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  • Nicolas

    Administrator
    2025-12-19 at 9:25 pm

    Hi @billkuiper

    It’s a lovely, serene shot of a healthy coral patch. I like that you’ve left sufficient ‘breathing space’ on either side, and a good ratio of blue water above.

    You do have some fish life too, and for me the main improvement opportunity would be to sit there and wait for some more fish to swim just above, so they stand out nicely from the water.

    In terms of editing, I’d agree with Richard that the pink sand in the foreground looks un-natural. Sometimes you can have really pink rocks due to encrusting pink algae, but here I think this is just the white balancing aftermath, where the foreground didn’t receive a consistent ratio of strobe/sun light.

    When I see this on my shots (typical of the shadow of a fish sitting on the sand), I’ll either dial back the WB adjustment, or keep it as-is if I really like the colours, but then I’ll select the pink sand (colour mask in Lightroom) and adjust its White balance locally.

    Another comment: behind that small table coral, there is some sort of bright halo in the water, which happens when the coral/suject had been almost over-exposed, you’ve recovered highlights, but the water keeps the “scar”. I don’t know if that’s what happened, but if so, you might want to use another mask to blend that water colour/tone with the rest.