Betty Bomber - Truk

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share a short video of the famous "Betty Bomber" plane wreck in Truk. It is a fun and photogenic wreck in Truk that is not to be missed. This was shot with the new 16-35mm F4L canon lens on the full frame 5d. It also used an 8" dome. I found the sharpness excellent in comparison to the 17-40mm.

Let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

Dustin

OR Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMjH_NJMPfY

Nice work as usual Dustin! Like the different view of the plane. May be because I don't have knowledge of the plane, I think it would be nice to have divers around for scale reference? I mean the plane looks really big during the top down view of the plane at 2:45 but I have no idea how big.

Nice work as usual Dustin! Like the different view of the plane. May be because I don't have knowledge of the plane, I think it would be nice to have divers around for scale reference? I mean the plane looks really big during the top down view of the plane at 2:45 but I have no idea how big.

Thanks. I am kind of strange in that I really hate divers in my shots....however, I understand where you are coming from. Perhaps this would have been one of those times to give scale to the plane. Nice suggestion.

Dustin

 

I am kind of strange in that I really hate divers in my shots

Ha ha, I feel for you. It's not easy to find graceful diver, let alone a group of them surround a wreck. During my recent trip, one of the divers from my boat was "riding bicycle" in the water..... and she had 1200 dives under her belt!

Wow. Just wow. Amazing colours!!!!!

I remember diving it and the water being quite milky then.

Can you say about what you did in post with this.

- and it's amazingly stable footage too!

Nice video, Dustin

Yeah, divers in shot can be a mixed blessing. I shoot stills and with a fisheye lens on my camera, "bike riders" or those who dive with their legs bent constantly at 90 degrees from the knee are a real pain! Stop it, you people!

My partner has become an excellent model: hanging-in the water-column, legs elegantly elongated, lovely green eyes looking at the subject, gently exhaling a stream of perfectly rounded bubbles... and bingo, into view hoves Mr or Ms Bike Rider. ARGH.

We have thought about putting together a PADI Specialty Course: Underwater Modelling. It's tempting to make it compulsory. At least then we can get perfectly poised divers in shot.

(Sorry, not trying to hijack your post)

Nice job Dustin! The exposure/colours/grading looks great.

I didn't think of it while I watching, but there were a couple of moments where I was struggling to understand how big it was, particularly the wide overhead shot at 2:20, where it could be anything from Spitfire size to jumbo jet size. So I agree that a diver or two in shot would have helped.

Also, people in underwater videos usually helps the view count. "People-doing-amazing/adventurous-things" videos are hits on YouTube/Vimeo because viewers relate to the divers in the shots. Escapism!

For me, the music was slightly too epic for the scale of the subject. But as we know, music is really subjective, difficult to find, and you can't please all the people all the time.

Nice job again Dustin.

I know it's your style but I would not crush black that much because it will look too much black on uncalibrated screen like tv or projector.

But maybe it just me.

The whole video is excellent, I like the color grading and smooth shots.

I really love the first shot of the wreck appearing behind the corals !

The (double) splashscreen at the beginning is too long for me : 30s.

If I had not been for the preview, I would have left.

Nice work, as usual. I liked the "tilted font" effect that you got on your name in the title sequence at the beginning. I was also very impressed with the water clarity, and how much of the plane was still intact after all this time.

Wow. Just wow. Amazing colours!!!!!

 

I remember diving it and the water being quite milky then.

 

Can you say about what you did in post with this.

 

- and it's amazingly stable footage too!

Thanks! As for post I essentially crushed the blacks and tweaked the WB in very small amounts.

Nice video, Dustin

 

Yeah, divers in shot can be a mixed blessing. I shoot stills and with a fisheye lens on my camera, "bike riders" or those who dive with their legs bent constantly at 90 degrees from the knee are a real pain! Stop it, you people!

 

My partner has become an excellent model: hanging-in the water-column, legs elegantly elongated, lovely green eyes looking at the subject, gently exhaling a stream of perfectly rounded bubbles... and bingo, into view hoves Mr or Ms Bike Rider. ARGH.

 

We have thought about putting together a PADI Specialty Course: Underwater Modelling. It's tempting to make it compulsory. At least then we can get perfectly poised divers in shot.

 

(Sorry, not trying to hijack your post)

Thank you for watching it and commenting. Yeah, the divers can be a challenge especially with a fisheye. My instruction to my friends consisted of, "If you are in the shot, look like you know what you are doing, and never look at the camera!"...lol.

Nice job Dustin! The exposure/colours/grading looks great.

 

I didn't think of it while I watching, but there were a couple of moments where I was struggling to understand how big it was, particularly the wide overhead shot at 2:20, where it could be anything from Spitfire size to jumbo jet size. So I agree that a diver or two in shot would have helped.

 

Also, people in underwater videos usually helps the view count. "People-doing-amazing/adventurous-things" videos are hits on YouTube/Vimeo because viewers relate to the divers in the shots. Escapism!

 

For me, the music was slightly too epic for the scale of the subject. But as we know, music is really subjective, difficult to find, and you can't please all the people all the time.

Thanks Nick for the compliments.

I never thought about the views and with divers in it....very good point! As I am sure most people are, I am also looking to grow my viewership. While I generally hate youtube, as 99% of stuff on there is garbage, it is a necessary evil in my mind. I am looking to grow it. Just not sure how... My vimeo is continuing to grow at a pretty good rate which is good. You certainly have a very good youtube following. So any pointers I am certainly willing to listen to you.

