Photo correction

[wetman]

Have you guys spent any time correcting photos? Since i got back from a trip a month ago i've spent a little while correcting some of my raw photos and some of the things you can do to turn otherwise mundain or bad shots into good shots are marvelous with photoshop. I'd like to hear some of your techniques and if you're interested i'll post some of my before and afters here with just some of the basic tools (without spending very much time at all you can come up with fantastic results).

steve

 

[SubMariner]

Great idea, wetman!

I have found a number of things that PS can do, including colour correction, sharpening (actually unsharp mask) and cloning are invaluable. The latter is especially helpful in "erasing" backscatter.

Post away!

~SubMariner~

 

[wetman]

OK.

Here are a few:

Some of the shots i toowere very washed with a particular color - even at a shallow depth. I corrected some of that with a white balance measurement on my last dive of the trip but didn't on earlier dives.

Here is an original:

Levels adjusted :

Levels adjusted ray

Same with this sand dollar:

Levels adjusted:

Levels adjusted dollar

The results for this flounder were quite dramatic

Adjusted

I should mention with these shots were not what i saw underwater. The adjusted versions are almost exactly what i remember underwater. That was my gaol with all of these adjustments.

 

[Sebastian]

wow great. I usually just use PS to change the contrast.

How can you "correct" backscatter? Could you post a procedure please ?

 

[wetman]

Here is a series of pics based on this original one

This was a high contrast shot in a cave, so the cave walls are black and the light beam is light green. Also, you'll notice theres lots of floaty matter in the water which kind of deters from the etherial potential of this shot. (the full size shot its much better, these smaller versions tend to lose lots in the translation).

here is that image with no black particulates (basically the shadow side of the particles turned out black so i got rid of those using the healing brush)

No black

Here it is completely cleaned of all particulate matter.

No particles

I think this one looks best, but leaving the white particles gives the beam a slightly more 3d look.

Now, in that image, even though you dont see it there actually is some data in the black areas that we can pull out. So, back to the photoshop levels adjuster and we come up with:

See walls

These were just quicky examples of what you can do to enhance that type of picture.

 

[ChrisM]

For correcting backscatter, some people use the healing tool.. I haven't learned that yet, so here's what I do....

This is for PS 7, but I did it in Elements too

Click on the "windows" tab and select the tools palette. Onthe tools paletter there is a little icon that looks like a rubber stamp.

Click on it.

Essentially what you do is find a piece of backscatter, click on an area right next to it and then "stamp" over it. You need to make sure that you get the colors and textures right on thoug.

By right clicking you can change the size and format of the stamp.

To record the stamp, press "alt" "left click". To stamp it, left click.

Use the smallest stamp you can

If you're doing a large area of backscatter, re-record the stamp often, it starts getting weird artifacts after a while and you have to undo it.

Chris

 

[wetman]

Again with the level adjuster, we can take a fairly bland shot and breathe some colorful life into it:

Original:

Level adjusted:

Level adjusted

This one is a bit "washed" looking, and again with level adjustment:

Level adjusted

(the adjusted one here just really shows how much color you can pull out of a shot - i wouldnt consider that one finished as it is seems a bit strong in some colors)

 

[wetman]

If you dont like your colors, you an also ajust using Hue/Saturation:

That pic i found had too much of a cyan hue to it (certainly didnt remembe rit being that cyan when i was there)

While this adjustment is too strong i think ( i dont remember it being quite this blue) its closer to the orig:

Hue adjust

Same with this boat:

Level and Hue adjjusted

That image is a bit dark, but does show that you can bring out the rusty color of a wreck if you remember it that way as i did.

 

[wetman]

Couple more examples here:

Adjusted to lighten and bring the background out slightly:

Adjusted

This one had a fairly dramatic result from bland to much nicer:

Adjusted

Original (washed, bit bland)

Adjusted

 

[wetman]

So, there are a few examples of some of the shots i thought could be improved and I think given the tools available, its not too hard to do.

Some of the improvements are dramatic i think. Hopefully, it might make you look back through your own collection to see just what might be able to be fixed up a bit. I was hoping to come out of that trip with some decent shots but was a bit dissappointed with some of the problems with them. Now i'm a bit happier.

steve