Underwater color correction

Underwater color correction is the process of putting back the colors that water removes from a photo or video. Water absorbs red light first, then orange and yellow, so the deeper and further you shoot, the bluer or greener the picture gets. Correcting it means rebalancing the color channels so reds, skin tones and coral look the way you saw them.

Why do underwater photos turn blue or green?

Water absorbs the long wavelengths of light first. Red goes first, then orange, then yellow, while blue and green travel furthest. That is also why the ocean looks blue: NOAA explains that water absorbs colors in the red part of the spectrum.

Two more things push the color off:

• Distance counts too. Light travels down to your subject and then back to the camera. Every meter of water between the lens and the subject filters color and adds haze and backscatter.
• Green water is a different problem. Plankton, algae and dissolved matter give coastal and temperate water a green cast. Clear, open ocean water looks blue.

How deep does each color reach?

A common rule of thumb for clear water:

These are rough figures. Murky or green water loses color faster, and a photo taken 3 m away at 5 m depth has already lost more red than the depth alone suggests.

How to get better color while you dive

1. Get close, then closer. Fill the frame from under 1 m. Less water in the way means more color and less haze.
2. Shoot shallow and around midday. The shallower you are and the higher the sun, the more color is left in the light.
3. Keep the sun behind you and angle the camera slightly upward for a clean blue background.
4. Use the right filter. In blue water a red filter works with sunlight from roughly 5 m to about 15 m. In green water use a magenta filter. Never use a red filter with video lights or strobes, or everything turns red or purple.
5. On a GoPro, set Protune to Flat. The Flat color profile keeps more room for color correction later than Vibrant does.

How to fix underwater color after the dive

There are three common ways, from most work to least:

Step by step in VividSea

1. Open a photo or, on iPhone, a video clip. Auto color is on by default: it reads the shot's own pixels and restores the reds and contrast the water took.
2. Adjust the Auto slider if you want it subtler. Around 75% looks natural on most shallow green shots.
3. Optionally add a look (for example Midwater for open blue, Mystery for caves) and set its strength. Or set your depth and water type and let the app suggest one.
4. Drag the before/after handle to check, then save at full resolution. The capture date and location are kept.

Auto color is free. Batch editing for up to 50 photos, video grading and the full set of 50+ looks are part of VividSea Pro. To try Auto color on one photo without installing anything, use the free browser tool.

Get VividSea for iPhone Get it on Google Play

Common questions

Can you fix a photo that is completely blue?

Partly. If the red channel still has some detail, it can be brought back. Below about 20 m without lights there is very little red left to recover, so the result looks more neutral than colorful. Shooting closer or using a strobe helps more than any edit.

Should I use a red filter or fix it later?

Both work. A filter helps in blue water between roughly 5 and 15 m with sunlight. Outside that range, with lights, or in green water with the wrong filter, correcting afterwards is safer because you can always undo it.

Why do LUTs alone often look wrong on dive photos?

A LUT applies the same color change to every image. Underwater shots vary a lot with depth, distance and water type, so a single LUT overcooks some and barely touches others. Correcting each photo first, then adding a look, gives more consistent results. That is how VividSea works.

Sources

• NOAA National Ocean Service, Why is the ocean blue?
• Depth figures are a widely used dive photography rule of thumb for clear water, not precise measurements.

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