Bluegill in Rock Quarry

Love to get some feedback on this image, particularly color issues. Still new at UW photography and practicing for an upcoming trip to Bonaire.

Taken in a rock quarry in North Carolina at only about 7 feet deep. The water was very green - lots of algae covering submerged tree branches.

Canon S95 ISO400 1/250 6 mm; no strobe (sent to factory for repair). I know from a former post I used too high an ISO. I'll have to concentrate on avoiding that habit.

Processed primarily in LIghtroom with some cloning out of particulate matter in CS5.

Not sure how to improve on the green cast.

Thanks for any comments/constructive_criticism.

Hi : )

I like the shot how it is, but to my point of view you can darken the black, and play a bit with the gamma. Then a bit with the blue background if you want to do something about colors. But for color the best is to play with white balance in LR or Camera raw.

I can't use the raw images but from the JPEG I did a few things :

But then it's a matter of taste (and screens...). Maybe unsaturate a little my version

Thank you Autopsea. Regarding post processing, your version definitely gives better contrast. I'll play some more with the original RAW image in Lightroom and PS.

Regarding in camera WB setting, I read in Martin Edge's book that he takes an UW shot of a white or grey scuba tank or his palm or some other standard to help with white balance. I presume he uses automatic white balance.

Shooting RAW, is Automatic WB the best setting, if the UW subject is strobe illuminated - or should the setting be otherwise ?

Thanks for any thoughts on this matter.

There's not too much of a green cast for a freshwater image. It's often worth using the green background to distinguish the image from the typical tropical sea's blue-water background, anyway. One way to maximise contrast is to get as close as possible to the subject, but I rather like your image as it stands.

Tim

There's not too much of a green cast for a freshwater image. It's often worth using the green background to distinguish the image from the typical tropical sea's blue-water background, anyway. One way to maximise contrast is to get as close as possible to the subject, but I rather like your image as it stands.

 

Tim

 

I think it is a great shot but agree with the poster who suggested darkening the background in LR. It will definitely bring back some of the color and add more contrast.