Help with underwater pic correction please - 100_4425.jpg ..

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Please give a shot to correcting this attached photo. It was taken
New Year's Day at Devil's Den, FL at 30ft of the fresh water spring.
Most of the digital pics I took underwater I took have a bad flash
relection off the particulite in the water that made bad "bubbles"
which distorted the image. Looking for any actions/filters/techniques
to clean these up. I already have a great underwater action that
works PERFECT for salt water but doesn't do it for this series. I
know you all love a challenge so please give it a shot and let me know
how you did it so I can do the other 150 shots PLEASE!!! Thanks in
advance!!!

-Pat

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Gaderian wrote:
> spectrepjcook@yahoo.com wrote:
>> Please give a shot to correcting this attached photo. It was taken
>> New Year's Day at Devil's Den, FL at 30ft of the fresh water spring.
>> Most of the digital pics I took underwater I took have a bad flash
>> relection off the particulite in the water that made bad "bubbles"
>> which distorted the image. Looking for any
>> actions/filters/techniques to clean these up. I already have a
>> great underwater action that works PERFECT for salt water but
>> doesn't do it for this series. I know you all love a challenge so
>> please give it a shot and let me know how you did it so I can do the
>> other 150 shots PLEASE!!! Thanks in advance!!!
>>
>> -Pat
>
> Where's the attachment?

Binary attachments aren't allowed in this group.

David

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

spectrepjcook@yahoo.com (spectrepjcook@yahoo.com) wrote:
> Most of the digital pics I took underwater I took have a bad flash
> relection off the particulite in the water that made bad "bubbles"
> which distorted the image.

This is "backscatter," and you'll encounter it when using flash
underwater in "dirty" water. It think it's exacerbated by having
the flash on an axis close to that of the lens - i.e. a compact
camera will be worse than a big housing with the flash angled from
a pole on one side.

> Looking for any actions/filters/techniques to clean these up.

If you find any, let me know. I don't know of any, other than
maybe spending an awful lot of time retouching.

-Dan

--
Dan Birchall, Hilo HI - http://hilom.multiply.com/ - images, words, technology

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

On Sun, 02 Jan 2005 15:36:38 GMT, spectrepjcook@yahoo.com wrote:
> Please give a shot to correcting this attached photo. It was taken
> New Year's Day at Devil's Den, FL at 30ft of the fresh water spring.
> Most of the digital pics I took underwater I took have a bad flash
> relection off the particulite in the water that made bad "bubbles"
> which distorted the image. Looking for any actions/filters/techniques
> to clean these up. I already have a great underwater action that
> works PERFECT for salt water but doesn't do it for this series. I
> know you all love a challenge so please give it a shot and let me know
> how you did it so I can do the other 150 shots PLEASE!!! Thanks in
> advance!!!

'Twon't help you with this set of pictures. But,...

Using an 'outboard' flash will greatly reduce the 'bloom' you are
seeing from the 'in-line' combination of flash tube and lens.

Alternately, an opaque platic cover over the flash helps -- as seen
here:
http://ikelite.com/web_pages/cp3100.html

As well, selecting a camera that does Real Well in low light is
a big help. My Nikon CoolPix 2000 doesn't bother to flash until I am
well under 50 ft. on a sunny day, or during night dives (of course :-)

Lastly, learn good buoyancy control so that your flippers and other
gear do not stir up the bottom.


Well, I _can_ offer one suggestion for your existing "blooming problem".
For Very Important pictures -- where time and effort are `no object` --
you can bring them up in a good image editor (Gimp here) and clone
(copy) sections of the image over the worst of the bloom spots.

I used to do that when I first started out with U/W photography using
a simple housing for disposable 35MM cameras.
See:
http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/aqs3.html

Here you can view some of my pictures from the fairly pristine waters
of Bonaire. Except for the first 2, all of these pictures were taken
with the disposal 35MM + housing combo. On one or two of these I cleaned
up 1 or more distracting blooms:

http://jonz.net/Bonaire/BON-UW.html

Here you can view some of my pictures from the way less than pristine
waters of Anguilla. There are several blooms evident in a couple of
these pictures. Believe me: The visibility really was what these
pictures portray:

http://jonz.net/Anguilla/AXA-UW.html


HTH & HNY
Jonesy
--
| Marvin L Jones | jonz | W3DHJ | linux
| Gunnison, Colorado | @ | Jonesy | OS/2 __
| 7,703' -- 2,345m | config.com | DM68mn SK