RAW Workflow & Post-Processing

Also known as: Digital darkroom, image editing, post-production
Related techniques: Strobe & Flash Photography, Macro Photography, Wide-Angle Photography

Overview

RAW workflow and post-processing encompass the entire chain of steps from offloading images off a memory card through to delivering finished photographs. For underwater photographers, post-processing is especially critical because the aquatic environment introduces unique challenges — color absorption at depth, backscatter from suspended particles, chromatic aberration from port optics, and the difficulty of achieving correct white balance through water. Shooting in RAW format preserves the full sensor data, giving photographers the latitude to correct exposure, white balance, and color after the dive rather than relying on the camera’s in-body JPEG processing (^[1]).

The transition from JPEG-only shooting to RAW-based workflows was one of the defining shifts in digital underwater photography during the 2000s. As Wetpixel co-founder Eric Cheng wrote in 2004: “I, myself, have certainly saved quite a few badly exposed images from the trash bin because I happened to be shooting RAW” (^[2]).

History & Development

Early Photoshop techniques (2004)

Before the RAW workflow debate even took hold, James Wiseman published Wetpixel’s first post-processing technique article in January 2004: “Using the Channel Mixer to Correct Green Water.” Drawing on a technique introduced to him by Craig Jones, who came from a video background where the channel mixer was commonly used, Wiseman demonstrated how to pull green out of cold-water images using Photoshop CS’s Channel Mixer as an adjustment layer, then correct the resulting color shift with a Hue adjustment layer (^[3]). In April 2004, Wetpixel member Robert Delfs contributed “Getting Rid of the Underwater Blues — Advanced Photoshop Techniques to Reconstruct Damaged Color Channels,” which generated significant community discussion (^[4]).

The RAW vs. JPEG debate (2003-2006)

The RAW format became widely available on prosumer and DSLR cameras around 2003-2004. In February 2004, James Wiseman published one of Wetpixel’s foundational articles, “RAW vs JPEG,” explaining the technical differences. He described RAW files as “digital negatives” and JPEGs as “digital prints,” noting that RAW files offered 12 bits per channel (4,096 tonal values) versus JPEG’s 8 bits per channel (256 values). He framed the difference in photographic terms: “a bit = a stop,” meaning RAW captured four additional stops of dynamic range — crucial for high-contrast underwater scenes like sunbursts (^[5]).

The debate was vigorous within the Wetpixel community. Eric Cheng commented: “if you nail your exposure and white-balance, and are shooting a frame that doesn’t have a huge amount of contrast, shooting RAW won’t get you much more than if you were shooting Fine JPG. However, it can’t hurt to shoot RAW” (^[6]). David Haas pushed back, arguing that high-quality JPEGs were adequate for many real-world printing situations. Cheng countered with a practical point: “if you are shooting macro subjects with lots and lots of detail (or something like a forest, topside), you absolutely want to shoot RAW. JPG artifacts will be very clear in the tiny details” (^[7]).

Practical concerns slowed adoption: RAW files were much larger (6-12 MB versus 1-3 MB for JPEGs on 6-megapixel cameras), limited burst depth to 7-9 shots, and required dedicated converter software. Tom Shepherd noted that the ability to white-balance after the shot was the “single biggest advantage” of RAW, adding: “I shoot virtually everything on Auto WB, then adjust as needed after the fact” (^[8]).

Wiseman offered a practical suggestion for those intimidated by RAW: “Shoot a whole dive on RAW with all the same settings you usually use to shoot JPEG. Then when you want to make JPEG’s, use a ‘batch converter’ along with the camera’s recorded settings to make your jpegs. All this takes is to push ONE BUTTON on your computer” (^[9]). Rutger Geerling added that most DSLRs could shoot RAW+JPEG simultaneously for comparison — though Wiseman noted that the most popular underwater DSLR at the time, the Nikon D100, did not support that feature (^[10]).

The mystery of RAW converters (2004-2008)

In May 2004, Eric Cheng published “The Mystery of RAW Converters,” a detailed comparison of how different software packages handled the same RAW files from Canon cameras. He compared Canon EOSViewer 1.0, Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP) 1.0, Adobe Photoshop CS with Camera Raw 2.2, and CaptureOne v1.2 and v3.5 (^[11]).

