The Underwater Lounge

Boston Sea Rovers Workshops

Doug — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 16:04:18 +0000

Just wanted to let everyone know I will be hosting two new workshops at the 55th annual Boston Sea Rovers clinic next weekend (March 7th & 8th) in the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel located in downtown Boston. One will be Photoshop CS4 for the Underwater Shooter and the other is Lightroom 2 for Underwater Photographers You can also check out some more details including sign-up information at OceanMagicProductions.com Hope to see you there!

Doug

Episode 6 - Get Smart - Creative use of the Smart Sharpen Filter

Doug — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:51:38 +0000

Hey Everyone! Today we are going to take a look at Photoshop’s Smart Sharpen filter and how it offers more control and increased flexibility compared to many other sharpening techniques Photoshop has in its collection. Check out this short video to help make your images look as crisp as possible.

Click Here to View Episode 6 (10MB)

Episode 5 - Surface Interval Blues

Doug — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 06:38:26 +0000

Hey everybody,

Well, it has been a long time since my last post, but after wrapping up a few projects on my end I am back and have plenty of fresh new videos to upload to the Lounge. I am going to start this next series of videos with one more topside tutorial before diving back into some underwater tips. You’ll find this next video quite helpful in injecting tropical blue back into those beach shots with lots of sky. Already got a winner? This technique makes great looking shots spectacular. Have fun with this one and stay tuned for more excitement to come!

Click Here to View Episode 5 (19MB)

Episode 4 - Impressive Black and Whites

Doug — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:21:10 +0000

Hey everyone! After a great vacation to the ends of the Earth, The Underwater Lounge is back for another exciting episode. Today, we are going to take a look at one way to create compelling black and whites from your colored images. While there are numerous ways to achieve this in Photoshop, many techniques leave your images looking flat and uninteresting. Here is a professional way to generate some high contrast snap for an image when you want to take the color away. And yes, you can apply it to all your underwater and topside images too. Enjoy!

Click Here to View Episode 4 (15MB)

Episode 3 - Creating Artistic Frames Using the Filter Gallery

Doug — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 04:41:19 +0000

Welcome back everyone! For this week’s tip I have decided to show another lesson sample off the home page of Underwater Photoshop. I am in the process of re-rendering the example Flash movies for faster upload times so users with slow connections can enjoy them too, and figured I should just test them right here in the Underwater Lounge. This weeks lesson shows how easy it is to create a very professional looking artistic frame in which to showcase both your underwater and topside images. The technique is easy and fun to do with limitless possibilities. Enjoy!

Click Here to View Episode 3 (11MB)

Episode 2 - Sharpening Underwater Images Using the High Pass Filter

Doug — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:27:46 +0000

I have a new column in June/July edition of Scuba Diver Australasia, one of Asia’s coolest dive magazines titled the Photo Shop. The article features a tutorial on how to sharpen images using the High Pass Filter. You can view the tutorial by logging on to www.scubadiveraa.com and follow along as you work on one of your own images. Check it out, you’ll see it on their home page on the right hand side. I have decided to include it here as Episode 2 since the video is highly compressed and quite small on the magazine’s website for bandwidth reasons. Click on the image you see here or one of the links below to learn how to sharpen your underwater images with the High Pass filter. Enjoy!

Click Here to View Episode 2 (25MB)

Click Here to View Episode 2 (8MB)

Episode 1: Correcting Underexposed Images

Doug — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 06:12:21 +0000

Hello and welcome to the first show! In this episode, we are going to take a look at one way to quickly and effectively correct an underexposed image. This is a great technique to use when just starting out in Photoshop and is also quite effective for experienced Photoshop users and shooters with lots of images that don’t merit a full blown session of exposure adjustment using the Curves or Exposure commands of Adobe Photoshop. While the technique is quite easy to learn, advanced users will appreciate the unique way the Apply Image Command is used to quickly create an effective layer mask for optimum exposure correction in an image. Enjoy and don’t be surprised at what you might just learn. Stay tuned for some more exciting news and video tutorials real soon!

Click here to view Episode 1 (25MB)

Click here to view Episode 1 (8MB)

The Underwater Lounge has Launched!

Doug — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:48:22 +0000

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Underwater Lounge, an exciting new place to learn all sorts of creative tips and techniques for editing and enhancing your underwater and topside images. The Lounge will also serve as the online home and blog of me, your host Doug Sloss, and be a place where digital photographers can pick up some interesting techniques to help edit and improve their photography with a strong concentration on underwater imagery.

Tune in each week for the video podcast which will feature a 5 to 10 minute technique using Adobe Photoshop mostly geared toward underwater shooters. The easy-to-follow video lessons will feature a range of techniques designed for intermediate to advanced users, yet will be presented in such a way that even beginners will be able to follow along and become productive users of Photoshop in no time.

As with most things in life, the Underwater Lounge will forever be an evolving work in progress. Enjoy the ride!