Need feedback

[Gilligan]

The Photoshop action is great for correcting those blue photos. However, you will not need that action if you shoot your non-strobe photos in the "Manual White Balance" mode. All you have to do is calibrate your white balance off a dive slate while underwater then process the photos in PS7. Often the simple adjustment of "auto levels" is all you need. Just remember to switch back to "Auto" white balance when using the strobe or you will have red photos.

You will get better results from your camera if you shoot in the "Manual" mode. Just practice with the different F stops and shutter speeds.

RAW mode would be the best choice but it will afford you less photos because it's a memory hog.

 

[DiveBandit]

I'll have to try that too. I do shoot raw, but I have a 1gig card so I still can get 100+ pics per dive. I'll try playing with F-stops and shutter speeds after I get the hang of the white balance thing. Thanks for the info.

 

[alcina]

If you shoot RAW there isn't much point in fooling with white balance underwater.

IMHO you would be better served to work with aperture and shutter.

 

[discrepancy]

The laws of physics are inviolable. The deeper you go, the less red there is. You have four basic options, and a few variations on them:
- Use a filter. The problem is that filters will not add red that isn't already there. They work by cutting back all the other colours apart from red, and so with reduced overall light levels, you might run into exposure problems. Also, you have no control over how much the other channels are reduced.
- When there is no other light around at depth, you can manually adust your white balance before the shot, but the problem again is that no amount of manual adjustment will add red that doesn't exist. But this approach is likely to give you a better quality red channel to work with afterwards.
- A strobe will supply a balanced white light at any depth, or you can keep your photography shallow to use natural ambient light with a strong red component. Problem with a strobe is that its usable range falls off very, very quickly underwater. Problem with keeping it shallow is that not everything you want to photograph lives at 30' or less.
- You can rebalance your colours or enhance a weak red channel after the shot with a good graphics application. There are PhotoShop actions to automate the process, but it's "one size fits all" approach, and you trade off convenience against flexibility and control. If you're adventurous and want to take complete control to repair a damaged or feeble red channel, have a look at http://www.wetpixel.com/i.php/full/getting-rid-of-the-underwater-blues/ Even if your early results aren't all you hoped for, it's a great place to start learning.

 

[rickt]

Narc
Maractwin has very good suggestions for you. The UR filter is a good suggestion to get some reds to play with. I fooled around in Photoshop CS for a while and got this image (attached).This is a combination of my own filter made by inverting the original image and a warming filter applied afterwards plus a gausian blur of 50%.
Good luck
RickT