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The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

Jon Shaw said:
Nuno,

I have used the Sigma 17-70 lots, in fact it was my go to lens on the series Life on the Reef, MX 5k vignettes slightly but now with Dragon you can shoot 5.5K pretty good and I'll have to double check but I reckon 6K HD would be close. Weird thing with this lens is it vignettes more at the long end. I haven't used it in a while as all recent projects have been WA but its very useful to have in the bag.
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Thanks Jon, thats is just what i wanted to hear ;-). Another plus side is the PE is the same as the Tokina 11-16 (PE286) so thats one less PE to carry around. In fact if I get a Canon EFS 60mm instead of my 100mm I can get away with using the same PE I use on the 16-35mm (PE386) and carry only 2 PE for the whole range, which sounds very good.
 
HI Jonathan- Let me be the first to welcome you to the forum. Many good image-makers here with much technical knowledge. Best- Mauricio
 
Hello Jonathan!

Welcome to the riotous Bubble Blowers forum. The collective experience here is immense, and generously shared.

For the benefit of the forum members: Jonathan and I email each other frequently about camera technology, housing design, his latest grand adventure (which becomes an episode of Blue World) and other diverse topics. He is a wealth of knowledge, both technical and practical.

J-


Jonathan Bird said:
Hi Everyone,

I have been lurking for a while and I thought I would introduce myself. I'm an underwater guy based in New England. I produce Jonathan Bird's Blue World on public television, a family-friendly underwater science/adventure program which is also on YouTube. We shoot on more traditional EFP cameras for that show. Our underwater systems are Sony AX1 and AX100 prosumer 4K cameras in Gates housings.

Last year I produced Space School, the world's first fully digitally-filmed live-action fulldome film. It was my first project on the RED (Dragon). Unlike many projects shot with the Dragon, we actually needed the full sensor resolution. RED did a BTS about the project and you can see a "making of" short doc here and a trailer here.

We are starting production now on another giant screen film and have taken possession of our own Dragon, so that's cool. I'm actually super excited about the 8K Weapon. I think the sensor size and resolution is really in line with what we need for giant screen.

Jonathan
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Welcome to the group Jonathan! Looks like you have been shooting some fantastic projects, including one at Aquarius. Tom, Matt, and I spent some serious time there about two years ago during Mission 31! Looking forward to hear more about your incredible work in the weeks and months ahead.
 
The Navy swim test just to get on the project kicked my ass! Especially the swim that involved a pool length underwater. So here goes Kip, swims the entire length on one breath, and then swims the whole thing back, without surfacing! The Navy guys were duly dumbfounded! (It's a Navy thing) Kip does not need to breathe air, apparently.

Feck me Kip, did your one of your parents mate with a dolphin?
 
Lol on the swim test. I was like "How hard can a swim test be?" Holy cow, not as easy as I thought!

I was at Aquarius with NASA right after Mission 31. I would have loved to be involved. So cool.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I have been following this thread a while. I feel like I already know everyone!

Mauricio gave me my very first intro to the RED in 2013 in the Bahamas. We made a Blue World episode about it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P1eyC_ab750

I'm a super camera nerd...John gets a lot of late night brainstorming from me. Ha, I love bouncing stuff off a guy who really gets it.

I hope to to meet some of you all in person at some point.

Best,
Jonathan
 
Tom you are too kind. I don't think one of my parents mated with a dolphin, but I do remember you coming back and kicking some butt on that swim test my friend! Good times!!
 
Hola!

We just went live with my first tests and first shooting experiences using the 6K Weapon in combination with the new DSMC2 H2O OLPF: http://www.red.com/store/products/dsmc2-h2o-olpf

Here’s the little ditty that I shot and edited in a bit of hurry to get these results out there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3RUSFpJmIE

Definitely not gonna say that it’s the best thing I’ve ever shot but I also tried to shoot in less than ideal situations/techniques to make a point of this filter standing up to tough shooting scenarios. But overall I'm happy with what we got over 10 dives between bad weather and the rush to get back home to our terrestrial responsibilities.

As you can probably tell I wasn’t going for a uniform look and feel to color grading across the entire piece, instead I wanted to really mix it it up and offer a bunch of different looks both natural and aggressively surreal within the mix of footage that is both available light and also with additional light via the Gates GT14s I was using.
 
Scaret W Monochrome dropped today!

Scaret W Monochrome dropped today!

Picked up my Scarlet W Mono today from Red Studios Hollywood. I can't wait to get it in the housing... Not enough time before I leave for Raja Ampat to get the housing mod'd at Gates but with a little arm twisting (heh heh) I got John to ship me the bare necessities to get it up and running. Should have it all in hand and kitted up tomorrow! BTW - don't try this at home! Gates has a full upgrade path and it should be done in their factory, but I'm special (no, not really - just kidding - but thanks John and Pamela...) I'm just crazy enough to do it myself. Rest assured the housing will go back to the factory for a full retrofit and test once I get back.

Also, in the spirit of naming cameras I'm calling her "Brook" in honor of Ernie Brooks, who's incredible black and white underwater images inspired me (and Ernie himself inspired me with some kind words about my photo portfolio when I was just a snot nosed, wet behind the ears, noob trying to make underwater pictures with a Nikonos V) Now I'll shut up and post some pictures... You may even get to see some footage at NAB.... oops, shit, was I not supposed to say that?
 

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In the field with Tom Lowe, DEEP DRAGON and Nikonos RS

In the field with Tom Lowe, DEEP DRAGON and Nikonos RS

Congrats to Tom Lowe, wrapping two non-stop years of field production on his new feature film. No title or details revealed yet, but suffice to say Tom is blazing new trails in filmmaking. Living vicariously through his Facebook page and Instagram posts have taken us to all corners of the globe.

