Since you probably want to maintain the bluish tint to some extent, an automatic fix is probably not going to work for you.

What are you trying to correct?

Are you adjusting the brightness and/or contrast? Are you trying to add or remove color vibrance? Are you trying to remove or pull back on the bluish tint?

As I suggested, you probably don't want to strip out the blue completely or it won't look like you're underwater.

So what look are you trying to get?

I think you're gong to have the best outcome using color look-up tables (CLUTs), which are available in the Enhance section of the Fix / Enhance window.

To my eye, Autumn Forest and Harvest Farm bring out the color in the dolphins better, because they are tinting the whole color palatte towards orange/red which helps when blue/green is the overwhelming color. You may want to cut the clip and fade/transition to a normal color section when you pop out of the water if you don't like the color changes there.

Also, I just discovered that sharing video clips with Google Photos turns out to be a bad idea!

I downloaded the clip, and thought I had somehow set PD's preview quality to Low or Normal because I kept seeing a really blocky image, especially when I paused.

I then used MediaInfo to get a detailed look at your clip's specifics, and saw that the bitrate was under 4Mbps and the file size was just 13MB! So unless you converted your 209MB clip to a low quality version for uploading, Google Photos decided to do that for us and casually discarded 90% of the details from that epic encounter

Here's the clip I downloaded. I know that Google Drive will store and allow downloading of the full (unreprocessed) versions.

YouTube/optodata

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Quote Since you probably want to maintain the bluish tint to some extent, an automatic fix is probably not going to work for you.

What are you trying to correct?

Are you adjusting the brightness and/or contrast? Are you trying to add or remove color vibrance? Are you trying to remove or pull back on the bluish tint?

As I suggested, you probably don't want to strip out the blue completely or it won't look like you're underwater.

So what look are you trying to get?

Yes, I do want to retain the bluish tint. I really want to bring out the dolphins, maybe more contrast/highlights? They blend in with the water at this point, I want them to really be the focus - sharpen maybe? DirectorSuite 365 | Win 11 Home | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX with Radeon Graphics 3301 Mhz, 8 cores, 16 logical processors | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 2TB SSD

The CLUT tool also has a Compare in split preview option, and the left is the "original" (but very crappy quality) color and the right is with Harvest Farm applied:



YouTube/optodata

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Quote I think you're gong to have the best outcome using color look-up tables (CLUTs), which are available in the Enhance section of the Fix / Enhance window.

To my eye, Autumn Forest and Harvest Farm bring out the color in the dolphins better, because they are tinting the whole color palatte towards orange/red which helps when blue/green is the overwhelming color. You may want to cut the clip and fade/transition to a normal color section when you pop out of the water if you don't like the color changes there.

Also, I just discovered that sharing video clips with Google Photos turns out to be a bad idea!

I downloaded the clip, and thought I had somehow set PD's preview quality to Low or Normal because I kept seeing a really blocky image, especially when I paused.

I then used MediaInfo to get a detailed look at your clip's specifics, and saw that the bitrate was under 4Mbps and the file size was just 13MB! So unless you converted your 209MB clip to a low quality version for uploading, Google Photos decided to do that for us and casually discarded 90% of the details from that epic encounter

Here's the clip I downloaded. I know that Google Drive will store and allow downloading of the full (unreprocessed) versions.

I just looked at the Autumn Forest and Harvest Farm, they look better than what I have. Still not quite right though. I want the dolphins to really stand out.

I didn't know that about Google Photos, thank you for the tip. Here it is on my Google Drive Dolphin clip
Would you see if that's better? DirectorSuite 365 | Win 11 Home | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX with Radeon Graphics 3301 Mhz, 8 cores, 16 logical processors | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 2TB SSD

Quote The CLUT tool also has a Compare in split preview option, and the left is the "original" (but very crappy quality) color and the right is with Harvest Farm applied:

I just updated my original post with the clip, this time from Google Drive instead of Photos. Should be better quality.

Yes, I found the split screen feature, it helps a lot! DirectorSuite 365 | Win 11 Home | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX with Radeon Graphics 3301 Mhz, 8 cores, 16 logical processors | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 2TB SSD

Thanks for the full clip!

I think you'll also want to play around with Split Toning and HDR Effect. You'll probably also need keyframes to adjust the settings as the dolphins swim past, since the lighting changes so much. Here's what I came up with to really help the pod stand out:



I've packed my project with those exact settings, which you can download from this OneDrive folder. It has a full copy of your clip included, too.

If you have ColorDirector, using that is another option, especially for adjusting and tuning the finer aspects here.

YouTube/optodata

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Quote Thanks for the full clip!

I think you'll also want to play around with Split Toning and HDR Effect. You'll probably also need keyframes to adjust the settings as the dolphins swim past, since the lighting changes so much. Her's what I came up with to really help the pod stand out:



I've packed my project with those exact settings, which you can download from this OneDrive folder. It has a full copy of your clip included, too.

If you have ColorDirector, using that is another option, especially for adjusting and tuning the finer aspects here.

That's beautiful! I don't know anything about Split Toning and HDR. I'll see if I can find a tutorial on those. I don't have Color Director, I'll see if I can try it out for free. Thank you so much! DirectorSuite 365 | Win 11 Home | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX with Radeon Graphics 3301 Mhz, 8 cores, 16 logical processors | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 2TB SSD

Quote That's beautiful! I don't know anything about Split Toning and HDR. I'll see if I can find a tutorial on those. I don't have Color Director, I'll see if I can try it out for free. Thank you so much!

I think you'll probably be able to get the clip looking more like you want just from within PD. Watching tutorials, and simply experimenting with those tools would be good ways to go.

CD Is a product that you can buy on its own or get as part of DirectorSuite. There is a 30 day trial version that you can download, so there's no risk in trying it out.

EDIT: I just double-checked the limitations, and you won't be able to edit your clip unless you reduce it to HD (1920x1080) first. Your GoPro clip is considered 2k (2704x1520), and the trial version won't let you import it. Sorry!

YouTube/optodata

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Hi Myemerald -

Before I checked out what optdata had done in his PDR & CDR projects, I made some adjustments only in PDR's Fix/Enhance. The settings are shown in the attached screenshot.



Then I looked at the projects optodata provided.

Here is a preset (called optodata1) made directly from the adjustments he made in CDR. You can download it into your PDR in the Fix/Enhance module.

Not that it needed improving, but I made a few modifications and uploaded it as another preset - called optodata (modified). Maybe it could be de-saturated a bit.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote Hi Myemerald -

Before I checked out what optdata had done in his PDR & CDR projects, I made some adjustments only in PDR's Fix/Enhance. The settings are shown in the attached screenshot.



Then I looked at the projects optodata provided.

Here is a preset (called optodata1) made directly from the adjustments he made in CDR. You can download it into your PDR in the Fix/Enhance module.

Not that it needed improving, but I made a few modifications and uploaded it as another preset - called optodata (modified). Maybe it could be de-saturated a bit.

Cheers - Tony

Wow! Thank you so much! DirectorSuite 365 | Win 11 Home | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX with Radeon Graphics 3301 Mhz, 8 cores, 16 logical processors | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 2TB SSD

I agree. Tony, that looks wonderful, and what a great idea to make presets

Funny thing is I never touched ColorDirector, so I'm mystified at how that CDR (60).cds file appears in my packed project. I can only assume that PD17 was either utilizing some CDR functionality or that it saves HDR-type effect settings in a .cds file.

Either way, the dolphin clip is looking great!

YouTube/optodata

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I'm mystified at how that CDR (60).cds file appears in my packed project. I can only assume that PD17 was either utilizing some CDR functionality or that it saves HDR-type effect settings in a .cds file.

You & me both!

I just saved & packed a number of projects, each using 1 part of Enhance (only). No packed project contained any CDR project file.

Then I saved & packed a separate project that used all aspects of Enhance (except Colour Match). There was no CDR project file included.

Who was it who once said to me "Well - get ya freak on, Tony"? Yes - that's a bit weird.

... & there was I imagining you'd gone to extraordinary lengths making adjustments all over the place in CDR!

Cheers - Tony
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Hi,

For future trips, you might find the piece in PDN4 useful.