The findings were significant for underwater photographers. Cheng discovered that Photoshop CS and CaptureOne produced “absolute shit” sunball renderings, with turquoise halos around blown highlights, while Canon’s own converter software produced smoother, more natural results. He concluded: “Try all of the RAW converters available. The Canon/Nikon/Fuji converters are free and come with your cameras, and since these do the best job with sunballs (in my opinion), you’re in luck as an underwater photographer.” He acknowledged CaptureOne’s strengths for noise reduction and workflow, noting: “I tend to prefer CaptureOne over the others for most RAW conversions, but whenever I see a sunball in my image, I don’t even bother trying to use it” (^[12]).

Rob Whitehead responded: “If your above findings are proven to be true, it will be the first documented case of Canon’s RAW software actually being useful for anything!” He speculated that CaptureOne was “designed more with portraits in mind rather than underwater sunbursts” (^[13]). In 2005, Herb Ko posted additional comparisons showing Canon’s updated DPP converting Digital Rebel RAW files alongside CaptureOne results (^[14]).

Cheng revisited this comparison in 2008 with “The Mystery of RAW Converters, Take Two,” finding that the sunball problem persisted in Aperture and Lightroom. He noted: “underwater photos that contain ‘the blue’ get whacked really badly” by third-party converters, with distant reef subjects taking on a green cast compared to in-camera JPEG processing. He went so far as to say: “Underwater, I would rather shoot sunball images in JPG mode than use Aperture or Lightroom to convert RAW files — and believe me, it takes a lot to convince me to shoot JPG over RAW.” Canon’s DPP continued to produce the best results for underwater sunball shots (^[15]). Alex Mustard responded that he planned to try Nikon’s NX converter to compare with Lightroom for his own work. Forum member “loftus” reported preferring Nikon’s Capture NX for Nikon RAW conversions but noted that it “screws up the whole workflow concept of Aperture / Lightroom” (^[16]).

The Nikon NEF encryption controversy (2005)

In May 2005, Nikon issued an advisory stating that the only legal way to convert NEF RAW files was through their SDK, because “NEF and Capture software are a tightly knit system.” Adobe reported it might not be able to fully support RAW files from the Nikon D2X and D2H because the white balance information in the new NEF files was encrypted. Eric Cheng reported on the controversy, noting that Dave Coffin (author of Dcraw) and Eric Hyman (founder of Bibble Labs) had already broken the code. James Wiseman explained at a HUPS meeting that “Nikon cameras store the white balance in the ‘makers mark’ tag in the EXIF” and that Capture decrypts it before saving to the correct white balance tag. The community reacted sharply, with scorpio_fish translating Nikon’s PR as: “We want to make you buy our product” (^[17]).

By September 2005, Adobe and Nikon announced cooperation on RAW format compatibility, with Nikon expressing intent “to cooperate with Adobe and other industry members” for better image quality and convenience (^[18]). Nikon also released Capture NX in February 2006, described as “a radically enhanced and redesigned version of Nikon’s digital image editing software” with dedicated tools for NEF RAW processing (^[19]).

Adobe Camera RAW defaults problem (2006)

Eric Cheng identified a common frustration among underwater photographers: Adobe Photoshop CS2’s Camera Raw module shipped with auto-correction enabled by default for exposure, shadows, brightness, and contrast. These defaults were “optimized for topside photography” and “frequently make underwater images — especially shots taken in the blue — look too bright.” He called it a “crippling RAW conversion default whose fix should be the first thing you do upon its installation” and provided a step-by-step guide for disabling the auto-correction and saving new Camera Raw defaults, along with instructions to purge Bridge’s central cache to rebuild thumbnails correctly. John Trone added that the default tone curve should also be set to “linear” rather than “medium contrast” for accurate rendering (^[20]).

Lightroom arrives (2006-2007)

Adobe released the Lightroom public beta in January 2006, describing it as “the efficient new way for professional photographers to import, select, develop, and showcase large volumes of digital images.” Lightroom was a direct competitor to Apple’s Aperture, “which hasn’t been received so well by working photographers,” as Cheng noted (^[21]).

In December 2006, Eric Cheng compared Lightroom beta 4 against CaptureOne 3.7 for underwater RAW conversion. At the time, his personal workflow on Windows consisted of six separate applications: Downloader Pro for importing, ACDSee for browsing, BreezeBrowser Pro for RAW viewing and metadata, CaptureOne for RAW conversion, Photoshop CS2 for editing, and iView Multimedia for asset management. On Mac, he used Photo Mechanic for image viewing, CaptureOne for conversion, Photoshop CS2 for editing, and Aperture for asset management (^[22]).

