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How to adjust custom white balance in underwater photographs when max tint is 150?

New Here ,
Mar 16, 2020 Mar 16, 2020

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IMG_5607.JPGCaptura de pantalla 2020-03-18 a les 11.05.07.pngI am having trouble using the custom WB tool on my underwater photographs because Lightroom has a maximum for the red value of tint which is 150.

 

I know the WB is not correct because when I import my photos to Lightroom I can see how they should be for a few seconds, before Lightroom changes the colours to all of them. I am shooting in RAW. 

 

Why does Lightroom not keep the colours as I can see them just when I import the photos or in Finder? And how can I change the tint limitation? Or does anyone know any other program I could use better to work with my underwater photos?

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Community Expert ,
Mar 16, 2020 Mar 16, 2020

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Add a tone curve adjustment-

See (in particular) the chapter headed "Using Color Curves" in this article-

https://digital-photography-school.com/make-color-adjustments-using-tone-curves-lightroom/

Regards. My System: Lightroom-Classic 13.2 Photoshop 25.5, ACR 16.2, Lightroom 7.2, Lr-iOS 9.0.1, Bridge 14.0.2, Windows-11.

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New Here ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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Thanks. This helped a bit. But still the main problem is that the photos are very greenish in general, and though they are closer now to what they should be, i wonder why Lightroom has this limitation and can't restore completely the custom WB.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 16, 2020 Mar 16, 2020

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Try the controls in the Calibration panel at the bottom of the Develop module panel stack on the right. The Calibration panel should give you a wider range of potential color adjustments. If you find that most of your underwater photos need similar adjustments in that panel, you could create a preset or a DNG profile of them, so that you can apply it in Lightroom Classic in one click, as described in this link:

https://wetpixel.com/articles/tutorial-creating-custom-camera-calibration-profiles-in-lightroom

 

I don’t do underwater photography, so I’m only passing along those ideas in case they help. I got the link from a web search.

 

I think the Temp and Tint value ranges are limited so that you can more easily control fine white balance adjustments for typical (not shot undewater) images.

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New Here ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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Already playing with the Calibration panel to help. It does help, but can't restore completely the problem. Photos are still too blue or green if thewy are taken too deep underwater.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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If photos are “too blue or green when taken too deep underwater,” that’s consistent with what I’ve read online about this problem. You probably know this already, but past 15-20 feet depth, the water itself filters out the longest (red) wavelengths of light, and by 25 feet or so there isn’t any more orange, leaving just blue and green. That’s probably why it’s so hard to get red or magenta back into the image: There might be so little red data color in the scene that pushing sliders all the way in Lightroom can’t lift it up enough to balance the color.

 

But you said the photos look a lot better in the Finder. That means the JPEG preview attached to the images may have some kind of red compensation that was applied inside the camera. Were you using a special underwater color setting in the camera? If so, it would be interesting to know what that does.

 

If the problem is caused by the photos having almost no red pixel information to boost, there are a few more ideas to try:

  • Send the raw file to Photoshop, and use the Channel Mixer panel to take information from the green and blue channels, and redirect them into the red channel to build it up.
  • Go diving with red lights or a red filter on the lens. That won't fix the pictures you already took, but that’s what I’ve read that serious underwater photographers do to add back the red that is absent below 20 feet.

 

The custom camera profile idea others are discussing should help, but I wonder if a near-total absence of red light might limit the effectiveness of a color target.

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New Here ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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Yes, exactly. The JPG preview is perfect and I would love to work on Lightroom from that image, but as soon as I import the images they loose all the red and become green and blue when the JPG was correct and only needed a little contrast, saturation etc work done. When shooting underwater I always do a custom WB. I bring a white slate with me, and restore the WB as soon as I change my depth. So, for example, when looking at my images from the camera, the colors are what they should be and I wonder why do I loose all this information when I import them. 

 

Thanks so much for your help so far.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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Try this: add a graduated filter over the image and drag the filter all the way down, so the filtered part covers the entire image. Now you have an extra Tint slider to add magenta to your existing WB setting. You can duplicate this filter if it's still not enough.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

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New Here ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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I am gonna try it. Could you please walk me through it with a bit more details?

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Community Expert ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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There is little to walk through. Add a graduated filter. Drag it all the way down so it covers the entire image. Then adjust the Tint slider in that filter.

