Kim:
Do not underestimate what you have been able to do with your picture. You have done a great job with what you call "limited skills". I have worked a lot of underwater images in Photoshop, any yours was not easy to work with. The red channel was dead and could not be reconstructed. Shifting the color of an image is not easy without introducing artifacts. Read and follow Steve's post carefully. He is giving you good advice.
You were right to clone out the remoras (Steve, I didn't really notice them until I read your post). I tried to work them into a pleasing contrast with the Manta, but ended up cloning them out also.
I used a different approach than Steve. I set up the manta in its own layer and worked it using a multiply layer, curves adjustment and a sharpen after I merged the layers I used to work on the Manta.
I duplicated the original (background) layer and color corrected it in the individual RGB channels in levels. I used it to make two "water" layers, one of which I blurred to remove backscatter and artifacts, and the other I sharpened a little to enhance the surface reflections Lisa liked. The three layers were then blended with masks.
You would not be able to do most of these repairs in PSE. In fact, your results were so good for what I know about PSE, I would really be interested in your steps.
Alcina's comment is well taken. It is not easy to make major adjustments and keep a Photorealistic feel. Sometimes it takes a lot of "fine tuning" to get a natural feel, and you have to feel the image is worth the effort.
This is what I was able to patch together with limited time and image resolution. If I can help you try some alternative adjustments, let me know. Your first efforts were definately headed in the right direction.
---Bob
Do not underestimate what you have been able to do with your picture. You have done a great job with what you call "limited skills". I have worked a lot of underwater images in Photoshop, any yours was not easy to work with. The red channel was dead and could not be reconstructed. Shifting the color of an image is not easy without introducing artifacts. Read and follow Steve's post carefully. He is giving you good advice.
You were right to clone out the remoras (Steve, I didn't really notice them until I read your post). I tried to work them into a pleasing contrast with the Manta, but ended up cloning them out also.
I used a different approach than Steve. I set up the manta in its own layer and worked it using a multiply layer, curves adjustment and a sharpen after I merged the layers I used to work on the Manta.
I duplicated the original (background) layer and color corrected it in the individual RGB channels in levels. I used it to make two "water" layers, one of which I blurred to remove backscatter and artifacts, and the other I sharpened a little to enhance the surface reflections Lisa liked. The three layers were then blended with masks.
You would not be able to do most of these repairs in PSE. In fact, your results were so good for what I know about PSE, I would really be interested in your steps.
Alcina's comment is well taken. It is not easy to make major adjustments and keep a Photorealistic feel. Sometimes it takes a lot of "fine tuning" to get a natural feel, and you have to feel the image is worth the effort.
This is what I was able to patch together with limited time and image resolution. If I can help you try some alternative adjustments, let me know. Your first efforts were definately headed in the right direction.
---Bob