Testing with a frogfish macro shot from Papua New Guinea, Cheng found that Lightroom over-saturated oranges and produced significantly more noise in smooth color areas. CaptureOne’s noise reduction was more aggressive but produced silkier results. He warned that Lightroom conversions “almost certainly require some noise reduction work during image editing” and noted that CaptureOne’s noise-free output came at a cost — there was no setting between “None” and “Low,” which was already quite aggressive. A friend preferred to turn off CaptureOne’s noise reduction entirely, using third-party applications like Noise Ninja and Neat Image instead (^[23]). Lightroom and Aperture would eventually consolidate most of these multi-application workflows into single applications.

Creative Cloud transition (2013)

In 2013, Adobe’s decision to move its products to a subscription-only Creative Cloud model created significant concern among photographers. After backlash, Adobe introduced a Photography Plan at $9.99/month offering Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5, Bridge CC, and 20GB of storage, announced at the Photoshop World conference in Las Vegas. The price was fixed for people who already owned Photoshop CS3 or higher (^[24]). In November 2013, Adobe offered a limited-time Creative Cloud promotion for photographers at $9.99/month (^[25]).

Software & Tools

Adobe Lightroom

Lightroom became the dominant workflow tool for underwater photographers from approximately 2007 onward. Its combination of catalog management, RAW development, and export capabilities in a single non-destructive application made it the backbone of most underwater photographers’ workflows.

Key Lightroom milestones covered by Wetpixel include:

• Lightroom 3 (2010): Introduced improved noise reduction and lens correction profiles. Adam Hanlon reported that Photography Bay’s testing showed Lightroom 3’s noise processing “comprehensively out performs Lightroom 2, Canon DPP and View NX” at extreme ISO settings, though Hanlon was critical, noting it “smudged the hell out of” detail while suppressing noise (^[26]). Adobe also previewed lens correction profiles that could address geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting; Hanlon noted the possibility of creating custom underwater lens profiles “in the pool with the complete rig” (^[27]).
• Lightroom 4 (2012): Replaced manual chromatic aberration sliders with an automatic “Remove Chromatic Aberration” checkbox. Adam Hanlon challenged Wetpixel members to find cases where the automatic process failed, noting that both Eric Cheng and Jason Bradley had tried to “make the new process slip-up” and “both have failed.” Hanlon himself also admitted failure (^[28]).
• Lightroom 5 (2013): Added the Visualize Spots feature, Radial Filter, and Advanced Healing Brush. Hanlon wrote extensively about the Visualize Spots feature, calling it “an amazing tool for underwater photographers” that revealed backscatter as a black-and-white mask. He noted that the spot removal algorithm had been reworked to “more intuitively seek areas that do not have any backscatter” and was faster than previous releases (^[29], ^[30]).
• Lightroom CC/6 (2015): Introduced GPU rendering (up to 3,025% faster on an iMac with 5K display, around 1,000% improvement on typical newer computers), HDR and panorama merge, facial recognition, and a filter brush for graduated and radial filters. Available as Lightroom 6 standalone ($149) or Lightroom CC via Creative Cloud ($9.99/month Photography Plan) (^[31]).
• Lightroom Classic 8.3 (2019): Added the Texture slider, which Adam Hanlon found particularly useful for underwater images. He described it as targeting “mid-frequency” areas, providing “an appealing, subtly 3D appearance to image features with lots of detail (think fan corals…)” without the over-contrast that Clarity could produce. He also discovered that negative Texture applied locally with the Brush tool could significantly reduce backscatter (^[32]).
• Lightroom Classic 9 (2019): Added content-aware fill for panorama merge edges, export with multiple presets, and notably featured Wetpixel member Tobias Friedrich’s image on its splash screen (^[33]).
• Lightroom 11 (2021): Introduced AI-driven masking tools with a complete overhaul of the Develop Module’s masking and selection tools. Erin Quigley ran free GoAskErin tutorials covering the new masking panel (^[34], ^[35]).

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop remained essential for tasks beyond Lightroom’s capabilities, particularly large-scale backscatter removal, complex retouching, and advanced compositing. Wetpixel covered every major version from Photoshop CS through CC. In April 2005, James Wiseman noted the most exciting new feature of Photoshop CS2 was “multiple RAW image conversion” — allowing batch processing with different settings — a capability previously exclusive to CaptureOne (^[36]). In 2004, Wiseman demonstrated using Adobe Camera RAW’s chromatic aberration correction sliders — a capability that had previously required third-party software (^[37]). In 2015, Photoshop celebrated 25 years; Wetpixel noted it was “originally called Display” and invented in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, who reportedly approached Nikon and other camera companies before Adobe purchased it in 1990 (^[38]). In 2019, Adobe released Photoshop for iPad with Creative Cloud sync (^[39]).

