Since this is a Photography Forum, I thought I would chime in as an amateur underwater photographer and the whole PS issue.
I personally see no problem using PS to post process digital stills as this is an integral part of photography. What was once done in a darkroom we now do with software, but the principals remain the same.
I shoot all my images in raw and post process any that I print. While I am underwater, I shoot in Manual mode, but I still can't make every adjustment to WB, exposure, ISO and Strobe power exact for each shot. These cameras are optimized for shooting at surface lighting conditions, and the depth of water greatly affects the ambient lighting. I do not remain at the exact same depth during a dive, so I am not able to make every single correction underwater to represent the actual conditions encountered.
Similar issues have to be dealt with when shooting under reef lighting as we are trying to recreate the lighting conditions underwater that corals are used to. It may be easier to make the adjustments on the camera when it is not in a bulky housing, but whether you change the WB, exposure, saturation, etc. on your camera or with software, exactly the same thing is happening.
Now when sand is green (not from algae
) or egg crate is neon or something, then that is another story.
But to criticize a photographer for post processing their images to some degree is not fair, and you should realize that this is not something new since the advent of digital cameras and PS. Many underwater photographers rely on post processing to accurately represent the conditions underwater. Depending on the photo, I may change WB, exposure, contrast, crop, saturation or vibrance slightly. You can tell when a photo is over processed and it doesn't look good. You can also tell when a photo is under processed, and that isn't accurately portraying the scene. Not going to get into vendor ethics photos, but photography is an art and unless someone is purposely misleading people for personal gain, then just enjoy the great shots!
Just my opinions as a diver who likes to take pictures.
