Underwater World of Anilao

I had a productive weekend and finally finished the master piece for my trip:

It takes 2 minutes for the music to build up, so I'm keeping it a bit long, besides, there are just too many footage from a 9 days 33 tanks dive trip!

Just for fun, see if you can spot:

- Dashing goat fish

- gobies "high five each other"

- Bicycle riding diver (Urrggggggg)

Top side footage is shot with Panasonic GH4.

Moses

Nice work. I particularly like the topside / timelapse stuff. It adds an extra dimension to the film.

Cheers

Steve

nice work

Moses,

This is gorgeous! You should be very proud of your work. It's really lovely!

I have a few questions:

Correct me if I am wrong -- you don't use Magic Filters -- you rely only on manual white balance.

Which "picture profile" did you use on the LX100 underwater? Did you change the Noise Reduction, Contrast, Sharpening or other settings? (I have been playing with those on land, but still haven't decided what works)

Did you use one of those contrast curves (shadows/highlights)?

When you edit - do you edit the video in 4k and then export it to 2k or HD, OR, do you edit the video on an HD or a 2K timeline? (I'm trying to figure out which one works better, still haven't decided).

Forgive me for peppering you with so many questions -- I was away over July 4, and while I was gone, my Nauticam housing came for my LX100. I am so excited -- I haven't even had the chance to open up the box yet (I'll do that tonight), but I am trying to get ready for my big dive trip to the Red Sea (Egypt) at the end of the month!

Basil

Thanks everyone! I was a bit concern about over use of timelapse, but it's the best way to tell the activity, both at the dock and the gear up area.

Basil, I did use Magic Filter in two dives. It turned out the weather in Anilao made it pointless when I was there. The morning sun was okay in Anilao, but the afternoon was overcast. For Magic Filter to be effective, the sun should be high and behind the diver, mostly between 12 noon to 3pm. So I didn't use Magic Filter other then that 2 experiment dives. All my wide angle shot were shoot with custom white balance using a gray reference card. I take a white balance reading everytime before I start the recording. Many people use sand, hand, or save the white balance setting into the preset based on depth. I don't do that because light condition constantly change, especially if there is cloud around.

As for picture profile, I use "Scenery", it's the best setting to bring out the blue color for Panasonic, however, Chris Parson made a comment that the Scenery setting makes the yellow too much, and I'm starting to notice that. But I think I can turn down the saturation at post if I need to.

For camera setting, I follow everything here as it's the only site that has the most detail info about LX100 menu::

http://cameraergonomics.blogspot.com/2015/01/lx100-setup-part-3-setup-and-rec-menus.html

I didn't mess with the contrast curves in the camera.

When come to editing, I edit in 4K and output my final video at 80 mbps to upload to Youtbue. 80Mbps is more than what Youtube will need and they will re-compress it. 80Mbps is also good enough for me to archive. Also, during editing, I only change shadow/hightlight, there are a few clips that I might need to do a "Fast color correct" or adjust brightness (I use Premiere Pro CC).

Red Sea has great visibility! Make sure you get the blue color right, also, when come to shooting video, shallow is your friend! You get the best ambient light. With the LX100, try not go above ISO400, at ISO800 you will see noticeable noise at the blue water area but the coral and everything else would be fine.

Very nice! I am glad to see footage of Crystal Blue as I will be there just at the new year this year.

Allison,

Not sure what to expect in January. I was there in mid-late March. Hairy frogfish is easy to find, so is mantis shrimp with eggs, the best place to find sheep nudibranch is at Secret Bay. I also saw two clownfish egg patch that time of the year. Someone from this forum when to the house reef of Crystal Blue in May and saw flamboyant cuttle fish eggs.

January is a great time to be there. The water is a little cooler, conditions are calm, and vis at its best