Well, back in the old days, we would use filters on our lenses to get
the look we were attempting to achieve... Sometimes a simple polarized
lens would work, sometimes a gradient filter was necessary... There is
also an issue of dynamic range that our eyes can see that film or
video images might not necessarily record... There are probably two
schools of thought with respect to photography... One is just an
accurate recording of what was originally seen... The other is
photography as a art form... Awh 'ell, do you think that all those
girls in Playboy really look that way?  I've done extensive research
into this matter and up until recently (i.e. body piercing fads), it
was very difficult to find girls with staples in their navels...

Even the old black & white photographers used colored filters to make
certain colors stand out more than they normally did... These days, we
do our enhancements with software... Even when you take your photos to
your local film print shop, you'll find them making subtle corrections
to your photos if they see something that doesn't look right due to
the type of light that you were taking the photo under... That was one
of the advantages of slide film in that they tended to follow your
instructions and you got exactly what you shot (for good or bad)...

What we do in Photoshop is no different than what Ansel Adams used to
do in the darkroom. He did it much more effectively, of course, and he
had better material to work with, but the amount of time and effort he
put into the darkroom, using filters, burning and dodging, selecting
papers, soaking in chemicals and so on, was much greater on any given
photo than what we do now with any given exposure.

Unless you are completely transforming images, you can make simple but
dramatic improvement just using the levels, brightness/contrast and
saturation adjustments with a little sharpening, all of which can be
done in PS or PSP or any other image software available. The
sharpening filters are the only ones that don't duplicate what used to
be done in the darkroom, and they are needed with digital photographs
because of the nature of most digital sensors, which don't record
images the same way film does. Some sharpening is always necessary, no
matter how good the original image is.

So get a photo editor, even a cheap one, and learn to use it. Even if
you are shooting just for your own memories, your memories will
improve as your final images improve.

There's a lot of potential in what you shot, even some pretty good
stuff for a first time out. You've already figured out a couple of
things -- on-camera flash doesn't do the job underwater, for example.
Free-swimming fish are very hard to shoot, especially with digital and
even minor shutter lag. The other thing that everyone has to learn
very early is you're never close enough. One of the most important
tricks is to put as little water as possible between the camera and
the subject. Colors are better, images are sharper and there's less
whale snot when you get close. When you think you're close enough, get
a little closer.

Keep practicing. The great thing about digital is that pixels are
cheap, and you can review your results instantly. Good luck.

gc

Don't.  The point of photography is not to do a literal, documentary
representation of what you see.  no photo is a representation of what
you've seen (unless you can only see 5-7 stops worth of dynamic
range).  Even your choice of film: Velvia vs Astia, for example,
affects the results.

Post-processing has been a part and parcel of photography since times
immemorial - see Ansel Adams.  Digital merely puts those tools of the
traditional darkroom within the reach of more people.

Short answer: there's nothing wrong with retouching your pictures
(within reason) on the computer.  In fact, if you shoot with a DSLR,
you *should* be editing the images on the computer (DSLRS are designed
that way).

V.

 He had the "puffer" part nailed... :-)

 <Make that the American connotation.>

not wrong I was trying out my new gills after doing the "Swim with gills"
PADI course. Only US$525.99 and I got to keep the manual what a bargain