A well known problem with taking underwater pictures is that the pictures have a tendency to lack in contrast and especially in color. A lot of pictures turn out to be a variation in blue. The deeper you go the bigger the problem gets. There is a simple solution but that is a solution that costs a lot of money: buy powerful underwater strobes. Another solution is to do (extensive) post processing to bring some color and contrast back. Often the only solution if even powerful strobes are insufficient to lighten the whole object.
Welcome to Curacao Diving Paradise
Playa Forti and Daaibooi - 2 dive sites with sponges
To continue our 2-tank dives to the Western part of the island my dive buddy and I planned a dive at Playa Forti, also known as Sweet Alice, almost at the most Western tip of the island and a second dive at Daaibooi, more in the middle of the island. Both sites have a lot of nice sponges.
Westpunt and Lagun - a 2-tank dive
My dive buddy recently found out that we didn't do any dive in the most Western part of the island this year. Although the island is small, driving from where I live to the most Western part of the island takes about 1 hour, so when you live in the Eastern part and want to dive in the Western part it is often a good idea to make 2 dives instead of only 1. Our choice for these 2 dives were Playa Piskadó at Westpunt for the first dive and Playa Lagun for the second dive.
Coral Spawning 2013 - Snakebay
September is always the month that Coral Spawning can be expected in Curaçao. A few years ago I participated in the yearly repeated research by Reef Care Curaçao of this phenomena. Purpose of that research was to gather sufficient data to get to a reasonably reliable prediction of the dates of the yearly coral spawning. In 2013 the prediction was that coral spawning would occur in the period of 22 to 28 September.
Underwater photography - getting even better results
In my previous article I showed how you could improve the quality of the pictures that you made under water by following a few simple guidelines and by simple editing. In this article I will show you that you can get even better pictures by applying more advanced editing techniques. I am using Photoshop CS5 with adjustment layers for non-destructuve editing. I am aware of the fact that GIMP doesn't have adjustment layers. Although not equivalent an option in GIMP is to duplicate the most recent layer for each step to apply the next step to. As said, not the same as an adjustment layer, but at least you are able to go back a step if you need to. The biggest problem with this approach is that you have to redo your steps if you decide that an effect in one of the previous layers is not exactly right.