CaptureOne

CaptureOne (by Phase One) was favored by some professionals for its RAW conversion quality. Eric Cheng used it as his primary converter in the mid-2000s, praising its noise reduction and overall image quality. He noted the software was “designed more with portraits in mind” and had particular weakness with underwater sunball highlights, but for all other conversions, “C1 is still my converter of choice” (^[40]). One of Cheng’s colleagues preferred to disable CaptureOne’s built-in noise reduction entirely, opting instead for third-party NR applications like Noise Ninja and Neat Image (^[41]).

Apple Aperture

Apple Aperture launched in 2005 as a competitor to Lightroom. Cheng incorporated it into his Mac workflow for image asset management, though he was frustrated that “it won’t allow external RAW converters” (^[42]). Aperture’s sunball conversions were also poor; forum members noted that Aperture version 2 handled highlights somewhat better than version 1, with one member who worked at Apple confirming the D200’s conversion improved in version 2.0 (^[43]). Apple discontinued Aperture in 2014, prompting Adobe to release an Aperture-to-Lightroom migration plug-in along with three months of free KelbyOne training (^[44]).

Other tools

• Pixmantec RawShooter (2005): An early RAW converter known for “blazing RAW-conversion times and a focus on workflow and usability,” priced at $59 on sale (^[45]).
• Nikon Capture NX (2006): Nikon’s dedicated RAW converter, described as “a radically enhanced and redesigned version” of their editing software with dedicated NEF tools. Favored by some Nikon underwater shooters for color accuracy, though it disrupted Aperture/Lightroom workflows (^[46], ^[47]).
• Nik Software: Plug-ins including Noise Ninja, Viveza, Silver Efex Pro, HDR Efex Pro, and Dfine were widely used for noise reduction and creative effects. Google acquired Nik Software in September 2012 and in 2013 offered the entire Nik Collection for $149, down from the previous $499 (^[48]).
• Photo Mechanic: Used by many professionals for fast image browsing and metadata management. Eric Cheng used it on Mac as his image viewer (“why can’t you look at images quickly on a Mac?!”) (^[49]). Version 6 shipped in 2019 as a 64-bit application with 2-3x speed improvements. Wetpixel offered discount vouchers for the community (^[50], ^[51]).
• DaVinci Resolve: Covered by Wetpixel for underwater video color grading, available as a free “Light” version (^[52]).
• Affinity Photo (2015): Launched by Serif as a Photoshop competitor at $50 with two years of free updates, featuring content-aware fill, depth of field tools, and modern code architecture (^[53]).
• ON1 Photo RAW: Announced as a Lightroom/Photoshop alternative, with the 2022 version adding AI-based noise reduction (NoNoise AI), Sky Swap AI, Photoshop plugin hosting, and time-lapse creation. Priced at $99.99 perpetual or from $7.99/month subscription (^[54]).
• Vivid-Pix LAND & SEA: Software specifically designed for underwater and scuba images, with tutorials by Cathy Church. Added RAW/DNG support in 2018 for Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Olympus, SeaLife, and Sony formats, priced at $49.99 (^[55]).
• Loupedeck: A physical editing console for Lightroom reviewed by Wetpixel in 2017. Reviewer Alex Tyrrell programmed it with underwater-specific presets for wide-angle and macro, including dehaze, noise reduction, and chromatic aberration removal. He found the multi-slider control particularly useful: “being able to adjust exposure and at the same time the Luminance of the blues was very useful” for wide-angle images. Priced at $299 (^[56]).

Techniques & Methods

White balance correction

White balance is the single most critical post-processing adjustment for underwater images. Water absorbs red light progressively with depth, producing blue or green color casts. In-camera auto white balance rarely compensates adequately, making RAW shooting essential so that white balance can be adjusted after capture. Tom Shepherd noted in the RAW vs. JPEG discussion that he shot “virtually everything on Auto WB, then adjust as needed after the fact” (^[57]). James Wiseman highlighted a community discussion about techniques for obtaining proper white balance in wide-angle mixed-lighting photos shot in RAW format, where the white balance was set using the software converter (^[58]). In 2012, Erin Quigley published the first part of her “Essential Post Processing for Underwater Photographers” series on white balance in Lightroom 4, making the point that the editor’s eye “will become accustomed to any color cast” unless the photographer uses the backslash or “Y” shortcuts to toggle before/after views (^[59]).

