Newbie with photo editing question

[Farnboro Allen]

Hello everyone. I am new on here and had some questions on underwater photography. We recently returned from a trip to Belize and were using a GoPro for the first time to photograph and video. However on the last dive we put the light red instead of red filter on and the photos all have a very blue cast as expected. I've tried to figure out how to try and address this form various youtube tutorials but can't find any that really help. Can anyone help with some guidance or are these pics forever blue!

 

[Ryan Neely]

... we put the light red instead of red filter on and the photos all have a very blue cast as expected ...

I'm confused by the wording here. Are you saying that, instead of putting a red filter over the GoPro lens, you used an external light with a red LED?

Either way, you state here that you expected the images to have a blue cast to them, so . . . what is the problem? If you had expected the images to be blue given your lighting or filtering selections, why try to change them now?

Maybe I'm delving into minutia that isn't important.

Did you shoot the photographs in GoPro's Raw format? (Those files have an extension of .gpr.) If, yes, you likely have some resources using Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw (or similar) to change the white balance in post, but you're not going to get very acceptable results if the images are a .jpg.

I am aware that certain cameras also shoot video footage in a similar type of Raw format, but I don't think GoPro is one of those. This likely means that your video footage will remain forever blue.

Most attempts to affect dramatic shifts in white balance in post will result in muddy colors.

If it were me and I couldn't handle the color cast from an improper white balance setting, I'd likely convert to greyscale and look to produce something more "artistic" looking.

I hope that helps!

 

[Ukmc]

You can try Dive+ app

 

[Farnboro Allen]

Thanks both. What I meant was that we had 2 x filters; light red filter for snorkel depth and dark red for deeper. But we have left the light red on for diving instead of switching them. The images were shot in jpeg and mp4.

When I said "as expected" I meant that because we had the wrong filter it is not a surprise that they are blue.

 

[stiebs]

For photos, pretty much every piece of photo editing software out there will allow you to adjust white balance pretty easily. Or adjust temp and tint to your liking.

Video is a little more tricky - I haven't used it too much, but the GoPro Quik app has quite a lot of smarts, it may be able to do something. Personally I can't stand editing video on my mobile, and I use Davinci Resolve. It's a master at colour grading, but the nature of video means that as the video scene changes, so will the level of colour grading. So a lot more time, effort and learning is required to get accurate colour and smooth transition across all your footage.

Post a couple of pics so that we can see what you're working with and offer more specific advice.

 

[Farnboro Allen]

A couple of images to show, the second one is probably the best example of the level of blue. Thanks in advance for any guidance.

 

[stiebs]

Here's a quick go at it using white balance adjustment then some tweaking on temp/tint then curves adjustment.

If I'm taking photos without flash, my preference is to not use any filter at all, and adjust afterwards. Using a filter may give you nicer colour straight out of the camera, but it actually blocks light getting to the sensor, so using a filter actually reduces your ability to adjust in post.

 

[Farnboro Allen]

Thanks...look good, I'll have a play and see how I get on.

 

[stiebs]

Here's a version with a bit more pop. A bit too much for my liking, but some may prefer it

 

[Doc Harry]

Search for the "Mandrake Process" for Photoshop
You can make significant color corrections to blue photos