Underwater Lightroom Mastery

Turn The Consistent Underwater Editing System Into Your Personal Lightroom Workflow

A six-week live small-group program for underwater photographers who are tired of second-guessing their edits and want a clear, repeatable process they can confidently use on their own photographs.

Begins Wednesday, August 19, 2026

8:00 PM New York • 7:00 PM Chicago • 6:00 PM Denver • 5:00 PM Los Angeles

Limited to just 8 photographers

Founding Cohort: $497
or 2 payments of $275

Why Your Underwater Edits Still Feel Inconsistent

You already know that Lightroom has the tools to dramatically improve your underwater photographs.

The harder part is knowing what your photograph actually needs.

Should you fix the color first?

Raise the exposure?

Add contrast or clarity?

Create a mask?

Go back and change the white balance again?

That uncertainty is what leads to inconsistent edits, wasted time, endless adjustments, and photographs that sometimes look great and sometimes don't.

Underwater Lightroom Mastery is designed to change that.

Over six weeks, we'll work together to turn The Consistent Underwater Editing System into a workflow you can confidently apply to your own underwater photographs:

White Balance → Exposure → Presence → Color → Masking → Final Adjustments

And throughout the program, you'll practice the decision-making framework that makes the system work:

Diagnose → Decide → Move On

The goal isn't to memorize another list of Lightroom tools.

The goal is to reach the point where you can open one of your underwater photographs, recognize what it needs, make the right adjustment, and confidently move to the next step.

What You’ll Be Able to Do After Six Weeks

By the end of Underwater Lightroom Mastery, you should be able to open one of your underwater photographs and work through the edit with a much clearer sense of what to do next.

You’ll be able to:

Diagnose the photograph before you start adjusting it

Recognize the main problem first instead of immediately reaching for sliders.

Work through the six-step system in the correct order

White Balance → Exposure → Presence → Color → Masking → Final Adjustments

Know when an adjustment is doing its job

Make a decision, avoid endless tweaking, and confidently move on.

Adapt the workflow to different underwater photographs

Use the same decision-making process across subjects such as reefs, divers, macro, blue water, wrecks, and other common underwater scenes.

Produce stronger, more consistent edits with less backtracking

Spend less time guessing, revisiting earlier decisions, and wondering whether you are finished.

And most importantly, you’ll begin developing the confidence to look at your own photograph and say:

I know what this image needs next

That is the transformation this program is built around.

How Underwater Lightroom Mastery Works

This is not a course where you simply watch lessons and hope the ideas stick.

For six weeks, you’ll practice The Consistent Underwater Editing System using real underwater photographs, including your own, get feedback, ask questions, and repeat the process until the workflow starts becoming familiar.

Six Live Wednesday Classes

Each 90-minute class focuses on one step of the system:

Week 1: White Balance

Build the color foundation before making tonal decisions.

Week 2: Exposure
Create a usable tonal range without undoing the work you just completed.

Week 3: Presence
Use contrast, texture, clarity, dehaze, sharpening, and related adjustments with purpose rather than simply adding “pop.”

Week 4: Color
Refine individual colors only after the image has a solid foundation.

Week 5: Masking
Solve local problems without disrupting the entire photograph.

Week 6: Final Adjustments
Polish the image, prepare it for its intended use, and begin developing your own signature style.

Five Monday Q&A / Office Hours Sessions

Between classes, you’ll have an optional 45-minute live session where you can:

Ask questions about the week’s assignment
Get help when an edit is not working
Clarify decisions before moving to the next step
Learn from the questions and photographs of other participants

Work With Your Own Underwater Photographs

This is an implementation program.

You will not spend six weeks simply watching me edit my photographs.

Your own images become part of the learning process so you can practice diagnosing problems and making decisions using photographs that actually matter to you.

Focused Weekly Practice

Each week includes a practical assignment designed to reinforce that week’s step without overwhelming you.

The purpose is repetition, not busywork.

Recordings Included

Every Wednesday class and Monday Q&A session will be recorded so you can review the instruction or catch up if you occasionally miss a live session.

The Underwater Lightroom Mastery Workflow Guide & Workbook

You’ll also receive a simple reference guide built around:

White Balance → Exposure → Presence → Color → Masking → Final Adjustments

and

Diagnose → Decide → Move On

Something you can keep beside you while editing until the process becomes second nature.

Is Underwater Lightroom Mastery Right for You?

This program is designed for underwater photographers who already use Lightroom but still find themselves second-guessing their editing decisions.

It is a strong fit if you:

Understand the basic Lightroom interface and know how to make common adjustments
Want a more reliable way to decide what your photograph needs next
Sometimes get inconsistent results from similar underwater images
Find yourself revisiting earlier adjustments or overworking photographs
Have collected plenty of Lightroom tips but still do not have a repeatable workflow
Want feedback on your own underwater photographs
Are willing to practice between sessions and apply what you learn

This Program Is Probably Not for You If...

You are completely new to Lightroom and still need help learning where the basic tools are.

You are primarily looking for presets, one-click fixes, or shortcuts that replace understanding.

You want advanced Photoshop compositing or highly specialized retouching techniques.

