Using lens and strobe filters together

Hi Guys

I have just come back from a trip to Tiger Beach and I have used a red filter on the lens together with ambient filter (I had to make some) on the strobes and the combination gives deep colour and fantastic results look for yourself

Looking at me by Interceptor121, on Flickr

The filter colours penetrate deeper than the strobe and the results are great obviously you need to calculate exactly what filters you need so it is not for everyone

For comparison this is a picture where there are no filters involved and I have warming diffusers on the strobes it is still great but I like much better the one with the filter

Don't leave me by Interceptor121, on Flickr

I would like to thank Alex Mustard for helping me out with the strobe filters calculations and I look forward to some shots we will take together in the red sea

NOTE: do not try this in blue green water it won't work this is just for really blue water

Will be writing the instructions on my blog once I get a moment

Nice work I think this technique is actually more effective with strobes for photos than it is with video lights since strobes put out a lot more light and thus aren't as sensitive to the light loss from sticking blue filters on them. Odd that it didn't really catch on for wide angle photography yet somehow is suddenly all the rage for video..

Curious to hear what you ended up using for blue filtration on the strobes and how you did the calculation.

Also, shouldn't this theoretically also work in greener water if you combined 'green' filters on the strobes with a magenta filter on the camera? Same principle -- magenta filter helps with white balance to the ambient conditions, and green filters bring the color temperature and tint of the strobes into the same ballpark as the ambient light filtered by the temperate waters?

Looks like a great shoot, though I'm sot sure I feel about the subjects tasting my strobes. The first image definitely has nicer looking water. Looking at the images on my monitor, the second image has a lot more green in it and removing that in post has the effect of darkening up the water column bringing it much closer to the first image in overall look, and the shark will also be closer in tone to image 1. There are other subtle differences still there such as image 2 have more cyan cast to the sand bottom than the first image. The adjustments to use would be a levels adjustment by channel and a green curves adjustment layer, I could post a rework if you were interested to compare.

Looks like a great shoot, though I'm sot sure I feel about the subjects tasting my strobes. The first image definitely has nicer looking water. Looking at the images on my monitor, the second image has a lot more green in it and removing that in post has the effect of darkening up the water column bringing it much closer to the first image in overall look, and the shark will also be closer in tone to image 1. There are other subtle differences still there such as image 2 have more cyan cast to the sand bottom than the first image. The adjustments to use would be a levels adjustment by channel and a green curves adjustment layer, I could post a rework if you were interested to compare.

I could do those changes but that’s not the purpose here. I don’t think the second photo will win a competition so I left it al naturale

The issue is that without a filter the colour rendering is worse when the camera does a white balance it averages everything and the hues are gone

With the filter I white balance before the shot and when I correct all the hues are in the right place which is brilliant

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice work I think this technique is actually more effective with strobes for photos than it is with video lights since strobes put out a lot more light and thus aren't as sensitive to the light loss from sticking blue filters on them. Odd that it didn't really catch on for wide angle photography yet somehow is suddenly all the rage for video..

 

Curious to hear what you ended up using for blue filtration on the strobes and how you did the calculation.

 

Also, shouldn't this theoretically also work in greener water if you combined 'green' filters on the strobes with a magenta filter on the camera? Same principle -- magenta filter helps with white balance to the ambient conditions, and green filters bring the color temperature and tint of the strobes into the same ballpark as the ambient light filtered by the temperate waters?

The technique works in every condition however you need the correct filter on the lens matched by the appropriate filter on the strobes

For example in green water you would have a magenta filter on the lens and a green filter on the strobes

To complicate things further there are subtle differences at depth in terms of intensity required

The complexity above and the incorrect belief on raw formats make this technique rare but raw is not the solution to everything...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've been looking at doing this for a couple years now and haven't been able to get a good test session in to see how well it works. I'm excited to see someone actually doing it and having it come out well, nice job. I tried testing in green water using a TG4 with magenta filter and some green produce bags over the strobe. This set up wasn't good enough to get a real idea of how well it would work. I've got a D810 with Nauticam housing but I only have a port setup for my Sigma 15mm fisheye that won't take a filter. As soon as I get the Nikon 16-35 I'm going to test it out.

