Underwater Color Correction

JB
Posted By
John_Barack
May 12, 2004
Views
380
Replies
2
Status
Closed
Using Photoshop what suggestions do you have for color correcting u/w images? (usually too blue, sometimes too green)? Do you have any standard digital "filters" you apply to all your u/w pictures allowing just a little "fine tuning" afterwards on individual images, if needed?

Looking forward to your suggestions. 😎
Related Tags
color correct

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

CC
Chris_Cox
May 12, 2004
First try the "auto" adjustments — frequently they’ll work for underwater shots.

If you have zero red content in the image, you can try replacing the red channel with data from the green channel (it works better than you think). Use Channel Mixer for this.
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
May 12, 2004
John,

I wish I could say I had some standard color corrections that I make for my u/w images, but it seems that I don’t often use the same corrections and just go with more of an educated guess as to what seems correct. At times I’ve thought it would be interesting to make a filter that has parameters for specifying depth, type of water (fresh, salt, brackish,), clarity (perhaps given in feet, such as 100-foot visibility), etc., and having those parameters yield some sort of color adjustments and other enhancements based upon the physics of absorption of the light spectrum in water.

As Chris suggests, the auto adjustments have sometimes steered me in the right direction, but I’m relucted to say "frequently". Thanks for the idea about replacing the red with the green channel though Chris…I’ll give that a try sometime.

For the most part, if you’re trying to correct colors for short-range subjects, that’s fine. But, if you’re trying to correct colors for distant subjects, I think it is best to leave well enough alone since you’re departing from reality as to how things truly looked.

Regards,

Daryl

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections