Underwater Photography

While in Qamea in Fiji, we took some underwater shots of the reef using our Panasonic Lumix DMC T53.

The Panasonic is actually underwater camera number 2. Our first, a Fuji died a horrible death at the hands of the operator – seems SOMEONE didn’t lock the water tight door well enough before going snorkeling in Soma Soma. The Admiral made sure that everyone knew who SOMEONE was. The Captain got just revenge when the Admiral fell into the pool when returning back to the boat at the Natadola resort with both the cell phone AND our Canon S95 in her purse – they both died as well. Of course SOMEONE didn’t make a big deal about it like SOME people did about the Fuji.  Actually, the Admiral has trashed two Canon S95’s and one cell phone compared to the Captain’s one cheapy Fuji (which probably had a defective seal) – but then who’s counting.  Anyway – back to the story.

I posted the original pictures in the post “Qamea 2”. I am inserting two of them here for reference purposes:

I was never really happy with the quality. Really not the cameras fault. Underwater shots simply lose a lot of contrast and coloration – the unedited results simply don’t do the real thing justice.

This morning Steve Dashew sent me some of the same photos that Michael Jones was kind enough to pull from my blog and run thru Photoshop.

The result really does the reef justice. It still wasn’t really lit up due to rain, wind and slightly murky water, but you can well imagine just how beautiful it was under optimal conditions.

Thank you Michael – I am hoping that you will divulge your secret Photoshop formula.