Snorkeling photos

[snorkelnow]

Nice, Testudo! Is that just with their "auto fix" (barracuda and your image) or were you tweaking it?

I'm going to download it now!

Amy

 

[Testudo]

Technically tweaked it, but actually just selected from the various presets under each tweak menu. You'll see there are various "fix" options, similar to Photoshop (auto-level, auto contrast, etc...). I would just apply each "fix" I though may improve the image, starting at the highest setting, undoing it and trying the next highest setting, an so on until it looked better.

There is a handy feature under (Bright, Color) I found and applied to on my Grouper shot- "Remove color cast" where you can reduce the 'haze' of a select color; in that case the blue haze.

 

[snorkelnow]

Testudo,

The "remove color cast" is awesome! There was an aqua blue hue on my cuda that I couldn't quite get rid of until I tried it. I think you pick a place that should be white or grey and then move the color slider to the color you are seeing for it to subtract it from the photo.

Getting happier with this picture.

Amy


first_barracuda_12_photoscape_rgb_curves_colorcast by huskyaddict, on Flickr

 

[Testudo]

Amy,

I'm not sure exactly how you are supposed use the "remove color cast" feature. Maybe I'll look for the documentation one day....

What I did to remove the blue haze was select the closest blue with the slider to the haze. Figured that you select the color cast you want removed with the slider and select the % you want it reduced by... if that is how it should be done, only know I did like the results.

I'm pretty impressed with the program's features considering its lack of a price.

Here is your Parrotfish processed in Photoscape:

 

[snorkelnow]

My take on remove color cast is the same as yours. Another thing I tried today was extracting jpg files from my hd video. Enough resolution for online viewing. Seeing a lot more things I never knew I saw.

Amy

720p frame captured to jpg

biscane_bay_and_j_penny_white_sands_panasonic 033 0149 by huskyaddict, on Flickr

 

[snorkelnow]

Hi All,

The frame extractor worked really well. I put some info about it in this thread. I tried batch autocorrect with Adobe Photo Elements, Picasa and Photoscape and it turns out that for my extracted frames (from video which doesn't have great light) the Photoscape autofix worked the best. For my better lit photos I'm leaning toward Elements but its autofix gets a bit red for my low-light images. It is OK if you are not using batch mode (you can set the level of autofix to not go so far) but the batch mode seems to max it out and it tints too warm.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/production/359732-video-editing-recomendations-3.html#post5785799

Regards,
Amy

 

[Dave C]

Dave,

Thanks for your elaboration. I have also found that lightening the photo or doing some adjustment of RGB brightness as a first step will sometimes help the "auto correct". It sounds like I am evolving to follow a similar path. I've played a little bit with "Piknik" (the cost version of picassa) and they have an "auto colors" button that seems to do a great job, better than there overall auto fix for some reason.

I downloaded the Adobe Photo Elements 9 last night (30 day full feature trial) and ran the sgt major photo through their smart fix and posted it up with the rest of my experiments on that photo. My first glance of the software is that it is fairly complex. I'm guessing I'll master just a few features.

I also "snorkel dive" to get down to the fish level but I was having a heck of a time staying still because I was so buoyant w/ a 5 mil suit in open ocean. My SO snapped a couple of my attempts with the video (see below). In the sanctuary areas there seems to often be nothing to hold on to that wouldn't get you fined!

Another question, how close do you try to get to your subject? Do use optical zoom much?

Best,
amy

Amy, I never use optical zoom underwater. Most people recommend not using it, and it usually results in exaggeration of any backscatter or particles that are in the water. Concerning how close I get to my subjects, I try to get as close as I can! Easier said than done, however.

 

[snorkelnow]

Thanks, Dave. It seems like the zoom is one too many steps when trying to get a moving creature anyway. I'm really glad you pointed out the power of cropping. These cameras are so dense that you can give up some pixels without ever knowing they were gone unless you want to print a large image.

Thanks to all the advice I got here I have finally worked out a flow that is easy to do and produces much cleaner and "de-blued" images than the original. I can take my whole "camera dump" from each snorkel and run it through this flow and most of the pics turn out about as good as they could be (I've compared some images that I have tweaked vs the autofix). Only a few outliers need some special attention. I am so thrilled! Hand tweaking each image would have been a lifetime proposition I'm afraid.

Here's the flow:
1. run entire folder of pics for a given camera/location through Photoscape batch mode (auto contrast=med, auto color=med, sharp=+2, backlight=+50.
2. Glance through the results looking for consistent flaws (like too red). If overall quality not good then try another batched autofix (Picasa or PhotoElements) on the originals.
3. Go one pass through the photos in Picassa, deleting the bad ones and cropping and trying out their autofix (feeling lucky) on the image (sometimes the "second" autofix makes a better image, sometimes not, but very likely if a significant crop has been done).
4. Use Photoscape to rename the images with a unique code for final storage or upload (making a new consistent count, 1,2,.. with no missing numbers and coding for which camera was used for future reference)

It's that easy!

Here are two of my site albums that are done. I may add some good video frames later if there are any.

Peanut Island (nice sunshine and clear water made the overall image quality very good):
Snorkel Florida Feb 2011 Peanut Island - a set on Flickr

Grecian Rocks at John Pennekamp (first boat snorkel of the trip, often did not get close enough or hold steady long enough for the best shots, original images rather blue due to distance between camera and subject)
Snorkel Florida Feb 2011 John Pennekamp Grecian Rocks - a set on Flickr

Regards,
Amy

 

[snorkelnow]

Hi All,

I put the Dry Tortugas National Park album up today. It is such a beautiful set of islands and the Fort is impressive out in the middle of the ocean. It has quite a lot of history we have learned since then. Would love to go back someday.

Regards,
Amy

Snorkel Florida Feb 2011 Dry Tortugas National Park - a set on Flickr

IMAGE-P-DT010 by huskyaddict, on Flickr

 

[snorkelnow]

Hi All,

I just put up the photo album for our Biscayne National Underwater Park snorkel trip. We did not see many fish but the coral garden was the most beautiful we saw.

Regards,
Amy

Sorkel Florida Feb 2011 Biscayne National Underwater Park - a set on Flickr


IMAGE-P-BNUP020 by huskyaddict, on Flickr