This may be a very simple question for those in the know... but as someone pretty new to this, I would appreciate some advice. We (Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources) are thinking of changing over from using video to digital stills for our benthic monitoring. We'll mostly be working in clear water at 40' or shallower and taking multiple shots of the reef at fairly close range (approx image size will be 40*60cm), and, if possible, we would like to avoid using strobes or other lighting - we don't need perfect color, as we just need to identify things in the pictures, but fairly good color does help. As I understand it, the camera we will probably use has a white-balance function which we can use, but for now we also have some older digital images which we would like to do some sort of post-processing on to improve their color-balance.
So, the question is, what software would people recommend for that - and, even better, can anyone give specific directions on the adjustments to make to different parameters (for example in Photoshop). I'm hoping that there are some standard adjustments for e.g. 30', 40', 50' - noting again that we are in pretty clear water here (100'+ viz).
Any other general tips on what to do and/or what to avoid in all this would also be much appreciated. As I mention above, perfect images are not necessary, and there are big benefits for us in keeping it simple and reducing the equipment we need to carry (so, if we can do it, we really would like not having to use lights).
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.
Ivor
