Geology in a rock pool

[Geoff F]

Tried a seascape scene today, but not totally successful due to the weather; more on this at another time. However, I noticed some interesting pebbles etc in shallow rock pools so just tried a few experimental shots. Natural placement of the objects with no changes from me. Just quick handheld shots.





Not entirely perfect results; more of an initial experiment. Pebbles on the beach were covered in fine sand and looked rather tatty but those underwater seemed so clean and fresh.

Obviously shooting through water was going to cause some problems, even shallow water. But I will have another go sometime.

Possibly I need to show more of the pool edges to make it obvious that the stones are underwater. Maybe a merge of exposures and focus etc. Different lighting conditions will probably produce variable results.

Shadows from nearby objects caused uneven lighting on the water and any small object which was part in and part exposed also looked unnatural, so I had several complete failures.

Any thoughts?

[Shadowman]

Nice concept, I couldn't tell from looking that they are underwater. Do you want to show reflections, moistness, etc.? I would do a contrast adjustment but perhaps you aren't interested in changing what you viewed.

[chauncey]

I might suggest that you take a duck/swan/beaver picture...delete the critter, use the water on a layer
over the one you have at a lowered opacity. Maybe color correction will be needed.

[Geoff F]

I have slightly tweaked the brightness and saturation during conversion from Raw but left it at that in order to demonstrate the almost as shot starting point.

Probably an adjustment layer with blend mode at soft light or multiply etc selectively applied with a mask will be something to experiment with later.

Showing that it is obviously underwater is something which I'm thinking about. This is an exposed shoreline so there isn't much weed etc growing in the pools.

[IzzieK]

I have slightly tweaked the brightness and saturation during conversion from Raw but left it at that in order to demonstrate the almost as shot starting point.

Probably an adjustment layer with blend mode at soft light or multiply etc selectively applied with a mask will be something to experiment with later.

Showing that it is obviously underwater is something which I'm thinking about. This is an exposed shoreline so there isn't much weed etc growing in the pools.

I thought so! I like the placements and colour of the stones. Just like me, I would also be interested in bringing home some if I can get away with it...decorate my garden with them... Good clear shots.

[Geoff F]

If I add a Soft Light Adjustment Layer and a little bit of fiddling around with curves I do come up with a stronger result which overcomes the underwater look; but I'm not really sure whether to go for a 'dry look' or to emphasise the rock pool effect next time.

[ajohnw]

I had a play - aid to dinner and wine going down.



Maybe too much? One of my applications has a flatten brightness distribution control. It does what it says on the box, the histogram flattens. I think this is a contrast mask in other PP package terms. That on it's own can improve things like this. If a lot is used the next step in the same package is called tone mapping. It has a contrast curve and the default setting applies most to mid time and near zero to high and low contrast levels. I believe this is what clarity does in other package. Only difference is that I can alter the shape of the curve - a flat line across the tone range behaves like sensible normal "tone mapping". I then used a slight inverted S curve to tone it down a little as I went too far. Afraid I clipped the blacks a little. A slight increase in colour saturation was also applied.

The same technique is effective on glass and mist.

John
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