Hi all!

I am looking for some advice on how to improve the quality of my underwater videos. I'm used to capturing and editing topside images in Lightroom with my DSLR, but underwater video is a whole different beast, I've realized. I started diving about two years ago with a GoPro Hero 7 Black, but I wasn’t happy with the video quality, so I upgraded to the DJI Osmo Action 4. That said, I still feel like my videos aren't quite there - I was expecting crisper footage.

For example, here is a video a took a few weeks ago (raw and edited):

Raw video

Taken at around 6 meters (~20 ft)

DJI Osmo Action 4

4K

D-Log M10

Auto white balance

RockSteady

Edited video

Edited in Davinci Resolve 20 (just getting started with it)

I was hoping my edited version would look more like this UNEDITED video. I also recently learned that the AOI UWL-03 wet lens can help improve sharpness, which I’m considering.

So, to set realistic expectations, where do you think the main limitation lies: the camera, my editing skills, or both?

I’m open to any tips, feedback, or insights; especially about gear you use with your action camera (wet lenses, lights, strobes, etc.).

Cheers,

Gio

Hi Gio,

Crisp is a little difficult to define - most action cams will have a sharpness setting (low/medium/high) that you can adjust, and sharpness can also be adjusted in post production. Just don't go overboard otherwise it will start to look quite artificial.

The AOI UWL-03 (or its Backscatter / Inon equivalent) will definitely help for sharpness and also corner handling, so that's a big yes.

But other major factors come into play, such as the turbidity of the water you're diving in, and available ambient light.
The video you're refering to is shot in Bali, which has high ambient light levels. The water around Tulamben isn't the clearest, but sunlight certainly is strong.

Not sure you have the same conditions with your honeycomb boxfish clip - I don't where this was shot, but it does look darker (and greener water?) for super shallow depth of 6m. Is it shot in Koh Tao like your other Action 4 test clips?

Colour-wise, to me the Tulamben video has a good balance in the shallows, but the colour palette breaks down at depth, with dayglo green hues typical of autowhite balance + in-camera colour correction. I'm not a great fan.

Your graded clip works, but I'd say that it seems to be suffering mostly from a lack of light, which would help making it pop, and possibly not super clear water.
What are your ISO settings on the camera?

Video lights would help for closeups, but normally you should be able to get brighter ambient light wide footage on action cams at such shallow depths.

Edited Tuesday at 09:33 AM2 days by bghazzal

Hi Gio,

welcome to the forum, I'm no video expert, however the the raw video you showed, to me has the classic look of a still with limited brightness range that often happens with an image taken without strobes in less than really clear water. The Histogram is bunched towards the centre. Easy enough to fix in a still, just pull in the black and white points to get a full histogram back and it instantly has better contrast. Video unfortunately doesn't have such a straight forward option for this, but your graded video does look nicer.

I don't think it's just the settings that makes the Bali video look generally nicer, more the light as Ben says. If you look at the guy's Youtube page he has another video from Cornwall, though it's taken using lights as well it has quite the milky look to it, the colours are better but that seems to be down to the lights. As Ben says the Auto everything videos look good superficially but aren't quite there it seems. Perhaps you ask some more specific questions in the Video forum?

Hi!

10 hours ago, bghazzal said:

Not sure you have the same conditions with your honeycomb boxfish clip - I don't where this was shot, but it does look darker (and greener water?) for super shallow depth of 6m. Is it shot in Koh Tao like your other Action 4 test clips?

I don't think it was greener, but definitively darker. This was shot in Ilha Grande, Brazil.

10 hours ago, bghazzal said:

Your graded clip works, but I'd say that it seems to be suffering mostly from a lack of light, which would help making it pop, and possibly not super clear water.
What are your ISO settings on the camera?

ISO/WB/Sharpness/Noise in auto mode.

10 hours ago, bghazzal said:

normally you should be able to get brighter ambient light wide footage on action cams at such shallow depths.

That’s what I expected, which is why I'm kinda frustrated