-- Johan W. Elzenga

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Community Expert ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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Could you post an example of the file raw to jpeg without changes here, so I can see the problem and then give some advice on how to fix it. Without a sample picture, it is very hard to say how you can alter the white balance.

 

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New Here ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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Captura de pantalla 2020-03-18 a les 11.05.07.pngIMG_5607.JPG

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New Here ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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As you can see in the images below, the WB in the JPG image is correct and in the RAW one is not. I did screenshot the whole screen so you can see no matter what I do, the tint for red (whre you can set the WB) is already at it's limit.

 

No matter what I try, the JPG result is better so I ask myself why am I shooting RAW if this causes me so much trouble.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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I think it is just a matter of balancing your tint and temp sliders.

Just as an example from your screenshot and opening in Photoshop and using Camera Raw Filter I can get this:

 

Captura de pantalla 2020-03-18 a les 11.05.07WB.png

 

As this is from your screenshot and using Camera Raw Filter I used these settings: Temp +26 tint +70

More like your JPEG isn't it?

 

You say the JPEG is what it should be right? So more of a purple colour like this?

Lightroom is using the raw file, so settings from the JPEG are excluded. This is what you need to do yourself. The advantage of JPEG is that it takes the work out of doing it yourself. The advantage of using raw is that you can do everything yourself and gives you more flexibility in altering colour tones, exposure, WB and so on!

 

 

 

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New Here ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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So maybe using Photoshop would be a solution? Because using Lightroom, when I finally get to have a closer result using calibration, HSL, Tone Curves, it takes me so much time for each photo.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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No, Lightroom is capable. I had to use Photoshop here as I'm not working with a raw file. The Camera Raw File filter works as if the JPEG were a raw file.

Perhaps you can upload a link of your raw file to Dropbox or something like that so I can have a look at it and see what the problem is.

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Community Expert ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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or PM me...

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LEGEND ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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You may have to finish color grading in photoshop.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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You can use the Adobe DNG Profile Editor at the below link to create a custom camera profile with extended Temp and Tint range. Refer to page 8 of the PDF file for instructions. Since you're issue is with ultraviolet light you'll need to use the opposite settings. You want to go adjust the White Balance Calibration settings in the DNG Profile Editor to the opposite direction of the WB slider settings you're using now. This will "shift" the WB range where you need it to be.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions.


The DNG Profile Editor is a free software utility for creating or editing camera profiles.

Read more (PDF, 3.93 MB)
Download:  MacWin

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LEGEND ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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What you need to do is create a custom DCP Camera profile, done underwater (target in waterproof plastic bag). The 'limitations' are based upon the actual profile and a custom profile might allow you to achieve what you wish. 

Author “Color Management for Photographers" & "Photoshop CC Color Management/pluralsight"

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Advocate ,
Apr 06, 2020 Apr 06, 2020

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This would be my solution for your issue also.

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LEGEND ,
Mar 17, 2020 Mar 17, 2020

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Did you try the graduated brush reccomendation?

 

Point of using an adjustment brush, including the graduation brush, is you can make adjustments past what general edit sliders provide.

 

The graduated brush is very helpfull in this

 

Thing is, to apply the graduated brush in a different manner than normal. Start the brush very near a corner and drag out of frame right thru the corner. This creates a so.id mask in frame (graduation occurs out if frame). tyen use the filters sliders.

 

 

 

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New Here ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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IMG_5607.JPGCaptura de pantalla 2020-03-18 a les 11.05.07.png

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LEGEND ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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Please try the Adobe DNG Profile Editor as suggested in my previous post. Follow Step 1, 2, & 3 in that order as shown below to create and save the new custom camera profile. Restart LR to load the new camera profile and go to the profile selector (four squares icon). Select the new custom profile and adjust WB as required.

 

DNG Profile Editor - Underwater.jpg

 

Here's an example:

DNG Profile Editor - Underwater-2.jpg

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LEGEND ,
Mar 18, 2020 Mar 18, 2020

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"Point of using an adjustment brush, including the graduation brush, is you can make adjustments past what general edit sliders provide."

David, unfortunately this does not work for the Temp and Tint controls. When the Basic panel WB sliders are pushed to the maximum 50,000 and +150 settings or minimum 2000 and -150 settings the Local controls do not extend their range. Give it a try.

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