Green water correction

Green water from cold, nutrient-rich environments was addressed through a specific Photoshop technique. James Wiseman demonstrated using the Channel Mixer (Image > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer) to pull green out of images — typically by reducing the green Output Channel by 10-15% — then correcting the resulting color shift with a Hue adjustment layer. Craig Jones, who came from a video background where the channel mixer was standard, introduced the technique to Wiseman (^[60]).

Backscatter removal

Backscatter — light reflected off suspended particles in the water column — is a persistent challenge addressed extensively in post-processing. Erin Quigley’s backscatter removal tutorials became essential community resources, covering techniques using selections, layers, the move tool, Gaussian blur, and noise addition in Photoshop CS6 (^[61]). Her 2021 “Goo Gone” tutorial covered tools in both Lightroom and Photoshop for eliminating backscatter: “Mastery of spot removal comes from knowing as many techniques as possible, and the right time to use them,” she noted, demonstrating healing, patching, blurring, content-aware fill, cloning, and masking (^[62]).

Lightroom 5’s Visualize Spots feature (2013) transformed in-program backscatter removal. Adam Hanlon described the tool as rendering the image as “a black and white mask, which really emphasizes backscatter in the image,” making it far easier to identify and remove particles. He found the spot removal algorithm had been reworked to “more intuitively seek areas that do not have any backscatter” (^[63]). In 2019, Hanlon also discovered that Lightroom’s new negative Texture adjustment, applied locally with the Brush tool, could significantly reduce visible backscatter, though he noted the technique “still needs more testing with a broader variety of images” (^[64]).

Chromatic aberration correction

Underwater photography is especially prone to chromatic aberration because light passes through water, port glass (dome or flat), and lens elements. Wiseman explained: “CA occurs because the different wavelengths of light — from red to violet — bend as they pass through port glass, and lens elements. The spectrum of light spreads out after passing through the lens materials resulting in colors bleeding to one side or another of a sharp line or boundary.” He demonstrated correction using Adobe Camera RAW’s Blue/Yellow slider in Photoshop CS, noting: “Based on the fact that the fringe is blue, I used the Blue/Yellow correction (B/Y) to bring the fringe back where it belongs — in line with the coral polyp tentacles.” His example used a Nikkor 105mm macro lens shot through a Sea and Sea acrylic macro port (^[65]). By Lightroom 4 (2012), Adobe’s automatic CA removal had become so effective that experienced photographers including Cheng, Bradley, and Hanlon could not find cases where it failed. Hanlon noted: “the ‘Defringe’ option is still available in LR4 in the Manual tab” for those who wanted manual control (^[66]).

Local adjustments and HSL control

Doug Sloss published a detailed tutorial on Wetpixel demonstrating how to use Lightroom’s HSL panel and Adjustment Brush for underwater images. Working on a wide-angle scenic from the Shinkoku Maru in Chuuk, he showed how the HSL panel’s Hue, Saturation, and Luminance sliders — though global controls — could be used creatively to improve specific color regions. Using the Purple slider, he changed the hue of an anemone “to something more in line with how I feel the colors should be represented, a move which allows the photographer some room for personal interpretation.” The Targeted Adjustment Tool (TAT) allowed accurate targeting of the mixed color tones in the water column; clicking and dragging in the water moved both the Aqua and Blue controls automatically. He then used the Adjustment Brush with Auto Mask to locally enhance exposure, contrast, and clarity on individual subjects, and demonstrated using the Temperature slider to locally warm foreground corals “to look like they had been fully hit by my strobes” (^[67]).

Custom camera calibration profiles

Adam Hanlon published a 2017 tutorial showing how to create custom camera calibration profiles in Lightroom using Adobe’s free DNG Profile Editor. For Nikon cameras, he demonstrated adding a red tint (+20 on the Tint slider) to counteract the blue/green bias that underwater images often exhibited. The process involved exporting any image as DNG, opening it in the DNG Profile Editor, adjusting the White Balance Calibration in the Color Matrices tab, then exporting the profile. Once created, these profiles could be set as defaults for a specific camera serial number by holding Alt/Option and clicking “Set as Default,” automatically applying to all imported images from that camera (^[68]).

