We are semi-professional underwater video jockeys (underwater video jockeys). We are always happy to share our “lessons learned” and “best practices” – means: “… we have tested a lot, made some errors and sometimes found out how things can be solved”. We are also looking forward to receive feedback and things you like to share.
Basics
Experienced divers know: At the beginning everything is new and it takes some dives until everything becomes easy and can be safely managed. This is comparable to learning to drive a car. For video production under water you have not only to manage you diving equipment and your perfect buoyancy but also your video equiment and consider all the things like design of pictures, scenes and light.
For the first mentioned part – the perfect diving and buoyancy and management of the equipment – we think it will take around 100-200 dives without any video equipment until you can call yourself an experiences diver. During this dives you should learn how you handle and mange different Situation including a perfect buoyancy.
If you then decide to take your camera under water the learning effect will be similar: during the first 10-20 dives you have to learn how to dive with this new equipment. You will make some errors and produce some unsatisfactory results – but this is normal and should be considered as a learning process. Only by doing so you will get better and better.
Comment: experienced divers will agree when I am saying that the described effect applies to almost every change you are making to your diving configuration to some extend – e.g. think at your first dive with your dry suite. Because of this such dives should be planned and executed very conservatively.
What you should consider: You will find online course how to make good videos with a digicam. These courses are sometimes not specialized for underwater productions – however everything which is relevant for photo and video production can also be applied to underwater situations.
Additional Tips are available for
- the light
- preparation of the equipment
- underwater production
- post production and editing
scubamedia 