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  • 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

Hello John old friend,

Can't make DEMA, will be at Fort Lauderdale Boat Show instead with my boat engines (www.MedusaEngines.com) but slowly you'll start seeing more of me.

Good luck at DEMA!
 
H2O OLPF, etc.

H2O OLPF, etc.

First off, welcome back, Rudi.
Secondly, thank you, John, for the kind promotion of my quick and dirty upload to FB, which as of this writing has been viewed nearly 56,000 times and shared 1600 ways... (virtually viral, I'd say...)
Third, as I've been asked this question a few times now, here's my take on the H2O OLPF. (Graeme, please check me on this if I mis-state)
The H2O OLPF is not a "Magic Filter" - or any other type of color correction filter. It is agnostic to depth changes, unlike other filters that may be designed to work at specific depths, or even water colors (green comes to mind) such as those made for GoPro by companies such as Backscatter (as good as they are...) What the H2O OLPF does is mitigate the cross channel contamination that was being picked up by the sensor in an already heavily filtered (water) acquisition, thus keeping the color spectrum even (e.g. not biased towards red) and as stated on the RED.com website. "offering you unmatched exposure performance and freedom for grading in post".

FREEDOM FOR GRADING IN POST. This is most important! It does not mean your footage will auto-magically be beautiful right out of the gate (so to speak). As so many of my Canon friends like to say that the footage they get right out of camera is exactly like it "should" look. Really? Not if you don't nail your white balance and exposure... And, BTW, Canon, and Sony, Nikon and all the others (including Alexa) have pre-determined what the "look" is going to be, so hopefully you like it that way, 'cause there isn't much you can do to change it later. Having the "Freedom for grading in post" means that I can color for web, REC709 HD TV, or P3, etc. color spaces. I have recently installed the Dolby Vision laser projectors for a client. The blacks are un-fucking-believable! And, the gamut so wide that a REC709 grade just looks flat. A totally separate pass needs to be done in the grading suite in order to maximize the black level, gamut and really appreciate what you get with 31 foot lamberts of light reflecting back at you! So, yeah, go ahead and push that color all around. So much more control and creativity with properly exposed footage and not battling other "built-in" color aberrations - whether from cross channel contamination, or from some other baked-in look.

As RED shooters, we also have the ability to push our own custom look to camera. I use this a lot! Especially on days when we're shooting in the - relatively - same conditions and depths, such as with the mantas. Pull the card, do a nice grade in Redcine X, and push it back to the camera. The next stuff you shoot is going to look pretty much how you wanted it to, but you can still go back to default settings and work it from there... This is how i shot the mantas on the last hour, of the last dive, on the last day in Baa Atoll. (We had to pull anchor and steam back to Male at 9 AM in order to be back in time for folks to make their flights) That said, I did some further color correction on the clip before posting it, and I'm still working on a reel for DEMA (if I get done with this post...) to show in the Gates booth. (Thanks again, John!)

So, here is a link to the Vimeo feed, which is so much better - even though it's still 720 - than the FB post. Enjoy!!!

 
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That's as good a description as any Ron! Also for underwater, use RC4 or DC2 for the colour space as that really helps too.

Graeme
 
That's as good a description as any Ron! Also for underwater, use RC4 or DC2 for the colour space as that really helps too.

Graeme

Thanks, Graeme! Yes, absolutely forgot to mention that the new color space and gamma choices in RCX have made a huge improvement to all my footage, not just that shot with the H2O OLPF...
 
Ok then gents,

Anybody who feels like helping me out can kindly send me as many R3D grabs as you care to, shot with the H2O OLPF. Different light conditions, pointing down to the bottom, towards the sun, deep water, etc, etc, whatever you have. E-mail: Rudi@IdeasinBlue.com

Thanks in advance,
 
Request?

Hey all, an interesting project has just come across my, err, desk, does anyone who has been to the Bimini hammerhead dive site happen to have some GoPro (or equivalent) footage from those dives for evaluation?

Anyone who does, happy to fill you in on details and possible participation.

Thanks in advance,

Tom
 
Rafa,

Yes, very well done compadre, beautiful stuff. Pity your videos look soft on Vimeo, have you explored other export settings? I know Vimeo does recompression but still, your videos look softer than they should. As for some samples, sure, here it goes:
- a frame looking down with some light reflecting on the whales
- a frame looking horizontally at the whales, with the surface on top and the blue water at the bottom of the frame
- a half/half frame of Miguel breaking the surface. there is still a lot of magenta on his suit, but don't know if that's the color grade or the camera. Were you using a red filter too?

Thanks,
 
Thank you so much Jhon & Rudi!

I think it's a problem Vimeo. and perhaps the color adjustment in Redcinex. All shots were with H2O filter. It was made in two days continuously.


I am very interested in your opinion, since returning home, the next week, I send you some of those shoots in R3D, if you want? :-)
 
Jon Shaw's Hardware a.k.a. AACTA Award

Jon Shaw's Hardware a.k.a. AACTA Award

Congratulations! "Life on the Reef" just earned Jon Shaw and his colleagues top honors this week at the Australian Academy of Cinema Television and the Arts for "Best Cinematography in a Documentary"


From everyone here at Gates, well done!


Life on the Reef.jpg IMG_1985.jpg IMG_1910.jpg IMG_1967.jpg

#ginclearfilm #ShotOnGates
 
Thanks John, we are so stoked! To sit at that level was amazing let alone winning.... Huge thanks has to go to you John and Pam for the amazing service and backup and also Jarred and the RED team for making a camera that is an amazing tool to shoot documentary work.
 
alright guys i'm jumping back in if y'all are still accepting gentlefolk and if yousa gonna lettme finish ;)
i have a lot to catch up on, how's the underwater world? :/
i'm gonna do a rcx tutorial asap, lots going on here, but i promise your r3d's have not died in vein.
then you guys can do whatcha doing demonstrating the bestest newest stuff
 
Yousa muy muy welcome in dissa forum, Paul. :)

\
alright guys i'm jumping back in if y'all are still accepting gentlefolk and if yousa gonna lettme finish ;)
i have a lot to catch up on, how's the underwater world? :/
i'm gonna do a rcx tutorial asap, lots going on here, but i promise your r3d's have not died in vein.
then you guys can do whatcha doing demonstrating the bestest newest stuff
 
And the hits keep on coming!

Huge congrats to Frazier Nivens on bringing home two more Emmys!!

Well done Frazier!
 

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:wink5:
And the hits keep on coming!

Huge congrats to Frazier Nivens on bringing home two more Emmys!!

Well done Frazier!

What housing do you use? :wink5:

Just kidding - most of the time it's not the gear, it's the man behind it - congrats Frazier! - jobs well done.
 
Thanks John, we are so stoked! To sit at that level was amazing let alone winning.... Huge thanks has to go to you John and Pam for the amazing service and backup and also Jarred and the RED team for making a camera that is an amazing tool to shoot documentary work.

Congratulations Jon on your award for best cinematography, you do beautiful work. Hope to say hello some day in person. Great being able to do what we love.
 
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