Orange Filter for Underwater photography?

[DANofNORTH]

At what depth should you consider an orange filter for your underwater photography? I would imagin that someone in this area of the cc should be able to tell me.

 

I understand that it really brings out the colours in the fish & coral. We are snorkeling on a cruise to Tahiti in November & I'm looking at uw cameras & housing. The ability to use the filter may be a consideration.

[bruce-r]

The question you have to answer is are you shooting film or digital? You wouldn't need a filter with digital if you use the RAW file format. You adjust the image on your computer after the dive.

[joediver]

Bruce-r....Doesn't RAW use up a lot more space on the memory cards?? I always thought it was cheaper to get a decent red or orange filter than another 1 gb card? I really don't like to bring my laptop along to upload the files on vacation.

[DANofNORTH]

I am looking @ a digital camera.

 

I also havn't had much luck tweeking pictures afterwards, I would prefer to take the best picture possible & then doing a minor adjustment rather than a radical one where I feel like I have faked the shot.

 

Maybe thats just me but thats why I am asking about the orange filter so at the very least I understand their use.

[scubaran]

Hi,

 

There's a lot of discussion on this topic in the boards at http://www.wetpixel.com. Basically though the answer is how deep are you going to dive? Red is filtered out of the water pretty much after 3m (~9ft). After that there are several ways to get it back, use a filter while other colors are still there (not much good after 30ft. since almost all colors but blue are gone by then). Use a flash or strobe to bring back the white light. Use a wide beam flash light to target smaller objects to bring back the white. Use manual white balance (take a white card in your BC) if your camera supports it. Get close (less blue water between you and the subject, less blue in the picture). Understand depth of field and shutter speed and how they interact underwater to add the right exposures to your pictures. Add red to the picture afterwards with your graphics program (I have a underwater script I got off the internet, I believe at wetpixel, that adds a red filter to my pictures and some other adjustments that I use in Photoshop).

 

As you can see, just having a red filter may not do it for you. I recommend a book, Master Guide for Underwater Digital Photography by Jack and Sue Drafahl, that is available from Amazon. It's only like $30 and can answer all your questions on factors behind doing underwater photography and it's only been published for a few months. I dove a couple of weeks ago in Key West and was amazed how much technically :) better my pictures were after following their instructions.

 

Thanks,

Randall

[bruce-r]

Bruce-r....Doesn't RAW use up a lot more space on the memory cards?? I always thought it was cheaper to get a decent red or orange filter than another 1 gb card? I really don't like to bring my laptop along to upload the files on vacation.

Yes it does, but a 1 gig card isn't that much now a days. Check http://www.dealram.com for prices. I only shoot the underwater photos using RAW. Because the white balance of UW photos is so difficult to set during the dive, it is much easier to adjust afterwards on the computer. I like having the added control that shooting RAW affords me. I use Photoshop Elements 3 which handles RAW and cost under $75.