Correct a color cast like a Pro

[Epphoto]

Open your Threshold dialogue box : In the Threshold dialogue box, pull the little slider at the bottom all the way to the left. See the remaining bits of your photo? Those are the darkest bits. .Get the Color sampler tool ( make sure your sample size is 3 by 3 average ) and place a mark on the darkest spot
Do the same on the lightest spot (pull the little slider at the bottom all the way to the right ) and place a mark
Now just drag the Threshold adjustment layer on trash
You will able to see the 2 mark as 1 and 2
Now Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer and choose Curves
(Use Curves for color cast and Levels for contrast )
On the Curves Layer get the black eye eyedropper and sample the #1 mark ( this is your Darkest spot on the picture)
Do the same on the lightest spot, get the eyedropper and sample the #2 mark ( this is your lightest spot on the picture)
Now you will see all the color cast is gone
We have to do one more thing before we finish here
We have to find the natural gray spot on the picture this way we can balance the picture correctly
Then if we know are darkest ,lightest, and the natural gray were they call it 50% gray in the picture we will have a prefect white balance to start with
Create a new Layer
Go to Edit/Fill/ and under contents choose 50% gray /then OK
Now under blending modes choose difference and you will see a deferent look in your picture
Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer and choose Threshold adjustment layer
Pull the little slider at the bottom all the way to the left and get the Color sampler tool ( make sure your sample size is 3 by 3 average ) and place a mark on the darkest spot again #3
Now just drag the Threshold adjustment layer on trash
Double click on the Curves layer and this time we get the middle eyedropper and sample the #3 mark
This is going to give you the 50% gray on your picture

Wow!!! that was a lot for me to type
If you don 't loose your cast in the water we will move to the next step ...
I do this to all my pictures and I call the Curves layer global
It's always's nice to start with a picture were you know it is not color cast on it
It's not going to give you a 100% color cast free picture but it is going to get you very close to it

I hope this will help
Thanks E-man

[D.Rodgers]

Good Tut Eman,i just happen to have an image i will try this on.
Some karma for you work !well done bro.

[Epphoto]

Originally Posted by D.Rodgers

Good Tut Eman,i just happen to have an image i will try this on.
Some karma for you work !well done bro.

Thanks I did post this one on your post also
Thanks again E-man

[morrow47]

Would this be the first thing I do after opening the file in Photoshop. I am tring to setup a workflow for my photography, any suggestions?

[Epphoto]

Originally Posted by morrow47

Would this be the first thing I do after opening the file in Photoshop. I am tring to setup a workflow for my photography, any suggestions?

Yes that is what I do
After that i work within a sections
Example: I work with my sky, then i work on my ground, then my main subject,
After i have finish with all the above ,i do my final color/saturation and save
thanks

[morrow47]

Thanks for the info. I have a long way to go, but every step so far has been fun.

[tieugau]

Thanks epphoto, that is the very simple and technique described also in SKIN book.

[felix.reichardt]

great, I will give that a try.

[Joel]

Originally Posted by felix.reichardt

great, I will give that a try.

Yeah me too.

[Worm324]

That is an awesome technique!! I've been doing the first part of that for a long time, but never knew how to find the 50% gray area Thanks so Much E-man!!

Karma all the way

Best,
Jay

[Worm324]

I just wanted to add that this works really good!! I just tried it on an already white balanced photo and it really added a nice POP to the image as well as took away some of the yellow color cast it had.

Thanks again,
Jay

[jfrancho]

Originally Posted by Worm324

That is an awesome technique!! I've been doing the first part of that for a long time, but never knew how to find the 50% gray area Thanks so Much E-man!!

Karma all the way

Best,
Jay

Jay, this is the same tech used in Pickles' correct jpeg WB post. E-man just put it all together in one fell swoop. I think it was a real mistake for Kelby not to include the 50% gray correction in his Photoshop for Photogs books.

[Worm324]

Yeah, that 50% gray layer was the missing link I never new about. Why Kelby didn't include it is beyond me? I've seen tons of tutorials by various teachers on the threshold curves adjustment layer method, and none of them ever included the 50% gray layer step. They pretty much just say search around the image for a neutral area? Thats seems nutz when this option is 2 clicks away and accurate?

I missed Pickles post unfortunately or just looked at it so long ago I totally forgot about the 50% gray layer part

Best,
Jay

[Vjim]

Kelby has it in several of his books; he credits Dave Cross for finding it.

page 223,PSCS3 for Digital Photographers c 2007


Love,
Vjim

[jfrancho]

That's good to hear - it wasn't in CS or the CS2 editions. I didn't bother with CS3 since it didn't seem to offer that much to me.