Green Water Shooting

Hi All,

So today was my first kick at the cat with shooting in the chilli Canadian waters and so far so good. Other than filming in a drysuit is a bit of a pain in the butt and also dealing with the GREEN water! I am new to shooting with lights (L&M Sunray 1200's) so I left my cam on the outdoor WB setting with no filter.

A few Questions...?

1) Do the green water filters work very well? I could only see this being effective in rather shallow depths because the ambient light is so minimal otherwise.

2) Is MWB with light still obtained the same way? Do I need to be aware of light angle and hot spots on my slate when I use MWB?

3) Should I stick with lights on the mid range to close up stuff and then filter with MWB on wide angle?

4) Post color correct?

Of course trial and error will be in the mix but just curious if anyone has any pointers..

Thanks

Kelly

I live in Green Water territory (at least it is in winter) in Southern Australia. My approach:

1) Pre-set WB to "Daylight"...and forget it.

2) Use powerful daylight balanced lights for WA fill and/or close-up full illumination to bring out natural colors.

3) Use a CC 20 Magenta type filter (an FL-Day is a good substitute) to make the green water slightly more bluish (and it also warms up the artifical lighting nicely as a bonus).

4) If necessary, tweak color and/or gamma in post.

I've found this approach to work well...even a tracking sequence of a subject approaching from the distance and coming right up close will be taken care of by the lights taking over the fill. Since the color temp of the lights is daylight, there's no need to keep taking WB readings. Full concentration can be devoted to composing the shot.

Good stuff, thanks for the reply!

I dont have a "daylight" setting..Auto/Indoor/Outdoor and One Push MWB so I would guess with your method Outdoor would do the trick. I now wish that I bought the Sunray 2000's instead of the 1200's but I will have to make due for now.

Can the CC 20 filter be purchased from most photo shops? I'm thinking I can buy the filter and cut it too fit in my flip down arm rather than buying the specific one from L&M for $125!!!

Good stuff, thanks for the reply!

 

Can the CC 20 filter be purchased from most photo shops? I'm thinking I can buy the filter and cut it too fit in my flip down arm rather than buying the specific one from L&M for $125!!!

A CC M20 is an old style Kodak Wratten Gelatin we used in the '70's and 80's for UW still photography in local greenish water. I've found that a Hoya Flouro-Day is an excellent alternative. It's glass and can be bought cheaply in different sizes. Either fit it to your flip filter holder (that's what I did with my former Gates housing) or just put it on the camera's lens...and leave it on. Even for macro it's OK...just slightly warms up the colors.