Subject:
A Stripedfin Grouper (Epinephelus posteli) gets its gills cleaned by a couple of Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) on relatively shallow and turbid reefs of Manzengwenya in the northern part of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.
These beautiful and pristine waters, near the Mozambican border, are the perfect habitat for the endemic Stripedfin Grouper, sometimes locally called “Tiger Fin Rockcod”.
These reefs are a near perfect biotope and they are teeming with a relatively big diversity of all kinds of marine wildlife. All segments of the food chain are represented here. Sharks, moray eels, and big groupers dominate the top of the food chain, supported by schools of snappers, fusiliers, and breams, which in turn are feeding on smaller fish and invertebrate life forms.
Just like on all healthy marine habitats, there are a lot of cleaning stations here that are visited by the huge variety of fish living on these large reefs.
Technique:
The relatively shallow South African reefs, near the border of Mozambique, where this grouper has been filmed are prone to heavy swells which make filming underwater quite challenging. The waters of the southern Indian Ocean are more exposed to heavy winds than, for example, the area near the equator like the Seychelles or the Maldives. Combine strong winds with shallow reefs and you get turbid waters. When filming in these swells, there are two different techniques you can apply.
Filming in the midwater is turbid water much easier than near the bottom, however in calm water it is the exact opposite. When midwater is choppy or turbid, you should not try to fight the dynamics of the ocean because you won’t win. Just like the many schools and shoals of fish stay in a neutrally buoyant position and along with the motion of the swell. Center the fish in your underwater camera’s viewfinder and you’ll see; when the fish get propelled forward, you’ll be propelled forward too. In this way, your subject stays relatively stable and centred in the frame and only the background is moving.
Filming near the bottom is more difficult; the strong water movement and displacement might throw you into the corals with the same frequency as the rhythm of the swell. Here the trick is to get as low as possible or hide in-between the corals and boulders of the reef, using the corals as a natural barrier. Even as you do so the strong pulses will still affect your underwater filming capacities.
Another approach is to film in a very high resolution (4K or more) and produce in a lower resolution like HD 1080. Then by framing the subject while filming underwater in a way that it’s not taking up too much space. In post-production, it will be possible to zoom in and keep your subject in the centre by using keyframes without losing quality. Once this is done you produce/render the image or even simpler make a compound clip. Next, you re-import the just rendered shot into your timeline or use the compound clip and stabilise the shot again with the built-in stabilising tool of your editing software. This should produce a very stable final image. This stabilising method is explained in great detail in our Online Marine Wildlife Videography Course.
Filming location:
This short underwater videoclip has been filmed in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa 🇿🇦
More about this topic:
For a in-depth description about the Stripedfin Grouper please visit our vlog post 206 or click the following link: https://www.beyondscuba.com/post/a-curious-stripedfin-grouper-epinephelus-posteli
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