Underwater-specific Lightroom presets

Tobias Friedrich released modular Lightroom presets in 2020, designed specifically for underwater images. Each set had seven modules: exposure, white balance, underwater setup, saturation, background/vignette, noise reduction, and sharpening. The presets were compatible with Lightroom versions 4 through Classic CC, plus mobile apps (^[69]). Mike Veitch reviewed them on Wetpixel, noting that unlike “one-touch” presets common in landscape photography, these were modular: “the user can pick and choose individual ‘looks’ in each module to create a finished product.” He particularly praised the transparency of the system: “once you press it, you can see the changes it makes to each setting… in the right-hand panel. This makes it very easy for the user to make slight tweaks.” Veitch concluded that while “advanced users won’t gain a lot from them, novice users and those who don’t spend much time in Lightroom will find them invaluable” (^[70]).

Key Discussions

Wetpixel Live workflow episodes

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wetpixel Live became a major platform for workflow education. The series devoted multiple episodes to the topic: “Workflow Part 1” (Ep 71), “Workflow Part 2” (Ep 85), a guest episode with Erin Quigley (Ep 94), another with Joel Penner (Ep 95), “Daily Workflow” (Ep 153), and a two-part Lightroom 10 overview (Eps 83-84) (^[71], ^[72], ^[73], ^[74], ^[75]). Alex Mustard presented his complete imaging workflow in October 2020, covering the steps from offloading camera cards through to providing images to magazine editors. The article emphasized that Mustard “does not chat about editing specifically” and directed viewers to GoAskErin for detailed tutorials (^[76]). A follow-up episode covered his daily field workflow for maximizing productivity underwater (^[77]). Erin Quigley discussed her approach to shooting for optimal editing results, ingesting and backing up images, and organizing versions with Adam Hanlon (^[78]). In 2022, Mustard and Hanlon discussed computer hardware choices for underwater photographers, noting that “the general improvement in computer performance and power means that” bespoke, top-end machines were “largely no longer” necessary for image processing (^[79]).

Field workflow management

Adam Hanlon published a comprehensive tutorial on Lightroom field workflow in April 2020, describing his complete system: a single “MAIN” catalog at home (he cited “documented cases of catalogs with over 6 million images, with no performance issues”), portable catalogs for field trips on external Thunderbolt drives with Velcro strips attached to his laptop lid, systematic folder naming (YYMMDD_shoot_day format, e.g., “200403_raja_1”), file renaming at import (e.g., “200403_ahanlon_8868.NEF”), keyword application during import, and catalog merging upon return via File > Import from Another Catalog. He credited Erin Quigley with the “One Catalog to Rule them All” catchphrase, explaining that “Lightroom’s search tools will only search in an open catalog. So no matter how diligent you are about folder structures, keywords and file naming conventions, if you have multiple catalogs and are in the ‘wrong’ one, Lightroom will not be able to find your images” (^[80]).

Hanlon also published an annual workflow guide for the new year, demonstrating how to update metadata presets in Lightroom and Photo Mechanic to incorporate the new copyright year — a mundane but essential task that many photographers overlooked (^[81]).

RAW files as future-proofing

A recurring theme in community discussions was the value of archiving RAW files for future reprocessing. An anonymous commenter in 2004 shared their experience with a Nikon D1 purchased in 1999: “You cannot imagine how using Nikon Capture 4.1 has changed the quality of my final images. It is like a rebirthing” (^[82]). Rob Whitehead added: “Remember that next year’s RAW converter may be better still — if you’ve got those shots archived as RAWs you may be able to” reprocess them with superior results (^[83]). Eric Cheng emphasized this in his converter comparison: “the software for RAW conversion keeps changing, the images you have just taken can actually get better as newer versions of the conversion software are released” (^[84]). This principle was repeatedly validated as successive generations of Lightroom and Camera Raw produced visibly better results from the same RAW files.

