a short video. It isn't edited well, and I kept in some of the jerky motion to show more of what the experience was like.  I hope you enjoy it.

 

https://youtu.be/oZFgh80ZIsQ

 

Wow, very interesting! Love the close up into the mouth and all those teeth .... yikes!   Nice work   

[Jim Laurel]

Thank you for sharing your video, Peter! I'm heading to Gardens of the Queen in a few days and I really enjoyed seeing your perspective on the place.

With regard to the red you're seeing in your videos, this is the result of the mixed light problem.  If you white balance for the color temperature of the light at depth, daylight balanced lights will look very red. And if you white balance for the daylight balanced lights, everything lit by the ambient light will appear very blue until you are close enough to your subject that the lights overcome the daylight in terms of the amount of light on the subject.

The solution is to use lights that approximate the color temperature of the ambient light at depth. Then, in theory, a single white balance should be more or less correct for both ambient and your artificial lights.

With a camera like the GoPro that can't do a manual white balance, I've often wondered if it would be possible to use a red filter like the "Flip Filters" that Backscatter sell, along with ambient-balanced (cyan/blue) lights. I've never tried it, but it would be an interesting experiment.

This video provides a good primer to understanding the issue.

 

Here is another good video to watch on the subject

 

 

 

 

On 11/20/2024 at 8:32 AM, PeterN said:

Yes I have to agree about the White Balance.  My weak point for sure I need to wrap my head around that with the GoPro.  

 

The ray - shark encounter happened so fast!  Also, if you look at I think the last Grouper shot with his mouth open and look closely there is a lobster in his mouth.  The dive master just feed him but unfortunately I didn't get that shot.  Another shot that eluded me was the crocodile.  Went looked for it twice but it never made an appearance.   Argh .......

 

[bghazzal]

3 hours ago, Jim Laurel said:

With regard to the red you're seeing in your videos, this is the result of the mixed light problem.  If you white balance for the color temperature of the light at depth, daylight balanced lights will look very red. And if you white balance for the daylight balanced lights, everything lit by the ambient light will appear very blue until you are close enough to your subject that the lights overcome the daylight in terms of the amount of light on the subject.

The solution is to use lights that approximate the color temperature of the ambient light at depth. Then, in theory, a single white balance should be more or less correct for both ambient and your artificial lights.

With a camera like the GoPro that can't do a manual white balance, I've often wondered if it would be possible to use a red filter like the "Flip Filters" that Backscatter sell, along with ambient-balanced (cyan/blue) lights. I've never tried it, but it would be an interesting experiment.

 

No real reason it shouldn't work with the GoPro, since you can shoot in at a set white balance (native) and set white balance in post-production.

However, do keep in mind that that this is very tricky even with manual white balance and will probably give good results in a narrowish-set depth range.
The standard still being to use filters for ambient light dominant shots and no filter for  artificial light dominant shots - also, ambient filters on the lights will halve the light output (though recent keldan models have pre-filtered LED modules to counteract this issue)

I would also advise against using Backscatter filters for this, and go with a more "tried-and-true" filters like the UR-Pro cyan (or equivalents) or the Keldan Spectrum (-2, or the -1.5 in gel sheets).

Here are some threads to expand on the subject:
 

cheers
ben

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by bghazzal