Robert Herb Photography Blog

A photo-realistic underwater photography header image illustrating masking and selective adjustments in Adobe Lightroom. The image shows a marine subject isolated from the background using AI Select Subject, linear gradients, and radial masks, demonstrating how selective adjustments refine underwater photos without over-processing. When, Why, and How to Refine Underwater Photos Without Overdoing It If you've been following the Back-to-Basics series so far, you're already familiar with how to create a strong underwater image using global adjustments. You know why white balance should be addressed first, how exposure and tone influence the light in your frame, how presence and detail tools can either bring out textures or, if used improperly, diminish them, and how color controls are essential for restoring realism underwater. At this point, your image should already be looking quite good. It's important to remember that masking isn't about fixing poorly taken images. Ins...

Understanding what carries over, and what doesn’t,  when editing still photos and underwater video in Lightroom Back to Basics – Part 5E: Still Photos vs Video in Lightroom What Carries Over and What Doesn’t If you’ve been following the Back to Basics series up to this point, you already have a solid understanding of how Lightroom works for still photographs. You’re familiar with the order of operations, how White Balance sets the foundation, how exposure and tone influence light, and how presence and detail tools can either enhance an image or quietly ruin it. Then you try to edit a video. Suddenly, many of the tools you rely on are missing. Sliders behave differently. Advanced features you depend on for still photos simply aren’t available. For many Oceanic Explorers, this is where frustration begins to creep in. This part exists to prevent that frustration. Part 5E isn’t about turning you into a professional video editor. Instead, it’s about helping you understand why Ligh...

Subtle use of Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze  restores depth and presence in underwater  images without pushing them into an  overprocessed look. Back to Basics – Part 5D Presence, Texture, Clarity & Dehaze: Adding Impact Without Overprocessing There comes a point in every underwater photographer’s editing process when sliders start to feel like magic wands. A slight adjustment can make coral color pop, add depth to wrecks, or make light beams appear almost tangible. But push too far, and the image can quickly fall apart. This is precisely the realm of Part 5D. In this stage of the Lightroom workflow, tools like Texture, Clarity, and Dehaze can be game-changers, transforming an image from good to truly extraordinary. Underwater, these tools are especially potent because water naturally diminishes contrast, detail, and depth. However, wielded without care, they can also make images look overly harsh, noisy, or unnatural. This lesson isn’t about indiscriminately cranking ...