Thanks @Troporobo I‘m also quite happy with the output considering that my app is still in early beta stadium

Photo by @bvanant (shot as RAW).

The straight-out-of-camera RAW had the typical olive/yellow cast of temperate water and looked flat. I went for a natural look rather than a heavy one:

- Underwater auto-correction as the starting point, then fine-tuned white balance to get the reef back to neutral and bring out the red and pink encrusting life

- Pulled back highlights to keep detail in the tentacle tips

- Two local masks: one to lift the anemone a little, one to tone down the bright out-of-focus growth in the foreground

- Moderate, edge-masked sharpening, so the tentacles are crisp at 100 % while the background stays clean and free of grain

The before/after images show the full frame and a 100 % crop.

Feedback welcome, especially on color: does the reef look natural to you?

Feedback as always more than welcome :)

Photo by @humu9679 (as Raw)

the water looked flat cyan and the shell came out mint green. I wanted a natural open-ocean look:

- Manual white balance instead of the auto correction, to get a deep, clean ocean blue

- Point Color on the shell only, shifting it from mint to its natural olive-gold without touching the water

- subject mask on the turtle for local contrast and clarity, with no color shift, so there are no halos in the water between the flippers and the body

- Gradients to deepen the water at the bottom and calm the bright surface

- Moderate, edge-masked sharpening: the scale pattern on the head and flippers is crisp at 100 %, and the water stays clean

The before/after images show the full frame and a 100 % crop of the head.

Again feel free to tell me what you like and what not.

This helps me to upgrade my skills and optimize my app :)

Edited October 13Oct 13 by Jurgen

12 hours ago, Jurgen said:

Photo by @humu9679 (as Raw)

the water looked flat cyan and the shell came out mint green. I wanted a natural open-ocean look:

- Manual white balance instead of the auto correction, to get a deep, clean ocean blue

- Point Color on the shell only, shifting it from mint to its natural olive-gold without touching the water

- subject mask on the turtle for local contrast and clarity, with no color shift, so there are no halos in the water between the flippers and the body

- Gradients to deepen the water at the bottom and calm the bright surface

- Moderate, edge-masked sharpening: the scale pattern on the head and flippers is crisp at 100 %, and the water stays clean

The before/after images show the full frame and a 100 % crop of the head.

Again feel free to tell me what you like and what not.

This helps me to upgrade my skills and optimize my app :)

The water looks really good. Maybe oversaturated on the turtle. Here's my take. This was shot with a Olympus TG-5, RAW capture, likely set for underwater color balance existing light. Processed in Lightroom, as below.

Edited October 14Oct 14 by humu9679
correction

Hi @humu9679

Thanks for you feedback, with the water I am quite happy about the saturation on the turtle yeah maybe I put I little too much saturation on.

Thanks for sharing also your lightroom process. Very nice photo

@humu9679

You were absolutely right! I fixed the colour. How didn't I see that yesterday night? 😅

The water was fine, but the turtle was clearly oversaturated: the shell had gone neon yellow-green, and the flippers and head were still teal from the water. Here's what I changed in DepthLight:

- Color Mixer: green saturation down from −25 to −81. That alone took most of the neon out of the shell.
- Auto Mask on the turtle only: restored some of the red that the water absorbs, warmed it up slightly and pulled saturation down by 30. The flippers and head now come out grey-brown, the way a green turtle really looks, instead of cyan.
- Hard mask edge plus a small subtraction in the water gap between flipper and neck, so there's no colour fringe around the turtle at 100 %.

The water stays exactly as it was. Only the turtle changed.

this was my workflow in my app.

Happy to hear if it looks more natural to you now!

5 hours ago, Jurgen said:

@humu9679

You were absolutely right! I fixed the colour. How didn't I see that yesterday night? 😅

The water was fine, but the turtle was clearly oversaturated: the shell had gone neon yellow-green, and the flippers and head were still teal from the water. Here's what I changed in DepthLight:

- Color Mixer: green saturation down from −25 to −81. That alone took most of the neon out of the shell.
- Auto Mask on the turtle only: restored some of the red that the water absorbs, warmed it up slightly and pulled saturation down by 30. The flippers and head now come out grey-brown, the way a green turtle really looks, instead of cyan.
- Hard mask edge plus a small subtraction in the water gap between flipper and neck, so there's no colour fringe around the turtle at 100 %.

The water stays exactly as it was. Only the turtle changed.

this was my workflow in my app.

Happy to hear if it looks more natural to you now!

That looks perfect to me! It's just a very average photo in my opinion.

Hi guys what you think about this little new feature I added yesterday?

It's called SmartPoints, activate it and click the spot you want to change. The adjustment spreads only to similar colours and tones nearby and fades out softly. Click the blue water to deepen it, and the fish in front stays untouched.

- Quick bar at the point with Exposure, Contrast, Saturation, Warmth and Texture.

- Drag to set the reach. Double-click picks the reach automatically.

- Each click is its own point. ⇧-click adds an area to the selected point, and ⌥-click protects similar colors.

- With a depth map, the point can be limited to similar distances.

Fully non-destructive, and every step can be undone.

https://depthlight-site-c9a456.gitlab.io/smartpoint.html?lang=en

What's you think about?

I forgot, there is now also Black & White, made for underwater.
One key (V) turns any photo into black and white, and an underwater-aware auto mix darkens the water and lifts the subject, set per photo.

- An 8-band gray mixer, toning via Color Grading and three looks (Wreck, Shark / Sun rays, Macro) let you fine-tune every tone, and masks and Smart Points keep working.

- Light, form and texture take over: no more fighting green water or a blue cast.

- See the before/after and all settings here: https://depthlight-site-c9a456.gitlab.io/blackwhite.html