Adobe Photoshop Auto White Balance

How good is Adobe Photoshop?
I have heard the term 'photo-shopped" before and I tried the product for the first time today and must say I am very impressed with the results.
Here a a few before and after "white balanced photos": I'll explain how easy it is at the end of this post.

Before Photoshop auto white balance

After Photoshop auto white balance

Before Photoshop auto white balance

After Photoshop auto white balance

Before Photoshop auto white balance

After Photoshop auto white balance

Before Photoshop auto white balance

After Photoshop auto white balance

In Photoshop this is very simple to achieve:

 Here are 3 simple steps to achieve the results above. I use the keyboard shortcuts to make things quicker

In Photoshop

1. Open a file that you want to white balance using "ctrl + o" or [pull down menu: file > open]
2. Select "ctrl + L" to select the levels options or [pull down menu: image > adjustment > levels]
3. click on the "auto" button" or "Alt + a"  and voila the above effects are achieved.

Simple and brilliant!

Oak Park 26 June 2010 New Slave Flash

All the pictures on this post were taken today using my new strobe slave attachment. I am very happy with the results, but I still need to work on the white balance and focusing.

My buddies were Brett Poole and Tom Acott. The Dive Master was Garth Donkin (pictured below greeting us back from the second dive). I'll write more descriptions about the pictures over the next few days.

Located at the end of the Cronulla Peninsula on the southern outskirts of Sydney, Oak Park is a very popular dive location, especially for learners and novice divers. Oak Park is an excellent "easy" dive for beginners and experts alike and is also a top night dive. This dive site begins at the end of Jibbon Street, Cronulla, adjacent to Oak Park. You can get more location information by clicking here

Giant Cuttlefish

 Tom with a Blue Groper

The dive site itself is basically a wall which runs in an arc from the shore, first towards the east and then north-east and finally north. The wall is about two to three metres high and has numerous low caverns or overhangs that are home to many beautiful fish. This site is also home to the friendliest blue gropers that you will ever find on a shore dive.

Brett smiling for the photo

The site is fairly protected from southerly winds and seas, but very big swells from that direction and basically anything from the east or north can wipe out this site from an entry/exit point of view.

Starfish of some sort?

After prolonged periods of heavy rain, Oak Park can be affected by storm water from Port Hacking, the mouth of which is only a few hundred metres away.

Nuidibranc

Visibility can range from 3 up to 15 metres, averaging 7 to 8 and is marginally better on an incoming tide.

Angel Shark

After arriving at the site, you should walk down towards the ocean and while standing above the ocean pool to the right of the beach, examine the sea conditions.

A Shrimp

Entry and exits can be made from two spots. Normally, I enter the water from the small inlet behind the north-east corner of the pool but at high tide I generally use the right hand (southern) side of the pool as even small swells can roll over the platform, with the potential to knock you off your feet. After deciding on your entry point, gear up in the street or park and then walk down to the water's edge.

Smiling Blue Groper

Another Nudibranc

A ball of catfish

• Oak Park- Google map showing entry exit points, reef and cave location

View Oak Park - the cave in a larger map

The Monument

On 29 April 1770, Lieutenant James Cook, RN, in HM Bark Endeavour entered Botany Bay and stepped ashore at Kurnell. 

Cook and his crew, including the famous scientist Sir Joseph Banks and his assistant Daniel Solander, explored the area of the bay and originally named it Stingray Harbour because of the large number of rays they caught. Cook stayed eight days and then headed north.

Both headlands of Botany Bay are part of Botany Bay National Park. The southern side is known as the Captain Cooks Landing Place section of the national park and is accessed from Captain Cook Drive at Kurnell. A fee is charged to use the park's facilities. There is a monument on the shore to commemorate the landing of Captain Cook and the reef North of this location has become known as The Monument dive site.

This is a really good site if the visibility is good and we were lucky in that the visibility was about as good as it gets at the Monument.

View The Monument in a larger map

The Monument is a very easy dive site, with the relatively longer surface swim being the hardest part. Due to its location right in the bay, viz can be a little worse here than the other sites around Kurnell. But it is still a very nice relaxing dive with usually lots to see. Once you enter the water you snorkel out over kelp in a north easterly direction. There is a red navigation marker out in the bay and if you head towards it you are going in the right direction.

 

Eastern Frogfish at the Monument

Once you become sick of snorkelling you can descend as sometimes large rays are seen swimming over the kelp. You will be in about 4m of water, keep following your compass till you come to a drop off. Drop over the wall for the main part of the dive. If viz is poor the top of the wall also makes an interesting dive. Swim along with the wall on your right.

Phil and Jess - Sophia and Eric in between dives

Monument's a great dive to take a torch, as they're overhangs hiding blue devil fish, wobbegongs, Port Jacksons, Giant cuttlefish and even the occasional banded coral shrimp.

The Monument entry point

This is a good dive to do as a drift dive if you have an outgoing tide, you can drift from the monument around to Sutherland point or the Steps.When exiting at the Monument make sure you swim up into the channel as there are many sea urchins on the rocks everywhere else.

There are some very timid turtles in the area and here is the proof. This was taken yesterday at the Monument.

 

Here is a map of the Monument dive site (area in blue on the Google map above) showing the reef, overhangs and surrounding area. 

(courtesy of Jemma Donkin)

PADI Open Water Instructor Exam - passed

Well I passed the 3 day instructor exam and to be honest it was nowhere near as hard as the Instructor Development Course.
I made a few mistakes on my open water presentation, more due to nerves than anything else, but still passed with flying colours.

My advice to anyone preparing for the exam would be to

• know your PADI standards, I saw a few people fail on the standards exam and I think it may be because everyone worries more about the diving theory than the Standards.

•  in any water presentations don't stop until you are cut. Our examiner would always cut the presentation once he had seen the required proficiency. I saw someone fail by not getting all parties to donate and receive air using an alternative air source. They told the examiner they were finished and he shrugged his shoulders as if "are you sure?". They said "yes" and failed!

This is the traditional "Jager Bomb" the final rite of passage for Abyss Instructors.