Holy Shit!

Sea lions playing in a very silty background Backscatter presents many challenges and is an underwater photographer's nightmare. Backscatter occurs when using external strobes to light the subject. As the ocean contains various suspended particles such as plankton, sediment, etc ... when the strobes flash, these particles are lit and cause a speckled or cloudy image.

There are various techniques to reduce backscatter such as strobe position and getting closer to the subject but there are times when the conditions are not ideal that backscatter becomes unavoidable.

When I last dove the Sea of Cortez in October 2024, I photographed numerous sea lions frolicking about which stirred up a lot of sand in the ocean floor creating a very silty image such as the sea lion images above and below.

I spent a few hours removing some of the backscatter using Lightroom's spot removal tool and I gave up because it was so tedious. And I really liked the shot of the sea lion so I just lived with the image as is. 🤷‍♀️

Recently, I learned of this new tool from Adobe ACE and underwater photography expert Erin Quigley called BackscatterXterminator that can get rid of backscatter in one click!

What??? I had to see it to believe it! 👀 👀 👀

After downloading the software I tried it on the above sea lion image and in one click and about 15 seconds later, holy shit!!! 💥 😮 💥

All the backscatter is gone! 💥 🤯 💥

Sea lions, no backscatter Here are other before and after images that applied the BackscatterXterminator.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

If you edit your underwater photos in Lightroom and Photoshop, the investment in the BackscatterXterminator is a no brainer. It'll save you hours of headache and give you so much time back that you can get back in the water and photograph more stuff.

Learn more about the BackscatterXterminator including how to download the software and try it out today!