Videography Tips and Techniques

Issue   1     Tip 4

Housing and Lighting

Lighting is important. Everyone in the industry knows this. You can have the most fantastic camera and housing but without lighting, you can not get the video to look colorful. Videos come out dark in nature with very little color if any at all, depending on depth, sea conditions, etc.  So what type of lights should you buy? What features do lights come with? How much will they cost? These and other questions are good questions and the only way to find out is to try. Renting is an option. Rent until you find what you like, then buy. There are a number of places that rent video equipment. It may be a little pricey, but a lot less pricey than purchasing new. I  purchased everything new. Here is what I film with,

My original video rig consisted of
CAMERA: SONY HDR-HC3
Sony HDR-HC3 High-Definition w/10x Optical Zoom

HOUSING: GATES                                                                                                   LIGHTING: NiteRider 20watt HID

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My new video rig consists of
CAMERA: SONY HDR-HC9
Sony HDR-HC9 High Definition 10x Optical Zoom

HOUSING: GATES                                                                                                LIGHTING: NiteRider 56watt HID

Make note of the two types of lighting. My original was two 10watt HIDs for a total or 20watt HID. The New rig consists of FOUR lights but their setup is really cool. I can have anywhere from 10watt to 56watt HID. 14w HID lamps X 4 each producing 3200 lumens or the equivalent to a 240 watt filament lamps. The switchable low beam/ high beam allows for macro or wide angle photography.   The low beam at 10watts X 2 will give you a 2 hour burn time on one battery and is great for macro. For wide angle and distant shots the super bright 56w HID high beam and the two 4.0 amp hour NiMH Batteries will give you a total burn time of 60 minutes.

Lens

What type of lens do you want? Here is a picture of my primary lens. The Wide angle allows me to shoot macro yet I can shoot long and wide for a broader field of view.

A smaller flat port is used strictly for macro. My housing does not allow for port changes at depth. Some housing allow changes at depth.
To summarize what I have started with to what I use today, my original HD UW Video rig consisted of a SONY HDR-HC3, Gate Housing, NiteRider 20watt HID. My current configuration is a Sony HDR-HC9, Gates Housing and NiteRider 56watt HID lighting. The upgrade was primarily for the features provided on the HDR-HC9 (white balance) primarily and the new housing because the new housing allows for an external control for white balance and the HDR-HC9 doesn’t fit properly in the Gates Housing for the HDR-HC3. Other reasons for the upgrade on the camera is the out of water capability such as hooking up a wireless microphone as well as other external controls. That leads us to editing, because what good is all the video if you can’t watch it.

Larry

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