I shot this last month at the Backscatter DSO in Little Cayman. It is from an Olympus OM-1 in an AOI housing, Backscatter Hybrid for lights. Wide was Lumix 8mm, Macro was m.Zukio 90mm. Would love any advice on how to make it better (besides my prize reef shark being a little out of focus...ugh). Lesson learned so far ... video is hard ... especially macro video!! So much on the cutting room floor.

I like the editing idea. The blenny watching what happens around it. At least that is how I understood it. Nice. I love videos that are not just simple slideshows of nice pictures.

In general, macro images seem very soft to me, maybe too much. The focus almost always seems ok to me. On these little creatures we should always be careful to have the focus on the head, and preferably on the eyes when they have them.

Maybe it depends on the aperture used? Here you really need F11 and beyond. And if you are at 50/60p you must be at least at 1/100 or 1/125 shutter speed.

If you want to get a darker background, raise the shutter even more. The 180-degree rule is not so important underwater.

Well done.

Nicely done, especially for a first video. You are correct, macro video is challenging, which is largely why I keep trying to get better at it. I probably shoot 5 or 6 hours of video to get a good 20 minutes or so of usable material. Lots of material on the cutting room floor as you say.

@Davide DB I was shooting 60P and 1/125. I THINK I was F/8 and also auto ISO. So you feel a bump to F/11 would sharpen it? The focus was the hardest part because of the thin DOF and the fact that the little suckers kept moving in an out of the focus plane. I tried to get a focus. Then as they came closer re-focus. The sideways movement was easiest of course. For the head-on shots, I was trying manual focus on the green slug and trying to time the focus changes as he got closer but that was hit or miss. The black one I backed off distance wise so the DOF was a little deeper. And of course every breath in changed my buoyancy and that made it hard to keep steady too. I'm retooling from OM-1 to Sony a7rV right now so will have to work all this out again next trip.

15 hours ago, hoekma said:

@Davide DB I was shooting 60P and 1/125. I THINK I was F/8 and also auto ISO. So you feel a bump to F/11 would sharpen it? The focus was the hardest part because of the thin DOF and the fact that the little suckers kept moving in an out of the focus plane. I tried to get a focus. Then as they came closer re-focus. The sideways movement was easiest of course. For the head-on shots, I was trying manual focus on the green slug and trying to time the focus changes as he got closer but that was hit or miss. The black one I backed off distance wise so the DOF was a little deeper. And of course every breath in changed my buoyancy and that made it hard to keep steady too. I'm retooling from OM-1 to Sony a7rV right now so will have to work all this out again next trip.

F11 is the bare minimum. F13 and F16 are necessary sometimes and who cares about diffraction 😀

On these macro shots a tripod is mandatory.

What NLE are you using? On Davinci Resolve, the Midtone details tool makes miracles. It's a micro-contrast tool that sharpens or softens areas with high edge definition.

Ciao

Great video for a first attempt! I plan to try video with my E-M10 next week in Lembeh with my 60 mm and 30 mm macro lenses (30 mm for blackwater). Wish me luck.

I sent you an IM question about your upgrade plan.

Evan

good luck @ACHiPo ! It's hard and I definitely am going to figure out a tripod for macro next time.

@Davide DB for NLE - I assume you mean the editing software -- I was using Adobe Premier Pro which I'm very new at. I probably need to switch to / learn Divinci due to the exorbitant price for Premier, especially given how often I use it in real life but the classes at the event were all in Premier pro.

Oh and I forgot, yes the storyline is the blenny watching the ocean around it. Took some seminars from videographer Cristian Dimitrius in June (https://cristiandimitrius.com/) and the story line is something he really emphasized. I was working up a story line on the groupers but my footage a was a bit random so I used the blenny to try to tie it together.

6 hours ago, hoekma said:

good luck @ACHiPo ! It's hard and I definitely am going to figure out a tripod for macro next time.

Mark,

Thanks. I sent you an IM. Let me know if you’re interested in selling your OM-1 and housing after you get your Sony up and running.

Evan

23 hours ago, hoekma said:

@Davide DB for NLE - I assume you mean the editing software -- I was using Adobe Premier Pro which I'm very new at. I probably need to switch to / learn Divinci due to the exorbitant price for Premier, especially given how often I use it in real life but the classes at the event were all in Premier pro.

Yes. I switched to Resolve a few years ago. The best money I ever spent.

I paid 200 euros for the 15 Studio version and since then I have reached version 21.x without spending another euro.

Lately there are rumors that there might be a new pricing policy, but for now I am happy. It is a steep learning curve but it is worth it. To exploit rhe latest AI features tou need a very powerful computer.

23 hours ago, hoekma said:

Oh and I forgot, yes the storyline is the blenny watching the ocean around it. Took some seminars from videographer Cristian Dimitrius in June (https://cristiandimitrius.com/) and the story line is something he really emphasized. I was working up a story line on the groupers but my footage a was a bit random so I used the blenny to try to tie it together.

Yes, you had a very original idea to combine completely different clips.

Unfortunately, here we are a bit too much pixel peepers, while we should discuss creativity more 😄

On 7/14/2026 at 9:31 AM, hoekma said:

good luck @ACHiPo ! It's hard and I definitely am going to figure out a tripod for macro next time.

I have been working on designing a tripod for 3D printing that uses ball end arms for the legs. I have one done but have not gotten it in the water yet to test (although it works on land where the rig is even heavier than in the water, so I suspect that it will be strong enough). Since it hasn't been tested properly, I have not posted it to Thingiverse or MakerWorld yet, but I probably should.

Great video, I'd be happy with that for a first attempt for sure! Agreed macro video is very difficult with moving subjects!