Backscatter Xterminator Plugin Review

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, humans began diving with strobes. They harnessed the power of underwater light, bringing it to the depths of the oceans to revive colors in that had been lost since the beginning of time. Unfortunately, in doing so they unleashed a curse, one that would plague every underwater photographer after them. It goes by the name of “backscatter”.

Generations of underwater image-makers have fought against this evil. Some of them have sharpened their skills and learned strobe positioning techniques to minimize the impact of backscatter. Yet, they remained situations, such as low-visibility diving, where backscatter was just too strong. In these conditions, the slightest light placement error or unfortunate kick in the sand would ruin all photographic endeavors. 

All hopes seemed lost, until one fine day of Autumn 2024, where Erin Quigley – the very queen of underwater photo editing – unveiled a super-power. Building on the wisdom of a celestial mage, she had been secretly designing a cure for backscatter, and it was finally time to reveal it to the underwater world…

Index:

• Before we dive in
• The end of a long wait
• What is BSXT?
• Does it really make backscatter go away?
• How long does it take to run?
• Watch your files size!
• BSXT and Underwater Photo Contests
• Conclusion

Before we dive in

Before we get started with this review, I want to clarify two things.

First, the dramatic introduction you just read is entirely my own creation—not the result of an AI-generated prompt gone wild. In fact, generative AI companies are not permitted to use The Underwater Club’s intellectual property to train their systems without permission (more on that topic in a forecoming blog article).

Second, I received a complimentary license in exchange for publicly sharing my thoughts on this product. However, all opinions expressed in my reviews are entirely my own.

The end of a long wait

Back on track—yes, I waxed lyrical, but for good reason. The arrival of Backscatter Xterminator (BSXT) is a game-changer in the world of underwater photography. An automated backscatter removal tool is something I had hoped to see for years, and it finally became a reality in late 2024. 

As with all my reviews, I like to spend a while using the product, and avoid drawing conclusions based on early impressions. I have now been using BSXT for over 4 months, and I think it’s a fantastic tool to have in one’s digital darkroom. Scroll-down for details.

What is BSXT?

BackscatterXTerminator (BSXT) is an adapted version of RC Astro, an AI-powered Photoshop plugin originally designed for astrophotography. It removes unwanted stars from images, and—fortunately for us—backscatter spots resemble distant stars. Yet, it was also necessary to ensure BSXT didn’t remove important textures and details found in underwater photos, which is why the GoAskErin team spent over two years training the AI model on underwater photos, so that it got better and better at recognising backscatter.

At the moment BSXT exists solely within Photoshop, so if you’re using Lightroom Classic for most of your editing work (which is what I do), you’ll need to right-click on the photo that requires backscatter removal, and select “Edit in Adobe Photoshop”. Once you’ve cleaned up your photo with BSXT (and perhaps taken advantage of Photoshop’s other powerful tools while you’re there), you can save your work as a TIFF file and continue editing in Lightroom, if you wish to do so.

Does it really make backscatter go away?

Yes—surprisingly well!

I’ve used BSXT to clean dozens of images, including both macro and wide-angle shots, as well as images taken with wet lenses that alter the optical properties of the camera, such as the Nauticam EMWL “bug-eye” system (see my review here) and the Nauticam Fisheye Conversion Port (review here). I was impressed by how well it handled the job, removing particles of different size, shape, colour and sharpness, or lack thereof. That said, it can occasionally go a little too far, removing baitfish, fish scales, or natural markings on marine animals. Remember, BSXT is designed to target anything resembling a star in an astrophotography image. 

Fortunately, the plugin comes with a Photoshop action—a simple button that automatically adds layers to your image, including a BSXT-cleaned layer with its own layer mask, that you can “brush off” to reveal the original photo. This may sound confusing if you’re not familiar with photoshop, but Erin has produced a clear step-by-step video tutorial that walks you through the process (available once starting the plugin’s free 2 days trial), making it easy to reduce BSXT’s effect when needed.

In macro photos, backscatter spots tend to be well defined, sharp and occupy sufficient space in the frame, so that they can easily be removed manually, should you be willing to spend the time. Wide angle photography is a different story. You can find yourself with hundreds, if not thousands of tiny particles revealed by your strobes, all looking tiny because of the larger scenes captures by wide-angle lenses. This is where BSXT truly performs beyond human capabilities (unless you’re willing to spend days on an image), by getting rid of these little sprinkles, no matter how tiny they might be.

As expected, BSXT won’t remove distractions that don’t resemble a star: you’ll have to keep removing manually any piece of algae, floating debris or bubbles. However, that is quick and easy to do while you’re in Photoshop, using the “cleanup” layer that is produced by the BSXT action, to help you do exactly that. Again, that process is covered by Erin in her BSXT tutorial (accessible as soon as you start your 2-days trial). 

Overall, I have really impressed by how detailed and discerning BSXT is, when it comes to identifying and removing particles of all sizes, with a minimal amount of manual intervention needed to correct omissions and over-zealous cleanups.

How long does it take to run?