Colour correction of UW footage is complex, as the light conditions change between clips and as we shoot. Perhaps a key question is about "looking good" or "looking realistic"?
The main problem is to compensate for the loss of red light but without introducing too much, particularly with "whiter" parts of the video - like bubbles, or beams of sunlight. If this is not carefully done, the dolphins look great, but you end up blowing red bubbles!

So, in this example which looks "realistic" (but not colour popped), over the full clip on my monitors, until the surface shot shows the red colour correction, I used a small trick, working only in PDR17.
I adjusted the white balance of the original, not by choosing a white base or a black base, but just by eye to get a good balance. This produced a reasonable result but with a green tinge.

I dropped the original clip (too blue) into track 2 and adjusted the opacity to "blend the clips", it introduced the blue back, but just enough to compensate.

Haze removal is also a difficult one, but CDR has the function. This example is the previous adjusted clip dropped into CDR and a Dehaze value of 10 applied. Any more than 15 introduces artifacts, to my eye, but the "....eye of the beholder etc."

I dived in Croatia in 2017, without my proper contact lenses and couldn't adjust my white balance properly (lost my one push shortcut and couldn't see the tiny menu!) so all the dive was uncorrected and I cannot get most of it back "realistically", although at 44m it was beyond my camera's white balance anyway - there's just no red light left at all!

If you're interested, this video is all shot with the same camera, from surface shots to 30m, but with white balance.adjusted every 2-3 metres. No post correction was done. In the shallow depth shots, the problem of uber bright sunshine and reflections off the sand showed the weakness in my camera in dealing with the differing exposures needed.

Adrian. Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
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Quote Hi,

For future trips, you might find the piece in PDN4 useful.

Thank you, I will read it.

Quote Colour correction of UW footage is complex, as the light conditions change between clips and as we shoot. Perhaps a key question is about "looking good" or "looking realistic"?
The main problem is to compensate for the loss of red light but without introducing too much, particularly with "whiter" parts of the video - like bubbles, or beams of sunlight. If this is not carefully done, the dolphins look great, but you end up blowing red bubbles!

Red bubbles, I have them! Haha. I used a red filter on my GoPro. I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the red bubbles and sunlight beams.

Quote So, in this example which looks "realistic" (but not colour popped), over the full clip on my monitors, until the surface shot shows the red colour correction, I used a small trick, working only in PDR17.
I adjusted the white balance of the original, not by choosing a white base or a black base, but just by eye to get a good balance. This produced a reasonable result but with a green tinge.

I'm going to play with that now, thank you for the tip!

Quote I dropped the original clip (too blue) into track 2 and adjusted the opacity to "blend the clips", it introduced the blue back, but just enough to compensate.

What a great idea! Definitely going to try it.

Quote Haze removal is also a difficult one, but CDR has the function. This example is the previous adjusted clip dropped into CDR and a Dehaze value of 10 applied. Any more than 15 introduces artifacts, to my eye, but the "....eye of the beholder etc."

Is there a way to Dehaze in PD17?

Quote I dived in Croatia in 2017, without my proper contact lenses and couldn't adjust my white balance properly (lost my one push shortcut and couldn't see the tiny menu!) so all the dive was uncorrected and I cannot get most of it back "realistically", although at 44m it was beyond my camera's white balance anyway - there's just no red light left at all!

44m?? Wow, that's deep. This was my first dive, I went to 21 but mostly around 15m. The menus on the GoPro are so tiny, well the camera is tiny. Drove me nuts some of the time.

Quote If you're interested, this video is all shot with the same camera, from surface shots to 30m, but with white balance.adjusted every 2-3 metres. No post correction was done. In the shallow depth shots, the problem of uber bright sunshine and reflections off the sand showed the weakness in my camera in dealing with the differing exposures needed.

Adrian.

I'm definitely interested, I'll watch your video shortly. I'm enjoying working with my video footage in PD17, I get to relive the experience over and over.

Thank you, Adrian, and everyone for your help with this project. You've all been so amazing!
Linda DirectorSuite 365 | Win 11 Home | AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX with Radeon Graphics 3301 Mhz, 8 cores, 16 logical processors | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 | 2TB SSD