Colour correction question

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Fastmarc

Just drifting along...
ScubaBoard Supporter
Messages
1,692
Reaction score
560
Location
Kingston, Jamaica
# of dives
200 - 499
I'm just a bit curious.
After fooling around with some photos, a question popped in my mind.
When you take a picture, do you try and capture or show it as you actually see it at depth OR do you try and colour correct to show the colours how it would be on land?
 
Ahh, an age old question, grasshopper.

What is reality? What you "see" underwater is your brain playing tricks on you...

Can't wait to see the answers to this one.

I'd guess most try to show what it would look like if the sun's light wasn't sucked up by the water...most of the time. That's why strobe temperatures can be a factor in deciding which strobe to buy (not for me, far too involved) and/or in post processing an image/setting white balance.
 
Fastmarc:
I'm just a bit curious.
After fooling around with some photos, a question popped in my mind.
When you take a picture, do you try and capture or show it as you actually see it at depth OR do you try and colour correct to show the colours how it would be on land?

Have you ever read any books by Ansel Adams? One might think black and white landscpes on film have little to do with UW digital. But not so. The reason he did most of his work in black and white was because he could extensively post process the film and prints in the darkroom. Most of his prints did not represent reality. In fact many of them looked completely different then what a "photo realistic" image would be. His intent he wrote, was to make an image that conveys what he felt when he was there rather then what he saw. His opinion was than exact representation is not "art".

I have to agree with Adams. I will manipulate an image to make it communicate something. I try not to make the image un-true but I will darken some areas to make the subject appear brighter, I'll de-saturate a background to make a subject appear more colorful. When you are cruising along a wall and discover a Nudibrach your eye restores the color and edits out parts of the rock you are not interested in. I'll help the viewer to see the way I did
 
Fastmarc:
I'm just a bit curious.
After fooling around with some photos, a question popped in my mind.
When you take a picture, do you try and capture or show it as you actually see it at depth OR do you try and colour correct to show the colours how it would be on land?

I guess this really comes down to WHY you take pictures.. Do you take them to remind you of what you saw and the way things looked while you were diving, or do you take them to see things that you couldn't see or better said, how they really are.

I personally take them to see the colors and textures the way they really are. I discover new things all the time in my pictures that I would not have ever been able to see while on the dive or when reviewing pictures that were "blue monochrome". In fact, I can look at my pictures and it is amazing how many new things I discover each time that I didn't see before just because the way the light hit something or the color contrast created with a strobe.

So, there you have it.. both sides of the fence and the side I fall on.. :D
 
Howarde provided a link that shows how to correct a photo that was taken without any strobe, but when I showed a none diving friend the sample from the link, he commented that it didn't look like underwater. Hmmm....
I guess I too might fall on both sides of the fence. On one hand when I take those close-ups, I want to see the objects as they really are, but there are some shots that I want to remain close to what I see, so as to kinda pass on my experience, especially to my non-diving friends.
 
Can you supply Howarde's link?
I also never know how to correct photos. Maybe that's why they just sit there in my computer until Alcina posts a theme of the week.:D
 
I take all my pictures in RAW format with, what i think is the correct WB and then adjust later if necessary.
 
Fastmarc,

I guess it depends on the subject and what you are going for..

In this case, I wanted natural light and I DON'T want to white balance. This is becasue I wanted the blue on this subject.
picture-8.jpg


However, in this case, it wouldn't look very good and be kind of a boring picture if everything was blue. Not that it is real exciting anyhow but at least there is some color and variation to it. I was shooting a reference shot to show the blenny that I later came back and did a macro on.
_DSC0773.jpg


Okay, I decided to upload this picture.. Not really a favorite of mine, but shows you where I would "fix" a picture. I think this one really looks better having the white balance set.
NotWhiteBalanced.jpg
WhiteBalanced.jpg


So, there are no hard fast rules I guess.. but it really depends on the subject and what you are trying to do with the shot.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom