Reddit reviews The Underwater Photographer, Fourth Edition

Seeing as you say be gentle - I'm guessing you're looking for a little feedback.

So - there's some nice shots in there, and some so-so ones. I think you're post processing needs some work - you have photoshop so you have the tools.

In terms of the actual shots first - try to avoid shooting down, or shooting where you just have rooks in the background. Here, for example, the background isn't great. Yellow and blue are complimentary colours - so this fish would have looked stunning with a nice plain blue water background. Also - get close close close. If you can't shoot up, try maxing out your strobe and stopping down to blacken the background whilst lighting the fish.

Most of your shots are landscape and some could be improved with a little cropping.

Now for processesing. Did you white balance? Even with a strobe white balance helps. Your pictures could use more contrast to pull out the colours. Your blues are a little off (IMO and water colour is a quite subjective thing - I like deep blues - others may not so much). Play with the blue hue to deepen them a little. Also adjust the levels to get a nice even histogram.

I took the liberty of having a little play with a few of your pictures. Here's what I did.. Like I say you have some nice shots.

If you're serious about underwater photography and have the means - I would recommend these tutorials and this book

1. Be neutral as second nature before attempting. This takes everyone different amounts of time.
   
   
2. You don't really need to be taught this. In fact, I recommend not taking a photography class but there are a few great books on Amazon about it, I cannot recommend all three of these enough, but if you had to get one get Martin Edge's book, "The Underwater Photographer."
   
   The Underwater Photographer
   
   Underwater Photography
   
   Winning Images with Any Underwater Camera
   
   
3. Most cameras will also take video.
   
   
4. Yes, my housing for my a6000 takes a lot of maintenance to keep working correctly and protecting the camera/lens. The strobe takes maintenance too.
   
   
5. The tint is from a red filter. The red filter causes the camera's WB settings to compensate for the loss of red at depth. I hate filters and use lights.
   
   
6. I prefer photographs. Framing, lighting, exposure, timing... and you get details that I prefer over movement. If I had a decent stabilizing program I'd take more vids maybe.
   
   Red Sea Fish
   
   I shoot a Sony a6000 in an Ikelite case using a manually slaved Sea and Sea strobe. It gives me RAW photos and does just about anything a DSLR will give me in a much smaller package. I shoot single strobe for the hard shadows and contrasts. I started with a GoPro but it sucked at photos. Then I upped my game to a little Canon point-and-shoot in an Ikelite case that had a diffuser card for the flash. It would have served me just fine for a long, LONG time but RAW is really necessary for effective post.
   
   

This is a great read. Even if you dont plan to get into it, once you see what is involved in taking a good picture underwater you will look at them a diffrent way.