Bait ball action

I have officially been bitten by the video bug and I am enjoying the trials and tribulations of going from still photography to video (film?) with my Canon 7D. There is tons for me yet to learn and, as I did back in the age of the dinosaurs when I started shooting stills, I find the best way to learn is to let others share their thoughts and ideas on ways I can improve. So, without further ado, here is a video I recently put together from yesterday's dive:

[vimeohd]20951737[/vimeohd]

Everything was shot with the Canon 7D and a Tokina 10-17 with a 1.4 TC. Shot at a depth of 60ft with about 30-40ft of horizontal visibility (I'm guessing this has to do with haziness of it). I found that I had to crank the ISO to 800 so I can have a decent exposure (I know... I should have shot at multiples of 160 for better noise reduction.. I wasn't thinking). I was shooting at 60p, 1/125 sec and f / 6.3. Focus was attained by focus-locking on my fin (old school method that seems to work okay most of the time). No lights were used; I simply white-balanced around 30ft as anything deeper seems to fluoresce the colors too much to my liking. Some post processing (color balance, whites, & mids) was done in Final Cut.

So... Hack away! Any advise, suggestions or good jokes are greatly appreciated. I am a total newbie with the video stuff so I appreciate any comments from the more knowledgable bunch. Much appreciated!

Great opening music that really fit the swirling mass of bait fish. I didn't care for the swim over of the nurse shark from tail to front, if anything, I would have gone from head to tail and tried to film from a lower perspective to avoid flattening out your subject. Perhaps it was in the manner that you compressed your footage for upload, but the focus seemed to be a bit soft, lacking contrast.

We start with the first step. Good job.

Steve

I agree with Steve ... Contrast!!!

lovely how you made the music fit the pulse of the action

Dive safe

DeanB

Thanks for your input, guys. I really appreciate it and will certainly work your advise into my videos.

Thanks for posting Laz. I have the 7D now and have been learning topside so far.

Hard to shake the still mentality as I have come home with some great vertical video shots. LOL SHooting stills and switching to video just does not work for me yet. Need to commit a session to one or the other.

Cheers

Todd