Notable Practitioners

• Eric Cheng — Wrote Wetpixel’s foundational RAW converter comparison articles in 2004 and 2008, and the Photoshop CS2 Camera Raw defaults guide. Used a multi-application workflow centered on CaptureOne and later Aperture. His six-app Windows workflow (Downloader Pro, ACDSee, BreezeBrowser Pro, CaptureOne, Photoshop CS2, iView Multimedia) illustrated the pre-Lightroom complexity (^[85], ^[86]).
• James Wiseman — Wrote Wetpixel’s first RAW vs. JPEG guide (2004), the first chromatic aberration correction tutorial for underwater photographers (2004), and the Channel Mixer green water correction technique (2004). Also reported on the Nikon NEF encryption controversy (^[87], ^[88], ^[89]).
• Erin Quigley — Creator of GoAskErin.com, A.C.E. Adobe expert certified, providing custom Lightroom and Photoshop tutorials specifically for underwater photographers. Her backscatter removal tutorials, Lightroom masking workshops, and the “One Catalog to Rule them All” philosophy became essential community resources. Also a presenter at The Digital Shootout where she ran the Go Ask Erin digital help desk (^[90], ^[91], ^[92]).
• Doug and Lorenza Sloss — Produced the “Lightroom for the Underwater Photographer” and “Photoshop for the Underwater Photographer” tutorial series. The Lightroom series evolved from DVDs to USB to PDF/iBook format, with over 15 hours of instruction across 68 lessons in the Lightroom 4/5 version. Doug also published the Lightroom local controls tutorial on Wetpixel. Mike Veitch and Adam Hanlon both reviewed the products highly (^[93], ^[94], ^[95], ^[96]).
• Jason Bradley — Professional underwater photographer who ran Photoshop and digital workflow seminars through Backscatter, covering achieving realistic blue water backgrounds, sharpening for screen and print, and dodging and burning with adjustment layers. Also conducted dive-and-edit seminars with Adobe’s Bill Stotzner on Channel Islands liveaboards, covering image library management, color correction, keywording, and Photoshop/Lightroom techniques (^[97], ^[98]).
• Adam Hanlon — Published detailed tutorials on Lightroom field workflow, custom camera calibration profiles, the Texture slider for underwater use, and the Visualize Spots feature preview. His field workflow tutorial became a definitive guide for catalog management and keywording (^[99], ^[100], ^[101]).
• Alex Mustard — Presented Wetpixel Live episodes on professional workflow from card offloading through magazine delivery, and discussed computer hardware choices for underwater photographers (^[102], ^[103]).
• Jack and Sue Drafahl — “The Digital Duo” produced Photoshop tutorial DVDs for underwater photographers, with the CS5 version running 16 hours across 224 tutorials covering setup, Adobe Camera RAW, global and selective corrections, workflow, plug-ins, and animations (^[104]).
• Tobias Friedrich — Created modular Lightroom presets tailored for underwater wide-angle and macro photography, priced at EUR 59 per set (^[105]).
• Craig Jones — Wetpixel co-administrator who introduced the Channel Mixer green water correction technique from his video background and co-authored the “Tips for Using Adobe Camera Raw” article with James Wiseman (^[106], ^[107]).
• Marty Snyderman — Co-created the MarineLife Keyword List with Barry Guimbellot and Eric Cheng, featuring keywords for over 12,000 marine species for use in Lightroom and Aperture (^[108]).

