Lightroom Editing

[thejamez]

Hey guys.. first time using Lightroom (and first time editing UW photos).

before:

after:

It seemed auto white-balance took ALL the blue from the water, so I messed around with the histogram myself. What do you think of the after? Too blue? Too much contrast?

Keep in mind this was my first dive trip, and first UW photography - with the damned sealife mini. Upgrading before the next trip

 

[Tigerman]

Hard to say from where Im sitting at the moment as this screen is not calibrated, but it could look a bit overexposed.
The water ripples seen to bleed a bit too much into the shell on the edited pic.
Then again, I was not there to see how it actually looked when you took it and personally what it looks like when I take the shot is generally what I try to get the photo to look like.

Ill have a look when I get home to a better monitor, but the picture is definetly a lot better than before it was edited

 

[Tigerman]

Granted I was not there, the edit does look a bit overexposed on this monitor as well (this one is properly calibrated).
I played around a bit with your "before" jpeg and there is potential to make it a bit less "flat". Try playing around a bit with the exposure, recovery, blacks and fill light sliders.
Not sure what you used for your wb reference but you dont need to use a white. You can use a black with as good result as whites - fish or creature eyes for example.

AFAIK the sealife mini cant shoot raw? If it could that would have helped a LOT with the post-processing

 

[thejamez]

AFAIK the sealife mini cant shoot raw? If it could that would have helped a LOT with the post-processing

Jpeg only.. you can't even manually adjust the settings .. but that's what you get for $200 out the box. I'll keep playing with the image a bit.. this one was taken in about 3-4 feet of water snorkeling.