Many of the commercial preset you can find out there are amazing, but a little unfit to quickly edit underwater shots. Perhaps because blues and greens are colors that tend to disappear a bit from the editing trends we see at the moment, perhaps because these presets were simply not meant for these kinds of images. Either way, I came to build my own underwater presets based on the water conditions I usually shoot in and the result I was after.
Just as with any image, editing is a very personal thing and there are as many ways to edit a photo as there are photographers. One could decide to keep a strong blue cast in their underwater image, which emphasizes the alien nature of the environment, can feel closer to reality, and paradoxically adds a dreamy atmosphere to an image. I personally have a preference for “surface like” skin tones. I like the contrast between the warmth of the skin and the variations of blue, and how it makes my couple pop; so that’s my primary focus when editing underwater sessions and images like this one.
The difficulty with this approach is that I need to push the temperature slider way (I mean WAY) up to obtain the skin tone I am after (i.e. not overly warm to the point where it’s just chokingly overdone, but warm enough to not feel blue anymore), but doing this makes the water look absolutely terrible! SO my to-go is usually to start with editing for skin tones regardless of the rest, and once I get to a result that I find pleasing, then I’ll focus on the blues by playing with the green, aqua, and blue sliders in the HSL Color panel in Lightroom. Depending on the atmosphere I am trying to achieve I will want them dense, thick and cold, or bright, clear, and inviting. In this particular shot I wanted something dreamy and mysterious that could evoke the blue hour/night sky, thus some very dark shades and shadows retained (to make the little white air bubble pop in contrast), but cozy and intimate, not hostile, thus pulling the luminance slider up for aqua, and down for blue.
From there things started to look exciting, the rest was fine-tuning and cleaning up. I used a bit of vignette to reinforce the intimate feel of my image and add more depth to it as the center became the brightest area of the image.
I used a dodging brush to enhance highlights on her face (cheekbones and forehead side), arms, and fingers to make them pop and lead the viewers’ eye to her kiss; I also highlighted his back and shoulders to strengthen light and curve lines that were already there. These brighter parts, in the midst of all the thick blue, are, in my view, was gives sensuality and sensibility to the image, revealing the couples’ love and connection through their body language.
I used a sharpening brush to add texture and crispness to the surface, accentuating the elemental divide in the composition and placing the couple in a sort of “in-between” state that gave the image a strong emotive and evocative feel.
And finally, I did some clean-up here and there, removing the bubbles I found distracting and other such details.
