Aquarium RAW Photos Help - Appear in Lightroom different

[mrjoemorgan]

Hi all,

So I went to the aquarium for the first time in many years this weekend and took the camera along.

I've just pulled the photos into Lightroom and when they load the blue of the water seems to disappear. You can see from the thumbnails below the photos are very blue, but when the image loads it's almost a gradual filter of white to blue.

Shot RAW, White Balance is set to "as shot". I wonder if it is just how Lightroom is processing the image preview?

Any thoughts on how to get them back to how they were shot?

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[SVQuant]

Hi, the white balance for aquarium shots can be tricky as the color temperature can be between 10000-20000K. Try raising the white balance to see if you fix the images. Here are a couple of images I shot at Monterey bay aquarium a while ago when I had to really move the Auto-WB to get them to look right.

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Here is a useful article: Aquarium Photography Guide: Part III White Balance Headache - Reefs.com

 

[ooheadsoo]

I believe what you first see when loading up Lightroom is the jpg preview from the camera. The raw loads itself afterwards.

 

[wjiang]

It's not so much white balance as the colour profile used for conversion. RAW converters generally do not give the same output as in-camera algorithms. You are initially seeing the embedded JPEG preview as generated by the camera. You have no hope of getting that output in LR exactly. You can make changes to get closer, but it won't be the same. That is the price of working with RAWs.

Try switching the conversation profile to Camera Vivid or something, you might find it looks a bit closer than the bland Adobe Standard. I default to Camera Natural.

 

[BosseBe]

Hi all,

So I went to the aquarium for the first time in many years this weekend and took the camera along.

I've just pulled the photos into Lightroom and when they load the blue of the water seems to disappear. You can see from the thumbnails below the photos are very blue, but when the image loads it's almost a gradual filter of white to blue.

Shot RAW, White Balance is set to "as shot". I wonder if it is just how Lightroom is processing the image preview?

Any thoughts on how to get them back to how they were shot?

View attachment 623133

You seem to have the same kind of gradation in both the previews and the processed RAW, so maybe you can just lower exposure or try a curve?

 

[mrjoemorgan]

Thanks all for your replies. Makes sense, JPEG preview then RAW loads. Ill try camera profiles and WB etc and see how I get on.

 

[mrjoemorgan]

So I edited a few photos, pretty happy with how they came out first the time attempt at doing Aquarium shot.

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[PakkyT]

I like (what I think is) the cuttlefish shot.

 

[dwig]

Hi all,

So I went to the aquarium for the first time in many years this weekend and took the camera along.

I've just pulled the photos into Lightroom and when they load the blue of the water seems to disappear. You can see from the thumbnails below the photos are very blue, but when the image loads it's almost a gradual filter of white to blue.

Shot RAW, White Balance is set to "as shot". I wonder if it is just how Lightroom is processing the image preview?

Any thoughts on how to get them back to how they were shot?

View attachment 623133

To me, this doesn't look like a white balance issue at all. It looks more like an exposure and/or curves difference. The sides of the fish seems to show much more detail in the large Lr image that the do in the thumbnails. An overall exposure shift would account for this and for the lighter blues "washing out" to near white.

 

[mrjoemorgan]

I like (what I think is) the cuttlefish shot.

Thank you, yes cuttlefish. Quite curious actually, they would often follow my hand or camera.