Timeline

• 2004-01: James Wiseman publishes “Using the Channel Mixer to Correct Green Water” on Wetpixel (^[109])
• 2004-02: James Wiseman publishes “RAW vs JPEG” on Wetpixel, sparking community debate (^[110])
• 2004-04: Craig Jones and Wiseman publish “Tips for Using Adobe Camera Raw” (^[111])
• 2004-04: Robert Delfs contributes “Getting Rid of the Underwater Blues” article on advanced Photoshop color channel reconstruction (^[112])
• 2004-05: Eric Cheng publishes “The Mystery of RAW Converters,” comparing Canon, Photoshop CS, and CaptureOne (^[113])
• 2004-08: Wiseman publishes chromatic aberration correction tutorial using Photoshop CS (^[114])
• 2005-04: Adobe announces Photoshop CS2 with multiple RAW image conversion (^[115])
• 2005-05: Nikon encrypts NEF white balance data, sparking controversy; Adobe warns of compatibility issues (^[116])
• 2005-09: Adobe and Nikon announce cooperation on RAW format compatibility (^[117])
• 2005-10: Pixmantec RawShooter Premium 2006 released (^[118])
• 2006-01: Adobe Lightroom public beta released, competing with Apple Aperture (^[119])
• 2006-02: Nikon releases Capture NX with dedicated NEF tools (^[120])
• 2006-09: Cheng publishes guide to fixing Photoshop CS2’s Camera Raw defaults for underwater photographers (^[121])
• 2006-12: Cheng publishes Lightroom beta 4 vs. CaptureOne 3.7 comparison (^[122])
• 2007-07: Jason Bradley runs Photoshop seminar for underwater photographers at Backscatter (^[123])
• 2008-09: Cheng publishes “The Mystery of RAW Converters, Take Two” (^[124])
• 2008-09: NYUPS hosts Jason Heller’s presentation on Digital Workflow Basics (^[125])
• 2009-06: Marty Snyderman, Barry Guimbellot, and Eric Cheng release MarineLife Keyword List for Lightroom and Aperture with 12,000+ species (^[126])
• 2009-06: Jason Bradley and Adobe’s Bill Stotzner conduct digital workflow seminars on Channel Islands liveaboards (^[127])
• 2009-11: Doug and Lorenza Sloss release “Photoshop CS4 for the Underwater Photographer” DVD (10+ hours, ~70 lessons) (^[128])
• 2010-04: Adobe previews lens correction profiles for Lightroom 3, enabling underwater lens profiles (^[129])
• 2010-06: Jack and Sue Drafahl release Photoshop CS5 tutorial DVD (16 hours, 224 tutorials) (^[130])
• 2011-12: Mike Veitch reviews “Lightroom 3 for the Underwater Photographer” by Doug and Lorenza Sloss (^[131])
• 2012-03: Lightroom 4 introduces automatic chromatic aberration removal; Hanlon challenges community to beat it (^[132])
• 2012-07: Erin Quigley begins “Essential Post Processing for Underwater Photographers” series (^[133])
• 2012-12: Doug and Lorenza Sloss release “Lightroom 4 for the Underwater Photographer” on USB (13 hours) (^[134])
• 2013-03: Erin Quigley publishes backscatter removal tutorial using Photoshop CS6 (^[135])
• 2013-03: Google offers Nik Collection plug-in suite for $149 (down from $499) (^[136])
• 2013-04: Lightroom 5 beta released with Visualize Spots, Radial Filter, and Advanced Healing Brush (^[137], ^[138])
• 2013-04: Doug Sloss publishes Lightroom local controls tutorial on Wetpixel (^[139])
• 2013-09: Adobe introduces $9.99/month Photography Plan with Photoshop CC and Lightroom 5 (^[140])
• 2013-12: Adam Hanlon reviews “Lightroom for the Underwater Photographer” (15+ hours, 68 lessons) (^[141])
• 2014-10: Adobe releases Aperture-to-Lightroom migration plug-in (^[142])
• 2015-02: Affinity Photo launched as Photoshop competitor at $50 (^[143])
• 2015-02: Photoshop celebrates 25 years (^[144])
• 2015-03: GoAskErin tutorials master list published, covering backscatter removal, puppet warp, radial and graduated filters (^[145])
• 2015-04: Lightroom CC/6 released with GPU rendering and HDR merge (^[146])
• 2016-03: DaVinci Resolve color grading tutorial for underwater video (^[147])
• 2017-04: Adam Hanlon publishes custom camera calibration profiles tutorial (^[148])
• 2017-10: Loupedeck editing console reviewed for underwater photography workflow (^[149])
• 2018-02: Vivid-Pix adds RAW/DNG support for underwater photography software (^[150])
• 2019-03: Photo Mechanic 6 ships as 64-bit application with 2-3x speed improvement (^[151])
• 2019-05: Lightroom Texture slider introduced; Hanlon demonstrates underwater applications including backscatter reduction (^[152])
• 2019-11: Creative Cloud 2019 updates; Lightroom Classic 9 features Tobias Friedrich’s image on splash screen (^[153])
• 2020-04: Adam Hanlon publishes comprehensive Lightroom field workflow tutorial (^[154])
• 2020-05: Tobias Friedrich releases modular underwater Lightroom presets (^[155])
• 2020-10: Alex Mustard presents workflow on Wetpixel Live; Erin Quigley presents on workflow (^[156], ^[157])
• 2021-03: Erin Quigley’s “Goo Gone” backscatter removal tutorial covers Lightroom and Photoshop tools (^[158])
• 2021-09: ON1 announces Photo RAW 2022 with AI-based noise reduction and Photoshop plugin hosting (^[159])
• 2021-11: GoAskErin hosts tutorials on Lightroom 11’s new AI masking tools (^[160])
• 2022-02: GoAskErin free Lightroom masking tutorial on new AI-driven masking panel (^[161])
• 2022-03: Wetpixel Live discusses computer hardware for underwater photographers (^[162])
• 2022-07: Erin Quigley addresses Adobe Camera Raw bug affecting Mac users opening RAW from Lightroom to Photoshop (^[163])

References

Wetpixel Live