underwater photos

any recommendations for software to color correct pictures and videos
taken
underwater.i am new to underwater photography and would like something
simple to use.thanks.

ne1469 wrote:
> any recommendations for software to color correct pictures and videos
> taken underwater.i am new to underwater photography and would
> like something simple to use.thanks.

To a certain degree, the ability to correct color in UW photos will
depend on where & how they were originally taken. What I'm mostly
referring to here is that the color correction is needed due to water's
variation of absorption of the color spectrum - ie, red wavelengths
first, blue last.

What this means is that there generally needs to be "some" amount of
the color that needs to be restored still in the original image so that
it can be boosted - it will be there for shallow dives in clear
tropical waters, but for, say, an 80fsw coldwater dive, there simply
isn't any red left to be boosted by any magical software technique that
I'm personally aware of.

The simplest solution is to use UW lights on your UW photo/video camera
system and prevent the color balance problem in the first place.

For existing works, you might want to Google the "Mandrake Technique"
for Photoshop. What it effectively does is to create & boost a red
layer. If you don't have Photoshop, there have also been written some
"How To's" for doing the Mandrake while using other software programs
that you should be able to find.


-hh

ne1469 wrote:
> any recommendations for software to color correct pictures and videos
> taken
> underwater.i am new to underwater photography and would like something
> simple to use.thanks.

First, you might want to get a Color correcting (orange) filter for
available light photos.

Second, for the best/cheapest software, you want to get Paint.net.
http://www.getpaint.net/download.html

It has many features more powerful than Photoshop (some less) and like
Photoshop there is some learning required...

Dan Bracuk wrote:
> "bullshark" <bullshark@gmail.com> pounded away at his keyboard
> resulting in:
> :First, you might want to get a Color correcting (orange) filter for
> :available light photos.
>
> I bought one and used it a few times on my last trip. Turned out to
> be a waste of money. All the pictures came out orange.

That would be operator error, or bad product. The benefit of the CC
filter is amazing particularly when shooting video (my Digital Still
Camera does video too) and available light is just about anytime your
subject is further than 3 feet (beyond flash range). You want your
flash off then to prevent backscatter.

> Just to be thorough, I use the camera's built in flash, so I am not
> doing "available light" photography.

Orange filter + Flash white light = orange picture

> When I'm in the water, I don't want to be fiddling with camera controls.

That would explain the orange pictures.

When I'm in the water, I don't want you to be fiddling with camera
controls either.