ricki
06-18-2013, 02:28 AM
I headed out with Dixie Divers to do a double header wreck dive, my favorite approach these days. We were to hit the Ancient Mariner, a former military vessel and restaurant now artificial reef and the Sea Emperor. The later wreck was formerly a hopper dredge for transporting sand but these days along with a pile of concrete culvert, it is a artificial reef.
A word of caution about scooter free diving, it can get you killed fairly easily and shouldn't be attempted without proper free diving training, skill development and procedures. Even with all that it can still get you killed, so have a care.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Ancient-Mariner-Dive-1.6.13/Ancient%20Mariner%20VR%20%20%20s.jpg?m=1357700735
You can see other recent images like that above from a past dive and history about the Ancient Mariner at:
http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=11697
I put together a video from the two artificial reefs from the dives on Sunday, see below.
68562144
https://vimeo.com/68562144
I was intermittently using a corrective red filter made by Polar Pro Filters along with some Hero 3 cameras. The filter snaps on and off the exterior of the GoPro housing. I had heard these red filters do the most good in very bright and clear blur water for color correction. What we had this day was poor visibility around 30 with heavy brown color on the Ancient Mariner turning a bit more blue and increasing to around 40 ft. on the Sea Emperor. Pretty poor conditions in short for anything but perhaps macro photography. The GoPro imagery I came up with surprised me in some cases anyway.
http://www.polarprofilters.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/GoPro-Hero3-Cube-Red-Filter.jpg
http://www.polarprofilters.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/GoPro-Hero3-Cube-Red-Filter.jpg
I used it most frequently on a forward facing GoPro Hero 3 camera on the Sea Emperor and on my hand held camera on the Ancient Mariner. Conditions were so dark on the Mariner that most of the images were blurred due to camera motion and unusable. You can tell the Red filtered images usually by the warmer or red toned shots in the video.
it worked pretty well at depth as you can see from this low light shot from the deck of the Mariner.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/class%20GOPR0029.jpg?m=1371540376
Here is a shot also from the deck looking aft from my Quikpod monopod without any filtration with a GoPro Black looking fairly green from the low light and visibility.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/deck%20GOPR0007.jpg?m=1371540376
Here is a shot into the sun from my hand held filtered GoPro Black of the QUIK POD DSLR/POV monopod setup, http://www.quikpod.com/dslrpov-monopod-tripod.html. I had a GoPro Silver mounted looking forward and a GoPro Black facing aft. The combination allows some different shooting options particularly in confined space. You can see some examples in the video.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/camera%20setup%20GOPR0031.jpg?m=1371540375
An uncorrected shot in low light below decks on the Mariner.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/below%20deck%20GOPR0003.jpg?m=1371540376
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/Moray%202.jpg?m=1371540380
A corrected GoPro Black shot
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/moray.jpg?m=1371540380
An uncorrected GoPro Silver shot
In better illuminated, shallow but still brown turbid waters filter added too much red to the images as you can see below. I suspect this might not be as bad in bright, clear blue shallow waters but have yet to try the filter in those conditions to confirm this. I would probably remove the filter on ascent in the future and put it on during the descent. You do need to be careful to clear trapped bubbles within the clip on filter particularly while free diving. By the way all the images in this article have been Photoshopped to attempt to improve image appearance.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/red%20filter%20shallow%20GOPR1103.jpg?m=1371540379
A near surface comparison shot taken with an uncorrected GoPro Black.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/bubbles%20GOPR0020.jpg?m=1371540376
So, that is a quick look at this red filter, more shoots to come in varying conditions. At least I hope so!
.
A word of caution about scooter free diving, it can get you killed fairly easily and shouldn't be attempted without proper free diving training, skill development and procedures. Even with all that it can still get you killed, so have a care.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Ancient-Mariner-Dive-1.6.13/Ancient%20Mariner%20VR%20%20%20s.jpg?m=1357700735
You can see other recent images like that above from a past dive and history about the Ancient Mariner at:
http://www.fksa.org/showthread.php?t=11697
I put together a video from the two artificial reefs from the dives on Sunday, see below.
68562144
https://vimeo.com/68562144
I was intermittently using a corrective red filter made by Polar Pro Filters along with some Hero 3 cameras. The filter snaps on and off the exterior of the GoPro housing. I had heard these red filters do the most good in very bright and clear blur water for color correction. What we had this day was poor visibility around 30 with heavy brown color on the Ancient Mariner turning a bit more blue and increasing to around 40 ft. on the Sea Emperor. Pretty poor conditions in short for anything but perhaps macro photography. The GoPro imagery I came up with surprised me in some cases anyway.
http://www.polarprofilters.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/GoPro-Hero3-Cube-Red-Filter.jpg
http://www.polarprofilters.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/GoPro-Hero3-Cube-Red-Filter.jpg
I used it most frequently on a forward facing GoPro Hero 3 camera on the Sea Emperor and on my hand held camera on the Ancient Mariner. Conditions were so dark on the Mariner that most of the images were blurred due to camera motion and unusable. You can tell the Red filtered images usually by the warmer or red toned shots in the video.
it worked pretty well at depth as you can see from this low light shot from the deck of the Mariner.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/class%20GOPR0029.jpg?m=1371540376
Here is a shot also from the deck looking aft from my Quikpod monopod without any filtration with a GoPro Black looking fairly green from the low light and visibility.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/deck%20GOPR0007.jpg?m=1371540376
Here is a shot into the sun from my hand held filtered GoPro Black of the QUIK POD DSLR/POV monopod setup, http://www.quikpod.com/dslrpov-monopod-tripod.html. I had a GoPro Silver mounted looking forward and a GoPro Black facing aft. The combination allows some different shooting options particularly in confined space. You can see some examples in the video.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/camera%20setup%20GOPR0031.jpg?m=1371540375
An uncorrected shot in low light below decks on the Mariner.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/below%20deck%20GOPR0003.jpg?m=1371540376
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/Moray%202.jpg?m=1371540380
A corrected GoPro Black shot
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/moray.jpg?m=1371540380
An uncorrected GoPro Silver shot
In better illuminated, shallow but still brown turbid waters filter added too much red to the images as you can see below. I suspect this might not be as bad in bright, clear blue shallow waters but have yet to try the filter in those conditions to confirm this. I would probably remove the filter on ascent in the future and put it on during the descent. You do need to be careful to clear trapped bubbles within the clip on filter particularly while free diving. By the way all the images in this article have been Photoshopped to attempt to improve image appearance.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/red%20filter%20shallow%20GOPR1103.jpg?m=1371540379
A near surface comparison shot taken with an uncorrected GoPro Black.
http://www.fksa.org/gallery3/var/resizes/Florida/Admin-File/album346/album348/Dive-Ancient-Mariner-n-Sea-Emperor-6-16-13/bubbles%20GOPR0020.jpg?m=1371540376
So, that is a quick look at this red filter, more shoots to come in varying conditions. At least I hope so!
.