The Underwater Edit Clinic #3: When the Subject Looks Right but the Water Doesn’t
The Underwater Edit Clinic #3: When the Subject Looks Right but the Water Doesn’t. Learn when to stop making global adjustments and correct only the part of the photograph that still needs work. Sometimes an underwater edit reaches an awkward point. The White Balance looks reasonable. The exposure is close. The main subject looks believable. But something still feels wrong. In this photograph, the foreground coral is beginning to work. It has color, texture, and enough tonal separation to hold your attention. The water does not. It still looks pale, cyan, and visually weak. This is where many underwater photographers make the next mistake. They keep adjusting the entire photograph. But once part of the photograph is already working, the entire photograph may no longer be the problem. That changes the decision. The question is no longer: What slider should I move next? The better question is: Is the whole photograph still wrong, or is only part of it wrong? That is what we are going to ...
