Image Retouching Question

[WonderSlug]

Howdy all

What is the generally accepted rules on retouching you images for the UW cam community?

Ive just started getting into UW photography. Had a nice long weekend dive trip to really try out my new housing with my C-4000 and only using the internal strobe.

With the water where I dove, I found it really ness to photoshop my images and do essentially Auto Level and Auto Color balance on the images to really get any color out of em.

I know I need to strive to take better raw pics, but im just starting out.

Is this generally the case.... or were my photos just that bad?

Sorry if im asking something whats obvious .

I would appreciate any comments

http://pics.casadeslug.com/scubaslug


Samples

Raw:

Retouched

 

[PhotoTJ]

You did nothing more than a lab does with film. When a print is made, they adjust the color balance and density. As a professional photographer, that is not retouching, that is turning out quality work. Removing backscatter is what I would consider retouching. Now, if you clone out a stray weed, that's manipulating.

Hey, there are no rules, per se, these are just the definations as I chose to use them. UW photography is a tricky business, and the turtle shot is nice work.

Cheers,

TJ

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

Generaly you can use the unsharpen mask, adjust the levels and curves, remove the dust/scratches, toning (for b/w) and crop. With a good clean razor sharp image you may not need to use the unsharpen mask and I recomend to not use the auto levels. Any time you scan you will pick up dusct and scratches, its a fact of life. Removing them is does no harm.

Ed

 

[docmartin]

i am completely shameless about this. one of the reasons i went digital is that you can make a questionable photo look pretty good. as long as you don't enter any competition pretending you did not manipulate the photo i don't see what could possibly be wrong with that. your turtle shows what wonders photoshop can do for uw pics.

 

[wetman]

It pretty much boils down to what you want out of it - if your goal is photography and improving your skills, then punish yourself and dont touch them up - make yourself take better raw images. However, for me, the end result is all that counts. If you can take a picture and turn it from mundain into something that inspires, use any means necessary. Autolevels it an absolutely wonderful feature for underwater images - in a world where colors are robbed from us, it brings out what we cant see. Clean out all the backscatter - just because you can't afford a wide angle lens to reduce back scatter doesnt mean you shouldn't be allowed to have pictures that are as clear as the next guy - clean em up. If 90% of the image is good and 10% contains someones fin, chop it out.

Remember the pros have equipment that likely costs 10 times as much as yours - don't you consider that a little bit of cheating in itself?

Do what you want to do, they're your images.

steve

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

You should not punish yourself for the quality of your work! Do you think that St. Adams images looked like that on the negative? NO! There was some darkroom image adjustments to tweak the negative to it's full potential.

Ed