Cozumel Underwater

From my early February trip to Cozumel. Camera setup Olympus Camedia 4000z/PT-010 or Camedia 7070W/PT-027. No flash.

Blue Tang


Crab


Hawksbill Turtle


Honeycomb Cowfish


Peacock Flounder


Last Night in Paradise


Link to rest of album: Cozumel February 2008

Comments welcome - I hate the look of flash, so I shoot with natural light then do a color shift in the electronic darkroom. I think I'm reasonably close - but if you see something way off, let me know (there are a couple in the slideshow I'm not terribly happy with, but the ones I've posted here I think are close). If you have any tried and true methods for doing the color shift I'd also appreciate any helpful hints you may have.

Nice shots! Looks like we were there about the same time this year. I would be interested in knowing what photo editing program you use to 'add' color to your photos, or are you just enhancing it....most of the shots I took below 60' a lacking in color all-together except the ones I used a diffused flash on. What's your secret to making blah photos come to life?

wow, great pics, I leave for Coz in < 2 weeks and these pics(especially the turtle one, I've never seen a turtle while diving yet) have amped up the excitement level

Those are AWESOME shots, Nancy! Thank you for sharing them.

aubie85:

wow, great pics, I leave for Coz in < 2 weeks and these pics(especially the turtle one, I've never seen a turtle while diving yet) have amped up the excitement level

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Get ready for the time of your life. Our first every salt water dives were this past summer in Cozumel. We were able to swim along side a turtle on our very first dive.

aubie85:

wow, great pics, I leave for Coz in < 2 weeks and these pics(especially the turtle one, I've never seen a turtle while diving yet) have amped up the excitement level

Click to expand...

To the OP, good pics and to aubie85, the only way you won't see turtles there is to dive with your eyes closed......enjoy your trip........

aubie85:

wow, great pics, I leave for Coz in < 2 weeks and these pics(especially the turtle one, I've never seen a turtle while diving yet) have amped up the excitement level

Click to expand...

Last trip to Cozumel in September I stopped counting turtles after 40. Past few years they are on every dive. Have a great time!

Pronavigator:

Nice shots! Looks like we were there about the same time this year. I would be interested in knowing what photo editing program you use to 'add' color to your photos, or are you just enhancing it....most of the shots I took below 60' a lacking in color all-together except the ones I used a diffused flash on. What's your secret to making blah photos come to life?

Click to expand...

I use Paintshop Pro - two versions, since the most recent version swapped out some of my more valuable manual tools for one-click fixes.

In Paintshop Pro 8, I use Grey World Balance (Adjust-Color Balance - Grey World Color Balance). It works on the theory that the colors in any given image average to grey. Since the reds disappear at depth, it ends up emphasizing colors at the red end of the spectrum and de-emphasizing colors at the blue end.

If that doesn't work (and it works less well with images my 7070 than with my 4000 for reasons I have not figured out yet), I use Channel Mixer (Adjust-Color Balance-Channel Mixer), which allows me to individually adjust the red, green, and blue sources. I usually set the blue close to true for blue, them boost the red and decrease the green. That tool is available in both PSP8 and PSP XI (the more recent version of PSP I use). It generally takes two passes - one to get close, then a second to fine tune it.

In PSP 8, I also use Black and White Points (Adjust-Color Balance- Black and White Points). I select points that should be true black, true white, and true grey, and it shifts the image colors so that they are. Manual Color Correction (Adjust-Color Balance-Manual Color Correction) works similarly if I know the color something should be.

In both versions I sometimes use fade correction, as well. I'm not as sure how it works - it seems to be a combination of color shifting, saturation, and contrast enhancement.

My primary tools just take the colors that are in the image and boost the strength of the ones that are so faint at depth that they are virtually invisible. I am always amazed at what shows up.

Here's the original Blue Tang photo:


Here's the same photo with Grey World Color Balance:


Finally, applying Fade Correction to the color balanced photo:

aubie85:

wow, great pics, I leave for Coz in < 2 weeks and these pics(especially the turtle one, I've never seen a turtle while diving yet) have amped up the excitement level

Click to expand...

If you follow the link to the slideshow, there's another turtle shot. Two of them tussling - we were told they were mating, but it's the wrong ends connecting.

You should see plenty! Enjoy!

diver 85:

To the OP, good pics and to aubie85, the only way you won't see turtles there is to dive with your eyes closed......enjoy your trip........

Click to expand...

Thanks! We saw at least twenty - in one dive there were 4-6 in one area (the shot in the slideshow is of two of them).

Excellent info. I'll play around with some of my shots to see what I can get to show up !!
Thanks for the tips!