 This is the photo we are going to fix (can be downloaded at the bottom of this blog). To find out how our challenge will work, read on... When photographers post-process their underwater photos, you might be surprised to find that there is a lot of room for artistic interpretation. A photo I colour correct today might look completely different from the same one I already processed last month. Variations in the “look” of a processed photo between different photographers are even wider. There is always room for some artistic expression without actually making any changes to the content of the picture. ...and when you like what another editor/photographer has done to a photo, you can ask them what they did in the comments section - we can learn from each other! Colour Correcting Tip "When the human observer focuses on a subject, it is more colourful, vibrant, and has more contrast than the rest of the scene, meaning everything in the periphery is a little less colourful, and flatter. The camera makes no such distinction, so some photos may benefit from some subtle adjustments mimicking the nature of human vision in order to highlight the subject. Or not. Whatever – you are the artist." Below illustrates the potential for different types of processing, and each conveys a different mood. You decide how colourful or saturated your image is going to be, and how harshly will the detail be sharpened? How much contrast do you need to convey a feeling? Everyone has their own style and preference. Sometimes mine changes from day to day!  The Proposed Challenge Here’s how it works. I have posted a file for you to download (at the very end of this post). There is a RAW version, plus the JPEG version from the camera. If your software version cannot support RAW processing, don’t worry, just work from the JPEG – it will be fun to see what you can do! Colour correct the image the way you would fix up one of your own. Save it, and email it to me with a brief note describing the software you used. If you do not want me to use your first name, you should indicate what name I should use when I post your pic, like “Logger-head Larry”, for example. The Rules There aren’t any stinking rules! Well, hardly any – this will be a manifest of your artistic expression, but please maintain the original content. Removing spots and silt are ok, but cloning sharks, or cutting and pasting other image elements are not. Maybe that's a different challenge for another day...  Colour Correcting Tip "Removing a colour cast often means adding the complementary colour in order to neutralize it. For example, if you are at Shanty, and there is a green colour cast, you would add the complementary colour of green, which is magenta - see colour wheel (Naturally, because we KNOW that we lose red as we descend, that is a good place to start!)." The Practice Challenge Results: Below is our "pilot-project" to show you how it will look. I asked a couple of people to help with this experiment to see what would we would get with this file of a shark in the Bahamas, and they graciously accepted the challenge.
Colour Correcting Tip "EVERY TIME you SAVE as JPEG, data is lost, and quality is REDUCED (opening and closing is fine, it's the SAVE function that runs the compression algorithm). When editing photos, save a COPY of your original (you always want to keep your original) as a TIFF lossless file, and edit that." ...THE SUBMISSIONS:  Christian C. Photoshop - working from the JPEG file Water maintained its blue colour, and the green cast in the shark has been eliminated. Some colour and contrast has even been added to the divers in the background! Vignetting adds some depth.  Bob B. Lightroom - working from RAW Water is a little more cyan, which is acceptable for the colour of water (pink and magenta is not), and the green cast in the shark has been eliminated. Shark has been brightened up.  Jill Lightroom - working from RAW A bit darker, vignetting added. Colour cast removed from shark, and HSL sliders used to remove the pinky magenta from the water (aqua and blue hue adjusted). Shark was selected with adjustment brush to make edits selectively on her. Colour Correct Challenge CCC#01 (the RAW files created by my Sony A6000 camera are called .arw) Use either one:
 Our green sea turtle friend has an ugly greenish-cyan cast that must be corrected! Maybe parts of him could do with some sharpening too - have fun! Deadline for the Colour Correction Challenge: JUNE 16, 2018
Email your result with Name (or alias) to go with picture, software used, and a brief description of what you did, to: [email protected] Results will be posted in the following blog, and in our July newsletter! Should be fun!
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I don’t think I’ve ever experienced so much, in so little time… and it’s addicting. I truly can’t stop. The more I dive, the more I learn, and the more I am dying to experience. I spent a week (on my Adventure Sports Newmarket dive trip to the Florida Keys) continuously creating new goals for myself, whether it was the maximum depth I hit, or overcoming what once may have been a fear – in my case a night dive… Throughout the seven days, I kept tacking new things onto my “dive bucket list”, most of which I became interested in from hearing others talking about their experiences. I created a personal list of the millions of different things I wished to someday experience, and gratefully crossed off quite a few during my trip. The list includes wrecks I would like to dive, species I cannot wait to encounter, destinations I’ve heard great things about, and goals set around my personal diving limits and certifications! I think that’s what makes diving so rewarding though… Although I may have some control over crossing certain things off my list, often times, I really don’t know what to expect from a dive. There are so many things that may affect the turnout, making it so much more enjoyable when you get down there. You lose a sense of repetition, because no dive is the same as another. You’ll experience different weather, creatures, dives sites, visibility, water conditions, buddies… the list goes on. During my 4th adventure dive, towards my Advanced Open Water Diver course, what I expected of my dive was completely off. I chose to do a night dive, not because I felt that I personally would enjoy it a whole lot, but because it was an accomplishment I knew I wanted to check off my list, an opportunity to learn more about diving at night/in dark spaces, and because I wanted to get myself comfortable with different diving conditions. I expected the visibility to be only what my light would reach, and the rest just black. I expected to see nothing really, maybe a couple fish swimming around and whatever made up of the reef. I expected to maybe come across some fear-filled moments, just because I couldn’t really see much… Like I said, my assumptions and expectations of the dive were so far off. The night dive ended up being my favorite dive of the dozen or so I had done during my trip, as it was the dive where I encountered an incredible variety of different species, something I personally value a lot while scuba diving. About 25 feet down, diving at Davis Reef, Key Largo for approximately 30-45 minutes, I spotted several sea turtles, stingrays, nurse sharks, lobsters, green moray eels, lionfish, and more! Everything with its own spot to sleep among the reefs… The saying shows, the ocean really did come alive at night for me! My one-week, ASN Trip was an ongoing journey consisting of several dives, course studies, eating, sleeping, and more dives! I worked my way down, from a depth of 12 feet in a pool, to a maximum depth of 100 feet in the ocean. I explored three magnificent wrecks, all with their own story I enjoyed learning about. I visited multiple reefs, all with their own different varieties of life living amongst them. The week itself was an incredible experience, and each dive even more so. That week, I found passion in something I never would have given much thought into. Diving is a sport with so many different directions for all different types of people, one that is both challenging and rewarding! Anyone, interested in diving, whether it be just to try it out or to work towards a diving certification, let us know! We will gladly get you on board. Jody instructing Taylor in the Florida Keys during one of her Open Water Certification dives. We all have our own bucket list of things we wish to experience as divers! Share some of the things on your list, or things which you've already experienced that you would like to recommend! Leave a comment below. |
 AuthorsJill Smith 
Coral Restoration
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