Before and After - Photoshop

[PapaBob]

I've never been a fan of Photoshop's auto correction functions. The picture looks great but it still has a serious blue cast to it. Have you tried playing with the eyedropper tools in levels? That would be a really quick way to get the color balance back on track.

Another wonderful tool if you are shooting digital is to shoot in raw mode. JPG's are great for quick shots but if you are going for a high quality image, 16 bit raw is the only way to go.

Shark bait.

Shark:

I agree. You can usually do a lot better with manual adjustments than you can with the auto functions. That said, dont knock the auto functions. Sometimes they work great on the first try or at least get you closer to the finished product. For someone new to photoshop the auto functions can be a real incentive to learn more and avert frustration by giving results out of the gate. Easier is better in my book regardless of how it is produced. The following are my best manual adjustments and I leave it to the critics to determine if they are better (or how much better they are) then the auto Country Boy used.

---Bob

 

[Sharkbait]

Shark:

I agree. You can usually do a lot better with manual adjustments than you can with the auto functions. That said, dont knock the auto functions. Sometimes they work great on the first try or at least get you closer to the finished product. For someone new to photoshop the auto functions can be a real incentive to learn more and avert frustration by giving results out of the gate. Easier is better in my book regardless of how it is produced. The following are my best manual adjustments and I leave it to the critics to determine if they are better (or how much better they are) then the auto Country Boy used.

---Bob

Hey Bob,

I totally agree, in fact I think using the auto adjustments are a great place to start and they can show you options.

You did a nice job tweaking in the picture!!!

By the way, have you tried Photoshop CS2 yet??? I got the upgrade this weekend and Adobe did an amazing job with this version. The new browser is outstanding!!!

Sharkbait

 

[PapaBob]

Hi all:

First my apology for posting oversized images. I am having trouble editing down to medium.

Shark: I upgraded to CS2 early. I am very impressed with the upgrade. CLICK HERE for the comments I posted on DDN as well as the impressions of others.

---Bob

 

[countryboy]

<quote>
Have you tried playing with the eyedropper tools in levels?
</quote>

I tried all kinds of "manual" stuff, but no luck... H2Andy corrected a pic of mine (Flag on Spiegel Grove) and it looked good.. So I asked him about it and he suggested using the "auto" functions.

Believe me.. the auto functions did amazing work (comparing before and after) versus all the time I originally spent on manual corrections..

Diving is first.. the pics / results are second and I never really spent enough time learning PS to get good at it.. The camera is just a basic "Reef Master" with the basic housing and no external strobe.

Thanks for the suggestions! Will need to spend more time with PS

 

[PapaBob]

<quote>
Have you tried playing with the eyedropper tools in levels?
</quote>

I tried all kinds of "manual" stuff, but no luck... H2Andy corrected a pic of mine (Flag on Spiegel Grove) and it looked good.. So I asked him about it and he suggested using the "auto" functions.

Believe me.. the auto functions did amazing work (comparing before and after) versus all the time I originally spent on manual corrections..

Diving is first.. the pics / results are second and I never really spent enough time learning PS to get good at it.. The camera is just a basic "Reef Master" with the basic housing and no external strobe.

Thanks for the suggestions! Will need to spend more time with PS

There may be some stuff in MY ARTICLE that will help you learn manual adjustments. Note to all: For some reason the on screen version of my article is corrupt. TA did his best to fix it. Click on the printer friendly version and read that version, or better, print it out.

The first hogfish modification used the individual channel adjustments in Levels. When you pull up Levels the "Channel" box is set to RGB. Reset it to the red channel, set the histogram tails, and move the gamma (middle slider) to the point where the image improves but not too many red artifacts are introduced. Repeat with the Green channel and then the blue and go back and tweak until you get what you want. Best to make this adjustment on a separate layer so you can redo it if you want.

This modification improved the image but did introduce unseemly red in the eye of the hogfish and the sponge. The second image replaced the red channel using the Mandrake method, and finished it with levels tweaks.

After you play with this stuff for a while you will start to get the hang of it. Let me know if I can help further.

---Bob

 

[Charlie99]

I tried all kinds of "manual" stuff, but no luck...

My no-brainer quick and easy method of cleaning up a bunch of underwater snapshots using Photoshop Elements 3 is to do the "remove colorcast correction", followed by "autolevels". Or sometimes the reverse.

The next couple of small steps up from that is to
1. Open the layers palette and dupe the background layer before doing colorcast.
2. Do the levels as an adjustment layer, then after clicking on auto, go to each color and adjust the middle slider a bit.

Step 1 lets you redo you adjustments easier, and also lets you blend back in some of the original if desired. Step 2 touches up the color balance a bit.

The next step beyond these two really basic ones would be to use a bit of unsharp mask. (Not done in the attached photos)

Only for special photos will I go through additional steps beyond this.

The attached photos are 1) colorcast, then autolevels, and 2) colocast, autolevels, adjust gamma/middle slider.

You can see that the Mandrake process done by Scubabob does do additional improvement, particularly if you compare the eyes.

 

[PapaBob]

Nice job Charlie!

---Bob