One caveat with BSXT is that you have to wait while it processes a photo, and it’s far from being instantaneous. How long it takes depends on the size of your image and how powerful your computer is. For reference, below are a few examples on how on my Macbook Pro M1 2021 16in with 16 GB of RAM, this is how long BSXT took to run on various camera files:

Hot tip: If you know you have multiple images to clean, you can get BSXT to run on all of them sequentially, and then go grab a coffee while it crunches through the files. Here’s how:

• Step 1: select all the images you want cleaned in Lightroom Classic, right-click “Edit in Photoshop”. You will get a Photoshop window with one tab per photo.
• Step 2: in Photoshop, go to File > Automate > batch and pick the same options as mine (screenshot below) and hit OK.
• Step 3: go get that coffee and come back later to find all your files BSXT-ready. Then, you’ll need to check each image for missed specks or over-zealous cleans, as explained in the previous section.

All-in-one, if you just came back from a trip with thousands of images to edit, I recommend you use BSXT only for your very best images, where a deep cleanup would really make them shine, and justify jumping to Photoshop and spending time finessing BSXT’s work as needed. 

But I get it, we all have an emotional attachment to our work and it takes discipline to cull through one’s images, and prevent SSDs from filling-up fast. If you’d like guidance on how to review and select your underwater photos, check our Introduction to Underwater Photography course, where I describe my own process in details.

Watch your files’ sizes!

As mentioned above, when you work with Photoshop, your edits are saved in a TIFF file, which comes in addition to the RAW file that Lightroom is content with (Lightroom does save your edits in XMP “side-car” files, but these are pretty lightweight). The only problem is, that TIFF file is nearly 20 times larger than the original RAW file. This is a consequence of working in Photoshop rather than a BSXT issue, but a sure way to fill-up your SSD, if you tend to run most of your photos via BSXT. 

One thing you can do is flatten the file once you’ve finished cleaning it up (in Photoshop, Layer Menu>Flatten image). This compresses all layers into one, while preventing you from going back to editing those layers individually. Yet, it is well worth the compromise as it made my TIFF files around 4 times lighter. 

If you tend to process all your images in Photoshop anyways, then the above won’t be of concern to you. However if you’re mainly a Lightroom user, this is a good reason to ask yourself whether you do need every single photo cleaned to perfection. Floating particles are part of the natural world, and in many instances they won’t take the viewers’ attention away from the subject.

BSXT and Underwater Photography contests

Most competition organizers have reacted to the advent of generative AI by simply banning its use in post-processing. This begs the question: would using BSXT disqualify an image from entering competitions? It actually comes down to the editing rules specific to the contest.

If you like to compete, I would certainly recommend a dive in your archives, to retrieve those rare encounters and uncommon behaviors that would have made for great contest material… if they hadn’t been covered-up with backscatter. These now have a chance to shine, in the many competitions which don’t put an age limit on entries.  

Besides, whilst BSXT is AI-based, it doesn’t rely on generative AI, which is an important distinction. Most underwater photo contests let you use AI-assisted editing tools, such as auto-masking, as long as you’re not replacing other distractions than backscatter, nor adding any foreign element in the scene (do read the rules to be sure).

However, a number of contests have vague statements in their rules, in the lines of “backscatter removal is permitted, to the extent that the photo remains true to nature” or “limited backscatter removal is allowed”. For such contests you’ll have to make a judgement call, and hope that whomever audits your RAW file will share your opinion on how much cleanup is OK. 

For more advice on entering underwater photo contests, watch the talk I gave on “Selecting Photos for Competitions”, which is available on re-play (like all of our previous talks), for Members of The Underwater Club. 

Conclusion

Should you be getting a BSXT license? 

Absolutely! It has the power to rescue images of special encounters, and turnaround precious memories, which otherwise would lack visual appeal, due to backscatter. As a plugin it’s not exactly cheap, but if you consider how much you’ve already invested in equipment and dive travel, BSXT sounds to me like a very palatable insurance against underwater snowstorms. Besides, you’re buying a perpetual license (one-time payment) that lets you install it on 2 distinct computers. If you’re still on the fence, know that there’s a fully functional 48 hours trial version, so that you can try BSXT for yourself and see how it runs on your machine.

Should you decide to press the buy button, I urge you not to give up on learning those strobes positioning skills and solely rely on BSXT to fix poorly-lit photos afterwards. Yes this mighty tool is able to wipe a photo clean of backscatter, in a wide range of situations.  However as illustrated below, there are times a photo is so far gone that even the best tech won’t save it.

Besides, what is the value of your time? Would you rather spend hours waiting for BSXT to clean, one-by-one, the hundreds of images you brought back from a dive trip? Or, would you learn the tools and techniques that can minimize backscatter right in-camera, and launch BSXT only on the 1% of images that are special to you, but require a deep thorough clean? 

If that sounds like you, have a look at my self-paced underwater photography courses, available to members of The Underwater Club. The Lighting course includes a 30 minutes lesson dedicated to avoiding backscatter, a 90 minutes masterclass on shooting in low visibility, and many more resources to help you take great photos in-camera, that only require minimal post-processing.

About the author

Nicolas Remy is an Australia-based pro shooter and founder of online underwater photography school and community The Underwater Club, with members in 18 countries. Nicolas is an ambassador for Mares and Nauticam, and was Chair of the Jury for the DPG Masters 2024 competition.

His images have earned over 40 international awards and have been widely published in both print and digital media. As a seasoned photojournalist, he has written dozens of articles for publications such as DivePhotoGuide, Scuba Diver Magazine, and Plongez!, covering topics including marine life, dive travel, photographic techniques, and equipment reviews.

To see more images by Nicolas and his wife Léna, visit their website, www.nicolaslenaremy.com.