Help with adjusting picture colors!

[Joby]

Hi, we've just returned from our 11 night Galaxy cruise. I took along our camera, housing and strobe. The stobe worked only a few times, so of course the pictures are very blue with little to no color.

 

We did a sail in Barbados with the turtles and I especially want to "fix" the color in those. The strobe did not go off at all here.

 

I also did a dive at Curacao where the strobe went off maybe 3 times.

 

Can anyone give me some recommendations on how to "fix" (or put in color) on my underwater pictures?

 

I have no experience with adjusting color after the picture is taken. For that matter I have very little experience with using our camera underwater:o

[keng45]

I got a tip when we had our photos of the Great Barrier Reef developed, ask the processing company to put more red in the development. The water sucks up the light and tends to make everything shades of brown. It improved our pictures by 100%.

[Joby]

Hi Keng45, our camera is digital. we take the memory card to Walgreens and "do" them ourselves.

 

Someone here at home mentioned using Photoshop. Of course we don't have that program and I understand it's very expensive. We do have an aquaintance that is a photographer--is it worth an ask to check with him?

[Capt_BJ]

I got a tip when we had our photos of the Great Barrier Reef developed, ask the processing company to put more red in the development. The water sucks up the light and tends to make everything shades of brown. It improved our pictures by 100%.

 

yep - water absorbs - or more correctly filters light. And it filters out different wavelengths, or colors, at different times. The first primary color you loose is red as I recall. Which is why things look brown. You will loose red in as little of 10 feet altho that's a bit dependent on the clarity of the water and strength of the light source. And is why, even with flash, you can't get a good distance shot. & why u/w photog's typically have a big flash, often more than 1 and ditto for video guru's too.

 

Yes, if I was gonna play photoshop to try and get the image back up to par, I'd crank in red.

 

playing around google on this topic this looked interesting: http://www.uwpmag.com/

[jimw]

Picassa is part of the Google empire. Works very well. I am unfortunately oh so familiar with the blue problem as a 20 year uw photog. I don't know what Picassa may be able to accomplish, but your pics will look better and the program is free. If you want, send me a blue pic by email and I will experiment. Let me know if you want my email address?

[scubaran]

Hi Keng45, our camera is digital. we take the memory card to Walgreens and "do" them ourselves.

 

Someone here at home mentioned using Photoshop. Of course we don't have that program and I understand it's very expensive. We do have an aquaintance that is a photographer--is it worth an ask to check with him?

 

Hi,

 

I've been doing underwater photography for awhile and yes, you need a good program to take out the blue without disrupting the other colors. Photoshop, with a free action called underwater.atn, is the best solution I've found (BTW, photoshop is expensive as a commerical product but a BIG hint. If you want to get the software, get a copy of someone's high school student's ID (your child's or a good friends child's), and go to one of the educational software retail sites. Adobe offers Photoshop to students for $250 vs. $650 retail (same product/same functionality), quite a steal). If you don't have that kind of money, Photoshop elements (usually around $70) can eliminate the blue by using the Enhance|Color Correction|Color Cast tool and clicking on an object in your picture that is supposed to be white. It automatically adjusts the colors (sorta like a auto white balance on a camera). I'm sure there are other options (including adjusting hue) but I've found the photoshop (and in desperation, the photoshop elements) option to be the best.

 

Hope this helped,

Randall

http://www.randallgamby.com (my photo site)

[bruce-r]

Photoshop Elements is really what you want. It has about 95% of the features of Photoshop CS for a whole lot less money. The Quick Fix will do remarkable things for UW photos.

[Joby]

Thanks everyone for all of the recommendations!

 

I'll let you know what happens with the U/W photos--maybe even post a picture if I get the nerve:)