C&C: Red Sea reef scene - a bit of expert guidance welcomed

[-Willi-]

Hi All,
I'd appreciate a few comments on the following image. 1/250, f4.5, focal length equivalent to 28mm, Canon Powershot S80, manual exposure with Sea & Sea strobe.

In particular, I'd appreciate comments on the quality of the post processing: Mandrake colour correction, tweaking levels and tweaking contrast. Does the final image look too warm? Is there anything else I should be doing?

Also, there appears to be some drop-off in sharpness towards the edge of the frame. Is this due to the lens itself, or the focal length being at the limit of what's acceptable without a dome port?

Final image:

Initial image:

Any thought and constructive comments are most welcome

RW

 

[Warren_L]

Willi - I'm no expert in post processing, but I will offer you some comments. Overall, the results look pretty decent, but I don't see much of a colour correction from the initial image to the final image? There is more shadow and contrast in the final image, which gives it a bit more depth - which is nice. To me it looks like there's a bit of a magenta colour cast where the whites should be more white, not sure if that is accurate or not, though. Are you using a flat port and/or an add on wet lens for wide angle? It is normal to see some softening on the edges with many wide angle shots, even with high end wide angle lenses this can occur.

 

[-Willi-]

Thanks for the feedback Warren. This is with a flat port, ie. the basic flat piece of glass on the stock Canon housing. I wan't using a wet lens, the S80 goes to 28mm as standard, and was bought for this reason. I am considering a wider angle wet lens when fundage allows.

 

[hvulin]

I see "Image not available" by photoBox and they both look exactly the same

 

[-Willi-]

Hmmm not sure what's happening with the disappearing images, try these: