Post dive image manipulation

[Ardy]

Hi Chris Ross just replied to me re using photoshop for backscatter post processing and it got me thinking.

Having tried PS and then Lightroom, I abandoned them as too cumbersome and slow to use. I now use irfanview for speed and if something needs a bit more work I open Lightroom.
I find that apart from backscatter which I treat by dumping the shot and moving onto the next (Ha!), there is little extra that I get from Lightroom apart from more control.My idea of a good shot is one that has sharp focus and interest, farting around with layers doesn't do much for me. This hits maximum after a trip when I do the in depth review and dump a lot of semi keepers from first pass through irfanview on the trip.

Am I missing something? Would not be the first time.

 

[Chris Ross]

Irfanview only has minimal tools for correction but great for quick review and culling, slideshows etc. Most any shot will benefit significantly from a levels adjustment and some shots it will totally transform. Photoshop is easy to get lost within but if you have it, I would highly recommend learning how to use it for levels correction - once you know how, the colour and contrast correction is done in less than a minute. Shooting in RAW is a given for this to be useful of course!
Some examples, not the greatest shots going but serve to demonstrate. First up the sea fan needed slightly more flash, first image straight out of RAW conversion:

now with levels and a slight exposure increase:

Also very useful for ambient shots this blue groper was in 10m of water shot on UW white balance mode when my onboard flash decided not to work despite testing.:

now with levels and a light S curve:

All these adjustments are very basic and quick. Some images UW have a very limited brightness range so look very flat. Levels stretches the brightness/shadows and transforms the image.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Sometimes I get a shot that I really like but it takes a bit of time to get rid of backscatter. I sometimes spend so much time on one photo that I skip the rest. Other times I look at the RAW images and think, "Do I really want to spend hours in front of the computer again?"

My normal routine is to delete any bad shots in the camera after I take them. During my safety stop, I will often delete a few more. After I download my shots to my computer, I usually delete at least half of the shots. I then sit there for hours trying to make the rest presentable. After I'm done with Photoshop, I usually delete a few more before posting them here.

During my last dive, I had barely over three feet visibility. As I was shooting wide angle, every shot was full of what I call sand scatter. I got rid of some of it, but gave up after a few minutes and posted the photos pretty much the way they came out of the camera. They won't be going into my best of 2019 folder.

I strive to get a nice shot out of the camera so that I either need to do only a minimum of Photoshopping or none at all. I've only had that happen a few times.

This shot took about five minutes to clean it up. I was happy with it. If I know it will take a long time to make a shot look decent, I usually delete it.

Before

After

 

[HKGuns]

If shooting RAW there is no better software than CaptureOne Pro. I've used it for years and everything else seems clunky in comparison. The presentation and workflow are really that good.

YMMV

 

[sunnyboy]

I've been using Lightroom (not the subscription version) for several years now and quite like it. Sadly, the non-sub version does not support the TG-6 raw format, so I have to use the latest DNG converter and then load them into Lightroom.

I bought Luminar 3 recently and really like it except for one (IMO) fatal flaw: no virtual copies.

For whatever reason, I choose to make virtual copies of all my raw images so I can play and then compare to the original (or delete the copy and start over). I refuse to edit "THE ORIGINAL RAW" image even if the program doesn't actually change the raw file and even if the program has infinite undo. It's just the way I want to work, so any program without virtual copies gets set aside.

Sadly, though Luminar 3 did reply to my email requesting virtual copies, it seems "fancy whizzy stupid custom filters and effects" are far higher on their list of "to do" things than that.

 

[davehicks]

For whatever reason, I choose to make virtual copies of all my raw images so I can play and then compare to the original (or delete the copy and start over). I refuse to edit "THE ORIGINAL RAW" image even if the program doesn't actually change the raw file and even if the program has infinite undo. It's just the way I want to work, so any program without virtual copies gets set aside.

I am curious what your intent is for this comment. Apps like Lightroom don't alter the RAW file as you explain. Instead they apply a set of editing actions to a literal virtual copy of the untouched RAW file. Creating a VirtualCopy in LR just makes another reference (and thumbnail icon) to that same RAW file so you can create a 2nd, 3rd, etc set of edits to the same untouched RAW file. Unless you need to create multiple versions of the same image, you are not missing anything.

Lightroom also has a nice Side by Side before / after compare feature that does what you like.

 

[Ardy]

Just upgraded my computer and 'lost' my lightroom 5.7 so I boiught another copy and the speed of the new computer makes a big difference.
Also went through the LR intro instructions and much better, there is lots to learn and still cant get rid of backscatter without stuffing the image up eventually.

 

[Chris Ross]

Are you using the healing brush? their's a bit of technique to it, but it is very effective, there are limits of course as you need a clean source to clone from.

 

[Ardy]

Hi Chris, Had a go with it a circle and it cloned areas around the marks but this doesn't seem to be what you are talkiing about.
The circle took ages and didn't look that good when I finished!

 

[Chris Ross]

There's various options with the tool, for backscatter you want no feathering and 100% opacity and heal mode. The tool in Photoshop looks to be a lot less tedious if you have that and I would recommend it over the Lightroom tool from what I can see - I don't use lightroom only PS and that is very quick to remove backscatter in comparison. Also I remove backscatter first before adding layers or any sort of masking. This Youtube shows you how it works, the first few minutes shows it :