Two years ago Tom asked us for the best underwater optics for to support his production. We considered several options including corrective optics, custom optics and a Nikonos RS adaptation. While being Nikon glass and designed specifically for underwater, it wasn’t clear how well they would perform with RED Epic Dragon. After all, the RS are film lenses made over 20 years ago. But a few tests on the Dragon quickly revealed the RS lenses were a winner. So good in fact that Tom asked for the same RS adaptation for the Flex4K housing.

Nearly all underwater footage for the film has since been acquired with DEEP DRAGON / Flex4K Housings and Nikonos RS lenses.

More to follow as Tom enters post production and film release.....

#ShotOnGates #ShotOnRed
https://www.facebook.com/tomlowedirector/
http://timescapes.org/time-lapse/default.aspx

Nikonos RS - Tom Lowe - 7.jpg Nikonos RS - Tom Lowe - 3.jpg Nikonos RS - Tom Lowe - 4.jpg Nikonos RS - Tom Lowe - 5.jpg Nikonos RS - Tom Lowe - 6.jpg
 
NASA NBL

NASA NBL

Hi All,

Looking for some advice regarding shooting in the NBL. I am curious as to the lighting conditions in the pool. With ISO 800 and the H2O OLPF how deep of a stop can I expect? Should I consider another OLPF? I will have a set of Keldans that I figure could be helpful for the darker areas underneath the ISS modules.

Sean R. weren't you there last year? Jonathan, the NBL was of Space School right? Anything you guys are willing to share would be appreciated.

Thanks Ernie for passing this gig along! Definitely on the bucket list!

Thanks

Matt
 
Yeah Matt! You are going to have so much fun out there man! It was such a surreal experience shooting in the NBL.

Available light was pretty rough for us because the director wanted everything over-cranked/slo-mo. And unfortunately was a frame rate not in sync with the overhead florescent lights (all in the 60hz range so you would want a shutter of 1/60th or 1/120th), so there was a bit of noticeable flicker when pointed back towards the surface or when near the surface. But that wasn't too big of a deal. It just kind of was what it was. BTW, I found 1/120th too dark of a shutter to get proper exposure. But if you have to shoot a faster framerate than 30fps you mights want to sacrifice that ideal exposure. If you can shoot 1/60th shutter that is probably optimal for exposure and to eliminate flicker. But I realize other factors have to dictate that choice sometimes ;) All a balancing act of trade offs dependent on what the project requires.

What saved us and really added to the best part of the look we got for our project IMHO, was that we had these badboys: http://hydroflex.com/portfolio/seapar-1200w-hmi/
One Seapar fixed and pointed in the direction of the majority of the action and another being panned around by hand by our assistant to get movement to the light. You can see what I mean about the lighting style as well as you can probably notice some of the flicker getting picked up in the beginning of this trailer:
http://www.pbs.org/about/blogs/news...ce-featuring-astronauts-scott-and-mark-kelly/

I shot the H2O OLPF just for the hell of it but I wouldn't say that it was necessary. But if not using H2O I would at least use the LLO so you can gather as much light on the low end as possible.

I'm glad your asking questions Matt and hope I can help a little. Tough part of my experience was we got no testing or trial. From the moment we were allowed to finally get the housings in the water it was go time and we only had that one day of shooting. So there was no shooting and reviewing. Please feel free to ask as many more questions as you need here or of course you can always email me.

The medical exams (prior to arrival), were pretty intense with spirometry testing, very thorough physical and all kinds of fun stuff but totally manageable. And before they let you shoot they'll require some pretty basic swim tests (laps, underwater swim to one side, tread water for like 15 min. if I remember right), and then the super fun dive skill tests ;) the basics like certification tests plus ditch and don at the bottom (40ft.), and emergency assents both buddy breathing and also breathing off a spare air. Everyone's required to carry a spare air but all of that is provided. You won't be using any of your own dive gear other than wetsuit, mask and fins. And the dual tanks full of 46% nitrox is pretty awesome. Yup, you read that right 46%. But of course you don't have to worry about MOD when the pool is max 40 ft. ;) Getting a 2 hr. dive out of open-circuit is pretty interesting. Max. dive time 2 hrs. per dive with max. 4hrs. per day. Just don't go under 700 psi whatever you do or they won't let you back in for another dive ever. They make sure everyone is well aware of the numerous regulations codes of conduct and you are always monitored on multiple cameras

Dude, you're gonna have so much fun!!! And again hit me up with any questions and let me know how I can help you...
 
Is there a consensus on the bottom end of the LLO vs the H2O OLPF? Wondering if you need to squeeze everything you can light wise out of the sensor is the a difference between the two? Anecdotally, I have always gone to the LLO when I needed the light but I've never done any real testing on the two.
 
The light transmission is similar between the LLO and H2O OLPFs, yet slightly better on the H2O due to less IR cut present. The big advantages of the H2O OLPF underwater come into play when interacting with the ultraviolet end of the spectrum.
 
Come see us at NAB! Big thanks to RED for opening up their booth space In SL1517 to partners, and we are honored to be there. We are showing a bit of third party love as well, constructing a rig that integrates FoolControl, RTMotion LATITUDE, and a bunch of Wooden Camera support and cabling to demonstrate a few new ideas in surface control.

We also have a dedicated Nauticam booth in the central hall, C8245, showing all of our "other stuff".

Matt Ferraro from Backscatter, Phil Burghard from Reef Photo, and myself will be on hand. Stop by and say hello!

NAB_Map_2016-01.jpg
 
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