Articles

Erin Quigley is absolutely obsessed with backscatter—getting rid of it, that is.

In part one of her video tutorial series “Out Damn Spot,” she explores the basic options for handling backscatter in Adobe Lightroom 4, with a special peek at the new Advanced Healing Brush in Adobe Lightroom 5 Beta.  With plenty of workflow tips and keyboard shortcuts (her other obsession) thrown in, Erin takes you through her process; from global to local adjustments in the quest for a spot-free image.
 

There must be hundreds of ways to digitally de-gunk gnarly water, and the secret to success is having a plethora of tools at your disposal. The more tricks you have up your sleeve, the more confident and proficient an editor you'll be. 

After living through the clean up on a few truly troubled pictures, you'll be a better photographer too, because you'll never want to have to deal with it again! Part two of the series will detail more advanced methods for banishing backscatter in Adobe Photoshop CS6. You can watch the video in full screen or in full size by clicking through to Vimeo--as backscatter can be hard to see in the smaller version.
 

As a special bonus, you can download her favorite Lightroom Shortcuts for Underwater Photographers from her website.