As for the music.....ughhh.. I like the song overall, however I am generally never quite satisfied with the music. I am afraid I won't be until I can have my own composer...lol. Music is so difficult, and quite frankly sometimes makes me want to stop doing this....I spend 10 times more time trying to pick out a song than putting the actual video together. There is so much crap to wade through to get something decent. With this particular track, it was my first time using audiojungle. I was a bit concerned about the "epic"ness, but I decided it wasn't too bad and went with it. As you said it is very subjective. But just know that in general I am never quite sold on the music that I pick. Which is unfortunate, because music selection is a big deal on whether people like to watch your videos.

Thanks again Nick.

Dustin

Could you provide us with some technical background to the video?

Honestly the colours I personally think are 'Epic' - really nice!!

Using Filters? Lights? WB - if so what? (if MWB, what you balancing on white / 50%?)

Nice job again Dustin.

I know it's your style but I would not crush black that much because it will look too much black on uncalibrated screen like tv or projector.

But maybe it just me.

Thanks Eunjae.

As for the blacks...yes it is my style. Is there anything technically wrong with doing it this way? This might be a false observation, but I have noticed you used to do more of this than you currently do. Are you finding you don't like black in the picture just as a personal taste? Or is it for a technical reason? I definitely like having blacks especially in my macro, as I shoot it that way on purpose. On this trip I was actually exposing to the right on purpose with the mindset of crushing the blacks in post. I have viewed on both calibrated and uncalibrated monitors and TV's and it looks pretty good. I haven't put it up on my projector however. I have often pondered why we are so concerned with calibrating our monitors, when 99% of the monitors/tv's are not calibrated...lol. I always watch it on an uncalibrated monitor to make sure it looks good first. Interesting discussion....

Thanks again for watching and the comments!

Dustin

The whole video is excellent, I like the color grading and smooth shots.

I really love the first shot of the wreck appearing behind the corals !

 

The (double) splashscreen at the beginning is too long for me : 30s.

If I had not been for the preview, I would have left.

Thanks for watching it. I agree...the first part is too long. There is always a balance of trying to get your name out there and boring people. This is too long to get to the good stuff......but I will tell you my thinking. This might just be me...but, I feel there is a place in every song where it makes sense to start the good stuff...So with this particular song, that was where I thought it was, so I was trying to fill in the gap...Not great I know...but choosing music is hard for me, so if I find something that for the most part I like, I go with it.

Dustin

Nice work, as usual. I liked the "tilted font" effect that you got on your name in the title sequence at the beginning. I was also very impressed with the water clarity, and how much of the plane was still intact after all this time.

Thank you!

Could you provide us with some technical background to the video?

 

Honestly the colours I personally think are 'Epic' - really nice!!

 

Using Filters? Lights? WB - if so what? (if MWB, what you balancing on white / 50%?)

Thank you for the compliment!

I use a Canon 5d mark II. I also used a the new 16-35mm F4L lens.

I don't use filters. I am not a big fan of filters myself, so you will never see that from me, at least with this camera. IMO Canon cameras have such a good MWB, you don't need them. I realize some cameras need them, but for my camera it doesn't. With the exception of inside the fuselage, the entire video is all natural light. I just white balanced off of the sand. Which again for my camera seems to be the best way to WB. I have a white slate, but I have never felt that it gives me as good as white sand. This can be personal taste as well as how the camera reacts as well...Some people with the 7d have mwb off of the surface pointed at the sun, and my camera doesn't like that. So cameras can be different.

As for lights, on this trip I used 2 sola 4000's and 1 sola 2100. I mainly used those when inside the wrecks. If I can do natural light, that is what I prefer, at least for wide angle.

Hope that helps.

Dustin

I don't use filters. I am not a big fan of filters myself, so you will never see that from me, at least with this camera.

I have the wrong camera, I can't see the GH4 rendering this sort of color at all.

Wow, amazing that it is natural light. I'm impressed!

 

I have the wrong camera, I can't see the GH4 rendering this sort of color at all.

The GH4 is a great camera. I have seen a lot of good stuff out of it. I thought about getting the GH4 myself but after seeing more and more video out of it, I am convinced I would be disappointed in the color. Of course, this is personal preference, and there are people that will like the GH4 more than a Canon...It's all in what you like. But Canon's WB is second to none. I am impatiently waiting for Canon to pull their head out of their A$$ and release an affordable 4k full frame dslr that doesn't cost as much as my car. The competition is killing them in that area. If the 1DC was $4k I would have bought it by now. Rumors are that Canon is continuing the split off the 5d line. Similar to how Sony does their A7 line. Hopefully coming out with a cinema version that shoots 4k. I was really hoping for a new camera by september for my Bali trip, but seems I will have to wait...

The Sony a7s is another interesting camera, but a few things turn me off...no internal 4k recording. reports are the wb underwater is very bad, and have to use a lens adaptor to get the canon glass to work. The WB is a deal breaker for me I think, unless I see some wide angle work that looks good.

Dustin

Richard,

Canon and Nikon is well known for their excellent color rendering. I think Nikon is great for skin tone, while Canon is great overall, and with its glass/lens portfolio, that's why these two brands dominated the market. It is very easy to tell what scene/photo are shot with Canon vs Sony/Panasonic.

For a while I was trying to match Panasonic to Canon's color, at the end of the day, Panasonic with Scenery color profile and red filter (preferably Magic Filter) will get you very close to Canon's rendition of blue when you do the custom white balance right (with right sun position, water clarity, white/gray slate vs sand/hand). Like Dustin said, Canon have their head in the sand and not giving consumer the right camera at the right price point. They are many times I wanted to switch to the Canon G series for their color, but the video feature just kill those cameras for me. So I switched to Panasonic and spent time to find a way to cope with the color shortcoming.

Sony is very close to Canon's color these days and you can find a lot of video shot with the RX100 with nice blue color, but the WB on the Sony is not easy to work with.

Dustin, Lee tried out the A7S with Shogun, you can check with him how bad it is, and he would rather stick with his 6D, it's that painful!

Moses