Robert Herb Photography Blog

The Underwater Edit Clinic #7: When the Background Competes with the Subject Sometimes, the subject isn’t the problem.  That’s where underwater photographers can get themselves into trouble.   You look at the photograph and feel the subject isn't standing out enough, so you brighten it, add contrast, increase texture, boost the color, or make another adjustment.  But before you do, ask yourself: what if the subject was already working?   In this photograph, the turtle is clearly the main subject.  The exposure is working, the color looks believable, and the diver in the background adds context and helps tell the story.  There’s no need to push the turtle further.   The problem is elsewhere: a bright, colorful section of reef on the right side of the frame competes with the turtle for attention.  That changes the diagnosis, and the edit.   When the subject is already working, resist the urge to keep enhancing it. Instead, look for the parts of...

The overall edit was already working. The remaining decision was whether the entire photograph needed more adjustment or whether the seahorse alone needed stronger local emphasis. Real photographs. Real problems. Better decisions. Sometimes the hardest part of an underwater edit is recognizing that most of the photograph is already working. That is where this seahorse image became interesting. After I set the crop and worked through White Balance, Exposure, Presence, and Color, the photograph looked much better. But something was still missing. The seahorse did not command enough attention. At that point, the temptation is to keep pushing the entire photograph. Add more Contrast. Increase Texture or Clarity. Add more Saturation. Make everything a little stronger. But that would solve the wrong problem. The photograph did not need more impact everywhere. It needed more attention in the right place. Start by asking what is already working This is an important editing habit. ...

Not sure where to begin? Ask Bob helps you find the right starting point in my underwater photography lessons. Oceanic Explorers, For three and a half years, I’ve published an award-winning weekly blog to help you understand underwater photography and make more confident editing decisions. Many of you have told me how much you value these lessons. But as the collection has grown, a practical challenge has grown with it: Where do I start? Which article should I read first for what I’m trying to learn or fix? You might be working on a photo that still looks blue after White Balance. You might want to understand why your reef images look flat. Or you might simply want to learn the editing process in the right order. The lesson you need may already be here. Finding your starting point should be easier. That’s why I created Ask Bob: Find My Underwater Photo Fix . Think of it as a guide into my growing collection of underwater photography lessons. Tell it what you’re trying to understand or ...

When color draws attention to the edit rather than the photograph, back off. At some point in an underwater edit, adding more color stops improving the photograph and starts making it look unnatural. The White Balance is working. The exposure is working. The photograph has contrast, detail, and separation. The reef looks alive again. Then we make one more color adjustment. At first, it can feel like an improvement. The reds become stronger. The blue water becomes richer. The reef looks more dramatic. But look again. The red sponge is starting to feel too intense. The orange tones are becoming exaggerated. The water is beginning to compete with the subject. Instead of noticing the photograph, you begin noticing the edit. That is the moment to stop. When color draws attention to the edit rather than the photograph, back off. This week in The Underwater Edit Clinic , we are not trying to add more color. We are learning how to recognize when we have already gone too far. Diagn...

The Underwater Edit Clinic #4 explores what happens when the background is already working, but the diver still needs a different correction. Sometimes an underwater photograph reaches a point where most of the image is working, but one important part still is not. That is what happened with this photograph. After the normal global corrections, the blue water looked believable. The reef had enough structure. The lionfish fit naturally into the scene. But the diver still needed work. This is where an important editing decision appears: Do I keep changing the whole photograph, or has the remaining problem become local? That question is the heart of this Edit Clinic. Last week in The Underwater Edit Clinic #3: When the Subject Looks Right but the Water Doesn’t , we looked at the moment when the subject is right, but the water isn't. This week, we are taking that idea one step further: what happens when two important parts of the same photograph need different corrections? TUEC...