software for editing underwater photos

[Puppeteer]

I have ON1 and find it excels at portrait photography. So many of the tools are geared towards that. I use their preset packs in light room a lot. I don't use ON1 often though and there may be a different ON1 tool than the one I have.

I'll have a look into ON1 again because I may have pigeon holed it as a portrait tool.

I use Light room because I have a permanent license from before it went subscription. I find Adobe's subscriptions to be very expensive.

Also have a look at the software that comes with your camera. They are normally quite capable, but their workflow may not suit you, but they do come for free with the camera.

 

[Hoag]

I

I have never heard of ON1. Can you share your experiences with it? Ease of use? Quality of images, especially as related to underwater photography correction? Is it a good solution for an average user who is not natural with computers?

As I said in a previous post, everybody's mind works a little differently, so it would not be fair for me to say if it is easy or not. What I will say is that for me, it is very intuitive.
First of all, I am going to assume that you are shooting in RAW. That give you much more ability to set (correct) the White Balance. If you don't shoot in RAW, no matter what you eventually choose will be hamstrung to a degree.

Let me address above ground editing first and get it out of the way since I know that is not the focus of your question. I shoot a lot of landscape images and ON1 will do a lot of the work that would typically take you out of Lightroom and into Photoshop all in one piece of software. HDR Exposure merge, Focus Stacking and Stitch Panoramas can all be done easily and with only a couple mouse clicks.

For underwater photographs, light is everything, and ON1 has a very simple yet powerful set of controls for exposure. Setting white Balance can be as simple as clicking on a spot on the image that is white or neutral gray and it will automatically set the white balance for you. Things such as cropping, creating masks and adjusting specific areas are all very easy.

It is hard to describe it here in this forum. I would suggest that you Google it and go through the demo and "How to" videos on either the ON1 Website or on Youtube to see if you think it will work for you.

 

[undrwater]

Raw Therapee

Open source.

 

[ROUS]

I use PhotoPad and selected it because I'd already made a long-term commitment to its sister product--VideoPad.

 

[azstinger11]

What do people think about GIMP? Seems to be a pretty powerful photo editing software package for a free open-source program.

I hate the subscription model many offer now days and refuse to use them unless someone else is paying.

I like it but more of a photoshop replacement than Lightroom replacement. I don’t recall it having any catalog management or the like? So for single off edits it’s great.

 

[ElCarlos]

I have downloaded the test version of DIVE #1 professional and I must say I am surprised.

I don't have high standards, but I was amazed at what the software was able to get out of my action cam photos with just one click. Of course, you can also adjust the settings manually. And it's all really easy to use without having to watch tutorials on YouTube.

I am not yet completely satisfied with DIVE Video #1 professional, but I have only tested it for a short time so far.

There is certainly software that does more but it's enough for me and I will probably get a licence. ~20 USD for the single licence or ~30 USD for the bundle (photo and video). I've had worse investments.

And it can be used as a PS/LR plugin!

 

[deeper thoughts]

I have downloaded the test version of DIVE #1 professional and I must say I am surprised.

I don't have high standards, but I was amazed at what the software was able to get out of my action cam photos with just one click. Of course, you can also adjust the settings manually. And it's all really easy to use without having to watch tutorials on YouTube.

I am not yet completely satisfied with DIVE Video #1 professional, but I have only tested it for a short time so far.

There is certainly software that does more but it's enough for me and I will probably get a licence. ~20 USD for the single licence or ~30 USD for the bundle (photo and video). I've had worse investments.

And it can be used as a PS/LR plugin!

Does it have a crop option
thnx

 

[ElCarlos]

Does it have a crop option
thnx

Yes. But it's a bit hidden.

You have to activate the extended additional functions. But then you have a lot of options. Standard photo dimensions, golden ratio or freestyle etc..

 

[deeper thoughts]

Yes. But it's a bit hidden.

You have to activate the extended additional functions. But then you have a lot of options. Standard photo dimensions, golden ratio or freestyle etc..

Ok thank you

 

[d^2b]

I like it but more of a photoshop replacement than Lightroom replacement. I don’t recall it having any catalog management or the like? So for single off edits it’s great.

Darktable is also non-destructive (like lightroom, I guess), which means your original raw files are never modified. Gimp is just starting to implement non-destructive editing if I understand correctly. Gimp has many more general image processing features, but I would expect darktable to have more raw image specific features.