Retouch your underwater photos with Photoshop!

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Retouch your underwater photos with Photoshop !

I am far from an expert in underwater photography. However for high quality photos, I definitely understand the importance of investing in a good compact waterproof camera as well as underwater housing for your camera (which are generally around the same price as the camera!).

Photos using the macro function (for up close) usually make pretty good photos with the flash, but when shooting more general shots in the water, pictures often come out saturated blue and gray and you lose the natural colors.

Fortunately I have a present for you ;-). My friend Lionel is a freelance graphic designer who is also a diver , who has dabbled with the automatic filter on photoshop to restore color to your photos without going through the same RAW format!

I recommend that you test this filter for your diving pictures and please let me your feedback in the comments below so that we can improve.

An example of a photo we retouched

Before retouching:

retouching photo of image underwater

After applying the filter:

retouch photo of image underwater

He named it DIVEFILTERS Photoshop’s Actions © www.pix-l.com in BETA ;-).

Click on the link below to download the script:

Retouch your underwater photos

Here is the Tutorial from Lionel:

How to use:
  1. Make sure your underwater camera is set on the layer setting ‘BACKGROUND’.
  2. Run the script on photoshop.
  3. At the end you will have a fixed layer on top, and below, hidden underneath your un-retouched (original) photo, so you can adjust the transparency of this layer, to find a color transition between the retouched photo and the original photo according to your taste.
tuto retouch underwater photo

Installation MAC/PC:

  1. Move the filter icon on your window open photoshop.
  2. Next, display the Actions window in the windows menu to find the filter installed in your photoshop.

The filter already changes quite a bit in the photos, but it is also possible to go even further if you are comfortable with ‘manual’ settings, so do not hesitate to ask for your requests or questions to Lionel, our “pro”.

And let me know what you think of the filter in the comments section below, we would love to hear your thoughts!

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8 comments on “Retouch your underwater photos with Photoshop!”

  1. the filter look like is working verywell the only problem I have my photoshop is in Inglish and I dont know how to change to show background copy 1 or 2 or 3 etc.etc.

  2. Had some issues getting this to work due to the base file having the French name plus the duplicate layers created were being named ‘copie’ instead of ‘copy’

    for those having similar issues, check out the script downloads on the adobe forums and simply edit the action file manually.

    http://forums.adobe.com/thread/696989

    Find and replace the ‘Arrière-plan’ ‘Arrière-plan copie’ etc to ‘background’ and ‘background copy’

    After I done this, the action ran perfectly in Photoshop. It’s saving so much time. Thanks!

  3. The link in Alex’s comment above has expired.
    Does anyone have the English version of the underwater colour correct atn file to share please?

  4. Im no Adobe expert but I did manage to translate this a few years back. Not certain the translation os perfect but here is a version that works

    LINK REMOVED

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