Moray eels... how do I fix these photos?

[u/nuggetkip_]

So yeah i messed up pretty bad with these. I couldn't get too close to these moray eels and forgot to change my settings (I'm used to taking macro photos).

Anyways, how... do I fix these? I shot them in raw (these are just screenshots) and i just can't get the colors and lighting right.

I'm used to doing color correction on brighter images and those turn out fine. With these I always end up with aggressive reds, blue shadows, random white spots and just a general strange tint. What do I do?

[u/ack19105]

https://imgur.com/a/XXFdD7Q

Photoshop to the rescue!

Basically, as someone else suggested: channel mixing.

The colors may not be "right", but they're more appealing.

[u/doglady1342]

Aqua Color Fix

[u/jconde1966]

Use an strobe

[u/choo-chew_chuu → u/jconde1966]

And get closer.... I feel is the answer to 90% of under water photography questions.

[u/parophit]

Dive+ app

[u/mrchen911]

You could try the aqua color fix app

[u/SamMaghsoodloo]

I'm surprised nobody has given you the actual answer. What you're looking for is called CHANNEL MIXING. It feels like magic, and it is the proper way to fix the missing red light in your underwater images. Here is the photoshop tutorial I saw long ago. Once you understand the trick, you can use it on other software too. I used GIMP, which is free.

Photoshop: Underwater color correction

TLDR: Red light is lacking underwater. Your RGB image is missing pixels in the R layer. So you steal pixels from the Green and/or Blue layers, and create a new artificial Red layer that is basically inferred from overall luminance. It works surprisingly well.

[u/nuggetkip_]

So just in case this helps: I use adobe Lightroom (paid version) and I haven't quite figured out a way to edit these photos yet..

I used my Sony Rx 100 camera (first gen I think) and a sea life sea dragon torch.

I'm pretty sure I messed these photos up by using a shutter speed that was too low, cuz I remember messing with it a bit.

Because I did use a lamp, the reds aren't completely lost. But the thing is that with the 2nd and 3rd photo, when I edit the white balance I get extremely bright red patches while my shadows stay completely blue.

[u/Plumose76 → u/nuggetkip_]

With a mix of artificial light and natural light you will get that, you can use one of the spots that end up as red for your white balance and you won't get any red in the areas that are lit by the artificial light but you will still be missing red in the natural light areas.

[u/sinetwo]

Go to underwater photography instead.

1. Get close
   
2. Get closer (and don’t touch or damage anything)
   
3. Slowly get the accustomed to you and get even closer
   
4. Sort out your strobe positioning and power (they’re exponential based on distance to subject)
   
5. Anticipate your settings for your subject and artistic intention
   
6. Ready your focus point(s) and system for composition
   
7. Have at it

There’s a ridiculous amount that goes into good underwater photography and a lot of this can be practiced on land before you jump in :)

[u/archaic37]

Did you use a strobe or flashlight? It’s nearly impossible to color correct without additional light that brings reds back. 

[u/Cyrus_euw]

Nice photos, especially the second and third! I ran them through Bring Back Red, here are the results:

https://imgur.com/a/iLbyijK

[u/nuggetkip_ → u/Cyrus_euw]

I might be an absolute idiot but what is "bring back red"?

[u/Cyrus_euw → u/nuggetkip_]

It’s a color correction app for iOS

[u/Greavsie2001]

Not for these obviously but the best advice I ever had was to get closer to the subject. The goal is to reduce to an absolute minimum the amount of water between the camera and the subject.

Martin Edge puts it like this: get close to the subject. Then get closer. Then halve the remaining distance.

[u/elizadeth]

Judicious use of masking

[u/oodell]

It's not possible. The light isn't there.

AI is just making up shit and inserting it into your photo. It's not real.

[u/Plumose76 → u/oodell]

I am a big fan of post processing in Lightroom, but I have chucked a couple of images at ChatGPT and they do look great (without any noticeable hallucinations).
If it is for yourself I don't really see an issue with doing it, if it is to sell or enter into a competition I think that would be wrong.

[u/oodell → u/Plumose76]

They look great because they're stealing photos from people who spent thousands of dollars on equipment and thousands of hours of experience to create them to fill in a mediocre photo taken with insufficient light and inadequate cameras/lenses.

Even if it's for yourself, it's completely dishonest.

[u/ikheetbas]

This is how chatgpt corrected it.

[u/undrwater → u/[deleted]]

General distaste of AI.

[u/undrwater → u/[deleted]]

It is useful, no doubt, but if you do the costs / benefit analysis, the adverse reactions are reasonable. No other interruptive tech has had such a negative impact on the environment with such little benefit.

[u/undrwater → u/[deleted]]

Comparatively. A pocket calculator provides a great benefit compared to the cost (~2x AA batteries).

We get incorrect information that sounds correct at the cost of an increase in our electricity bill, loss of "raw" land, and output that is likely toxic.

Sometimes we get decent answers. We could have gotten them with a bit of elbow grease.

Still, if you're local hosting an LLM, I salute you!

[u/nuggetkip_ → u/ikheetbas]

Yup... That's better than I'll ever get it to look

[u/ikheetbas]

I’ve seen photos corrected by AI and it looked very good. Maybe try that?

[u/devinkt33]

I love these I think just settle for minor color corrections.

[u/morsebroiler]

It’s not a satisfying answer, but if data is not there, it’s not there, no amount of pulling on the curves will fix that.. Maybe some AI tools, if you don’t mind that sort of thing?

Last photo was taken with a torchlight, so it might be more recoverable than the other two.

Obvious answer is you need more light when taking the photos… get closer, get yourself a more powerful video light.

[u/Manatus_latirostris]

Fix your exposure first in post. Then work on color.

If white balance isn’t working, you may need to adjust color curves manually.

If you’re using an app like Lightroom, you want to pull the green curve down (into the pink). Then, cautiously pull the red curve up. Then carefully tweak the blue curve down (into yellow/orange tones), until it looks “right.”

[u/DrCodyRoss → u/Manatus_latirostris]

As someone who edits underwater pics and videos almost daily, this is the way. Lightroom is your friend, and this is the exact approach I would do. Maybe play a little with highlights and shadows too, but the heavy lifting will be done by what this person recommended.

[u/ralf1]

Dive+ works well

[u/Webabar]

You won’t like my answer but maybe you can try apps like aquacolorfix