Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

Hi Pawel

I thought it might be a Weedy. Unmistakable turfs. I have only seen Leafys but I was told Weedys is harder to find. Anyway I live in Singapore so no shortage for good food and watering holes. I'll buy you a drink if you ever pass through here.

Cheers
David
 
Both weedies and leafies can be difficult to spot. I don't remember the number of times I "lost" the talent when inches in front of the camera...never to be found again :)

The most reliable way of finding them is using peripheral vision and look for movement. Our central vision is more sensitive to shape and colour, neither of which is of much assistance in finding sea dragons among lush kelp...their favourite hiding place. It is the movement that is different than that of sea weeds and this usually helps.

I may be in Singapore mid-next year, but if you are ever in Tassie I can guarantee you would see a weedy. There are no leafies in Tasmania, only in South Australia. They are one of my favourite subjects. Mating (egg transfer) has never been observed or filmed in the wild. And neither weedies nor leafies can breed in captivity. They are highly territorial, so they are good subjects for sequence work as you can find the same individual in the same place day after day....if you can spot them, of course!

Best fishes,

Pawel
 
I have build over the last few weeks a Underwater Housing Prototype, Kept it simple and mechanical.
I am out on the Great Barrier reef on some time off giving it its Maiden voyage, test and shake down.
Tested it down to 33msw so far, design depth is 120m and with a glass dome even further.
Have the balance and weight took 2 dives to get perfect... Im pretty happy really!

Red Scarlet, Tonkina 11-16 and Cannon 18-55
RedTouch LCD Screen
powered by a V-Lock Battery pack
Custom underwater Aircraft grade aluminum housing designed for Aquatica lens ports.
Large Acrylic dome and smaller Mineral Glass dome (I am finding the large less technically advanced Acrylic dome to be sharper).
Mechanical controlls for Iris, REC/Focus, On/Off, Zoom, Enter(RedMote).
Coming soon - Geared focus, more assign buttons to change ISO/Shutter etc

Lights are Greenforce, I have both LED and HID.
664558_10151325288385477_1384638159_o.jpg
621435_10151328021740477_1541457838_o.jpg
281126_10151325288515477_1197874917_o.jpg
131962_10151325274070477_57819707_o.jpg


I have many more photos of the build and test shots underwater, the Tonkina works wonderfully underwater.
Shots of me were taken on a GoPro, The test 4K Red Screen shots are Tiff then converted to JPG.
There is some motion blur as i am only running a 50th shutter, I am keen to see how high I can go underwater before it starts strobing.

I may offer a final version of this housing up for sale, two versions, one long housing that will run 2 V-lock batts and a shorter stubby one that can run off the handle or smaller V-lock batts.

Love to hear feedback, Most of my work is HD delivery so have not setup for larger PL lenses at this time, But I will soon with a little more $$$. I could not afford a Gates or Amphibico right now and didn't want to wait to get my Scarlet underwater, so this is what I came up with.
This is a housing built by a Full Time Underwater cameraman/DOP and part time engineer.

Dean Cropp
Australia
www.accessallangles.com
 
New Housing...

New Housing...

Ross Isaacs said:
Hi Dean
Looks like you are amongst it welcome to Red user mate.
Click to expand...

Hi Ross.

Thanks, I am envious of your setup of course!

We were hoping to catch up with you down at the marina before we headed out to sea, we are back in town on Thursday Afternoon/evening to re-stock and head back out on Sunday.
Would be great to chat.

Will be in the water early tomorrow morning for the eclipse, will let you know how it goes!

Take care.

Croppy.
 
hey Dean, Good luck with the shooting. Look forward to catch up when you return from the reef.
 
Pawel Achtel said:
hey Dean, Good luck with the shooting. Look forward to catch up when you return from the reef.
Click to expand...

Hey Pawel...
Thanks mate, Now you know what things were so frantic for Sally and I in the few weeks leading up to this trip... I was building a housing from scratch and she was setting up our shoot next week!

We are back at the end of the month and after a few weeks out on the water we are full of ideas again and keen to catch up and chat about where we are up to!

Hope your well,

Croppy.
 
Dean Cropp said:
Hey Pawel...
Thanks mate, Now you know what things were so frantic for Sally and I in the few weeks leading up to this trip... I was building a housing from scratch and she was setting up our shoot next week!

We are back at the end of the month and after a few weeks out on the water we are full of ideas again and keen to catch up and chat about where we are up to!

Hope your well,

Croppy.
Click to expand...

No worries, mate. I know how it feels too well :)

Pretty busy here too: shooting 3D most of the time. This weekend conducting a workshop for a group of 10 ACS members...Yiks! Can't wait to catch up. Hope your solar eclipse and coral spawning shots went well. Best wishes to Sally.
 
Yes Jon, they are but it's very different to Gates Deep Epic.

No REDmote
DSMC Side Handle controls the camera
No PL-lenses
No external monitor (by default) but bulkheads to use HDMI-monitors like the DP4 (SmallHD) in the NA-DP4 housing (or Backscatter's Wahoo with the Sony monitor)
All Nauticam DSLR domes and extension rings fit (which is great for guys whom have Nauticam rigs).
Much lighter than the Deep Epic and more compact
Probably some neat tech-tricks as usual
Should be under $10K

Where did you see the pics? Would love to see them too :-)
 
Hi all,

I am new to RED and RAW cinematography since two months.
My previous experience was.... err... a Nikon D7000...
I feel like I'm getting better at mastering the Epic underwater (still much to learn) but I'm standing still in the post workflow.
I can't get my colors right so I thought I did things wrong while recording until.... a professional editor spent a few hours on some clips and the images became stunning!
But that guy is not a RED specialist, nor and u/w specialist, so I direct myself to the group.
Johny Friday already gave me some great general 101 advice, thanks Johny!

My current workflow is:
x Copy folder from REDMAG to Disk
x (Try to) do a primary color-grading in RED-cine
x Save the look
x Render graded files as ProRes 444
x Import ProRes in FCPX
x Edit project
x Export project as ProRes 444
x (Try to) do a secondary color-grading in Resolve

This doesn't appear to be a good workflow to me, so any advise (even change of programs) is welcome.

My second question is: how can I master the color-grading itself?
Are there courses online or in Miami, New York?
I'm thinking about specialty courses for u/w since lighting and colors is totally different to top-side.
Any advice herein would also be very welcome since.... I'm starting to get a bit desperate :-s

And if you have any other advice, please shoot! There is so little to find online for u/w shooters....
Thanks and have a great weekend you all!

Michael
 
Michael,

I'm in the process of releasing several color grading tutorials aimed specifically at underwater footage on UnderwaterCinema.com. Starting with RED footage is somewhat more difficult, mainly because, ironically, you should first go through Redcine X, which is a bit of a mixed bag since it creates some unwanted results that trickle down the line. That said, I have found that the easier workflows involve Adobe products and a couple of plug ins, and that in general, it is easier to work with the RAW files on a PC that it is on a MAC if you don't have a Rocket.

Every now and then I do private tutorials, I could do that for you if you're interested. Find a 5 second clip of some of your troubled footage and you can send it to me, together with a list of problems you see and things you'd like to achieve out of it. I record a correction tutorial and send you back a video file to play and follow along. Before moving onto Resolve though, you should start by using some basic, but powerful, tools within Adobe, both in Premiere and After Effects. Anyway, you have my contact info, let me know.
 
Hi Rudy,

I'm very much interested, thanks!
I'll contact you :-)
I use an iMac 27" 3.4GHz i7 with 8GB RAM and 25TB external disks through Thunderbolt.
I have a Sonnet Expansion chassis with a RED ROCKET, connected through Thunderbolt.
Cheers,

Michael
 
Are there any underwater housings that can go down 600 feet to the bottom of a dam to rediscover a lost river?

Are there any underwater divers here with the experience to do it safely?
 
Epic housings :)

Toward the high points in the dam, the waters are less deep. It's hard to know what's on the bottom anymore, what can be seen. There are very few old timers that remember this part of the river, it's been 50 years.
 
Will Keir said:
Are there any underwater housings that can go down 600 feet to the bottom of a dam to rediscover a lost river?Are there any underwater divers here with the experience to do it safely?
Click to expand...
The first one: yes, both DeepX and 3Deep can achieve this with only minor modifications or, without any modifications, can be pressurised and can go even deeper than this. Both DeepX and 3Deep have 3/8" UNF low pressure ports for exactly this purpose (and double up as a seal check)I would not try to pressurise an enclosed lens...most of them are sealed and will crush. Nikonos is different.The second one, negative unless you wear Newtsuit.
 
Pawel Achtel said:
The second one, negative unless you wear Newtsuit.
Click to expand...

They have guys diving underwater at times to fix mechanisms in the dam, that's 643 feet down. That's a pretty cold dark place I would think.

What is a more tolerable distance? 100' and up?
 
Will Keir said:
They have guys diving underwater at times to fix mechanisms in the dam, that's 643 feet down. That's a pretty cold dark place I would think.

What is a more tolerable distance? 100' and up?
Click to expand...

There are a few people diving below 600 ft, but your question contained a word "safely" :)
Any exertion at this depth could be fatal very easily. Generally, yes 100 ft (30m) would be regarded as reasonably deep even though many recreational divers dive routinely to 200 ft. It is one thing to go on a deep dive, it is another to set up the camera and film there for any reasonable amount of time.

If you need to film at 600 ft, I would consider an ROV. Much cheaper and safer with no bottom time limit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top