You are not interested in practicing between sessions or working through the process on your own photographs.

What You Do Need

You should already be comfortable with the basic Lightroom interface and know how to make common adjustments.

You do not need to be an expert, but you should be far enough along that we can focus on the part that matters most:

Learning how to diagnose the photograph, make the right decision, and confidently move on.

That is where Underwater Lightroom Mastery begins to become your own repeatable editing workflow.

What’s Included in the Founding Cohort

When you join Underwater Lightroom Mastery, you’ll receive:

Six 90-Minute Live Small-Group Classes

One focused class for each step of The Consistent Underwater Editing System.

Five 45-Minute Monday Q&A and Office-Hours Sessions

Optional live support between classes when you need help with an assignment or editing decision.

Participant-Image Coaching

We will work with photographs from the group so you can see how the system applies to real underwater images, including your own.

Six Focused Practice Assignments

Designed to help you apply each step through repetition without creating unnecessary busywork.

Recordings of Every Live Session

Review a lesson again or catch up if you occasionally cannot attend live.

The Underwater Lightroom Mastery Workflow Guide & Workbook

A practical reference built around:

White Balance → Exposure → Presence → Color → Masking → Final Adjustments

and

Diagnose → Decide → Move On

Limited to 8 Photographers

This first cohort is intentionally small.

Keeping the group to just eight participants gives us time to work with individual photographs, answer questions, and provide the kind of feedback that would not be possible in a large online class.

Founding Cohort Investment

$497

2 payments of $275

Because this is the first Underwater Lightroom Mastery cohort, you are receiving the program at the Founding Cohort price.

Future live cohorts are expected to be offered at a higher price.

Why Learn With Bob Herb?

Underwater photography has been part of my life for more than 50 years.

With over 9,700 dives, I have spent decades photographing the underwater world and working through the same challenges every underwater photographer faces: lost color, difficult exposure, backscatter, low contrast, unpredictable water conditions, and photographs that do not always look the way the scene felt underwater.

Over time, I learned that better editing does not come from collecting more Lightroom tricks.

It comes from understanding what needs to happen first, what should happen next, and why each decision affects the ones that follow.

That experience became The Consistent Underwater Editing System.

My goal in Underwater Lightroom Mastery is not to turn you into someone who edits photographs exactly like I do.

It is to help you develop a dependable process that lets you make better decisions with your photographs and ultimately develop your own signature style.

That is what we will work on together for six weeks.

What Other Underwater Photographers Are Saying

“I’ve read every one of Bob’s Back to Basics posts carefully, and I continue to learn from each one. I attended a two-hour Lightroom webinar recently and picked up a few things, but nowhere near as much as I consistently learn from his blog.”

— Jesse, North Chelmsford

Frequently Asked Questions

How experienced with Lightroom do I need to be?

You should already be comfortable with the basic Lightroom interface and know how to make common adjustments such as White Balance, Exposure, Contrast, Color, and Masks.

You do not need to be an advanced Lightroom user. The focus of this program is not learning where the tools are. It is learning when to use them, in what order, and when to move on.

Do I need Lightroom Classic, or can I use Lightroom or Lightroom Mobile?

The Consistent Underwater Editing System can be used with Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, and Lightroom Mobile.

The interface and location of individual tools will vary between versions, but the editing sequence and decision-making process remain the same:

White Balance → Exposure → Presence → Color → Masking → Final Adjustments

Some advanced tools, particularly Masking, require a paid Lightroom subscription on mobile and may vary by device.

What if I miss a live class?

Every Wednesday class and Monday Q&A session will be recorded.

You will have access to all session recordings for 90 days after the final class, giving you time to catch up and revisit material as you continue practicing.

How much time should I expect to spend between sessions?

Plan on approximately 1 to 2 hours per week for focused practice.

The assignments are designed to reinforce the weekly lesson through repetition, not to overwhelm you with homework.

What kinds of underwater photographs can I submit?

You can work with the kinds of underwater photographs you actually shoot, including reef scenes, macro, divers, wrecks, blue-water images, available-light photographs, and strobe-lit photographs.

The goal is to learn how the same decision-making process adapts across different underwater situations.

How will participant-image coaching work?

Throughout the cohort, we will use participant photographs to work through real editing decisions together.

Because the group is limited to eight photographers, there will be meaningful opportunities to learn from both your own photographs and the images submitted by others.

Are the Monday Q&A sessions required?

No.

The Monday sessions are optional office hours designed to help you with assignments, questions, and editing decisions before the next Wednesday class.

They will also be recorded.

How long will I have access to the Workflow Guide & Workbook?

The Underwater Lightroom Mastery Workflow Guide & Workbook is yours to keep permanently.

Ready to Stop Guessing What Your Underwater Photograph Needs Next?

You do not need more random Lightroom tips.

You need a process you can trust, practice, and eventually use without constantly second-guessing yourself.

Over six weeks, we will work together to turn The Consistent Underwater Editing System into a repeatable workflow you can confidently apply to your own photographs.

White Balance → Exposure → Presence → Color → Masking → Final Adjustments

Supported by the decision-making framework:

Diagnose → Decide → Move On