White Balance for video

I am wondering if it is possible to set white balance for use at a specified depth while on the surface using a hue displayed on your computer screen.  I know the recommendation is to use a neutral surface at the depth to set it, but I'm curious.  I found a graph which plots remaining R, G, and B percentages against depth.  Of course this is only true for the water the test was done in, but I wonder how much absorption really varies in very clear water from place to place.  From that graph, you could take the percent value for a depth and apply it to 255, then plug those numbers into a color generator to get the hue which should be close to the RGB components present underwater at that depth.  I tried this with my TG-6 and got a nice rosy white balance, but I won't be diving for a couple months to see if it works.  Just wondered if anyone had ever tried this.  Thanks!

Barmaglot_07 wrote:

I don't do video, but I would imagine that setting white balance by depth alone would not be particularly accurate - for starters, you have sunlight coming in at different angles depending on location, season and time of day, so while you might be at, say, 10 meters of depth, the sunlight may have gone through 12 meters of water to reach you, or it may be 18 meters, or whatever other number. Then you have weather conditions - clear sky, cloudy overcast, haze, etc - this will affect color temperature of sunlight before it even reaches the ocean surface.

Excellent points.  Thank you!