The main purpose I was looking at was to have the ambient light of the background blend in better with the artificial light. Most of the time what ever is in the added light will look good but the background would be blue or green with all other colors washed out. I thought of it a while back when watching video that had beautiful backgrounds that should be filled with color but were strictly blue/green.

I'm really excited with these images and the potential for future endeavors.

ChrisRoss and al

Those are jpeg of the image as shot off the camera

Sorry for the minuscule size

I saw you posted a video, Was any of it using this setup?

I saw you posted a video, Was any of it using this setup?

Same camera port and lens of course no strobes just lights and you can barely see them lol

Have you tried using color calibration. A couple years ago I sealed my color Checker Passport in a vacuum bag and took tried to calibrate underwater. At that time I only had a TG4 for underwater and It didn't work how I was hoping. It tended to bring up the yellow more than I'd like. Now that I have a housing for my D810 I'm going to put the Color Checker in an iPhone case and see what it does on the DSLR. Normally when on land when I use it, The blues are the most affected and come out much richer and deeper with some improvements in the reds as well. I was going to test it this morning on a manatee trip but wasn't able to make it out. I'll probably be able to get some test shots to compare tomorrow. Depending on if it works well, I wonder if using the lens and light filters along with calibration would make it pop even more. Have you ever calibrated for underwater?

Have you tried using color calibration. A couple years ago I sealed my color Checker Passport in a vacuum bag and took tried to calibrate underwater. At that time I only had a TG4 for underwater and It didn't work how I was hoping. It tended to bring up the yellow more than I'd like. Now that I have a housing for my D810 I'm going to put the Color Checker in an iPhone case and see what it does on the DSLR. Normally when on land when I use it, The blues are the most affected and come out much richer and deeper with some improvements in the reds as well. I was going to test it this morning on a manatee trip but wasn't able to make it out. I'll probably be able to get some test shots to compare tomorrow. Depending on if it works well, I wonder if using the lens and light filters along with calibration would make it pop even more. Have you ever calibrated for underwater?

I have a special slate I use for white balance and it works pretty well looking at my own videos the color rendering is pretty good. I spoke to someone about calibrating underwater but I see little use or original grey slate and land tools as those would be depth dependent

I've been in many situations where a grey card wouldn't work. I've shot Jiu Jitsu tournaments where the lights would have either a green or magenta hue depending on when you caught it at the flicker. The only way to get the color right was to calibrate. The other was at a summer camp cafeteria where the entire inside was stained wood with flourascent lights. Between the brown of the wood and the green of the lights, it was impossible to get color and skin tones to show up properly. Sometimes a grey card isn't enough so I plan to test the calibration hopefully within the next couple days for shallow water. When ever I do I'll post the results and let you know. Who knows it may not be beneficial at all.

I realize the calibration will be depth and watercolor dependent so I plan on getting multiple profiles to use. Definitely more work but if I can get it to work as well as it has for me on land, it will be well worth it for me since I pay attention to the minor details that only mike a tiny difference.

I've been in many situations where a grey card wouldn't work. I've shot Jiu Jitsu tournaments where the lights would have either a green or magenta hue depending on when you caught it at the flicker. The only way to get the color right was to calibrate. The other was at a summer camp cafeteria where the entire inside was stained wood with flourascent lights. Between the brown of the wood and the green of the lights, it was impossible to get color and skin tones to show up properly. Sometimes a grey card isn't enough so I plan to test the calibration hopefully within the next couple days for shallow water. When ever I do I'll post the results and let you know. Who knows it may not be beneficial at all.

 

I realize the calibration will be depth and watercolor dependent so I plan on getting multiple profiles to use. Definitely more work but if I can get it to work as well as it has for me on land, it will be well worth it for me since I pay attention to the minor details that only mike a tiny difference.

Effort vs benefit I think is the question

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice results. Can you share how you did the calculations? I'm assuming the goal is to correct both to roughly half way between the strobe color temp and water color temp and set the camera to that?

Nice results. Can you share how you did the calculations? I'm assuming the goal is to correct both to roughly half way between the strobe color temp and water color temp and set the camera to that?

The way it works is you get the predominant water hue colour and calculate based on depth at some point however this plateau

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk