Recents shots from Bay of Pigs, Cuba

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

Hector1959 wrote:

And here some of the WA shots (from gallery "Bay of Pigs")

Edits in LR There are 2 similar photos treated differently. this has: Custom WB ,+0.27 exposure, +16 contrast, +61 shadows, +24 clarity ,+27 dehaze ,+19 saturation

Edits in LR AWB as shot +0.04 Exp +19 contrast -35 shadows +5 clarity +26 dehaze +10 saturation some adjustments in HSL

All of the above have white balance issues. I'm not sure how clear it was, or how much water you were shooting through, but I think you should be able to get better results, like the below.

What I've found in shots like the above is sometimes there just isn't enough contrast to be had due to water conditions. You can try to inject some, but it will likely block up the shadows and still not look right. On the first two, try this for me: Starting from scratch, brighten it up some, and try white balance off some grey metal areas in the foreground. Once you get it in the ballpark, try dragging the black slider down until the left edge of the histogram almost touches the end. You should quickly get a feel for what is too much. These aren't the best shots to demonstrate the technique, but you may see a lot of the haziness in the water disappear. You have to really work the shadows though to not overdue it where you want detail.

In this post I will "talk" about the the shots with the diver.

Water conditions in Bay of Pigs are very good although lately there is always some kind of haze.

The first 2 photos were taken 20 m deep, no strobes. There was a lot of water in between. It could there have been less if I had set the zoom accordingly. I checked the settings and I now see that it was 31 mm. I could have been much closer in 16mm. The 2nd was processed from the JPG (RAW lost in recovering SD data).

The 3rd wat shot below 4m, most is ambient light. Processed from original JPG, No WB, HL -100 and Sat pushed up to +66 to "show" the corals.

1st and 2nd were shot with similar settings but 2nd is Originally JPG so camera includes its own "processing".

Below the 3 originals (just resized) followed in first 2 by photo processed as per your indications.

original resized

Exp: +1.00. WB Eyedropper in the regulator. Blacks: -60

Exp +1.00. WB Eyedropper in regulator. Blacks: -60

Now it looks clearer and nicer but I think it does not represent well what I saw underwater. (neither one has done). I would work the water color.

original resized

Exp; +0.5 WB Eyedropper in regulator. Blacks: -55

As processed from a JPG, WB does not seem to work well. It resulted too pink. Some more adjustments are needed but I left it this way as a case of study.

original resized

For this photo you gave me no particular suggestions so I try to experiment with WB and tweak LR settings. (original JPG)

I first WB using the Clamp screw for the eyedropper

exposure: -0.50 - contrast: +20 -blacks -25. The result was this:

An interesting approach but I dislike the color of the sand (maybe batter than before but still not as white as the real one in place). and that of the water. So I tweak the settings in HSL.

Changed hue, sat (up) et luminance (down) for the water.

Change luminance up of yellow to make coral as more touched by the strobes, and green to reduce a little the greenish tint on the sand.

I pushed temp a little down.

The result was this:

What do you think? I really appreciate what are you doing for me and my shots.

Regards