Easiest way to fix a bad color cast?

[spystyle]

Howdy Camels!

I am having a tough time with fixing some photos taken under funky yellow lights, I am curious what is the easiest way to deal with them.

Here is a sample :



Yes I know I should have set my camera's white balace to "lightbulb" but I totally spaced on location... They gave me too much candy... *sigh*

I have tried CS3 and I still can't get it just right, it may be the worst case of yellow cast I have ever encountered!

Thank you,
Craig

[blumesan]

I assume it's a jpeg file. You can open the file in ACR and then adjust white balance fairly easily. This works much better than trying to do it in PS3.

[spystyle]

Thanks for the reply.

Are you referring to adobe camera raw?

[blumesan]

Originally Posted by spystyle

Thanks for the reply.

Are you referring to adobe camera raw?

Yes. If you right click on the jpeg thumbnail in Adobe Bridge there should be an option: "Open with Adobe Camera Raw"

[Mr. Pickles]

Try this thread....

JPG White Balance Fix Tutorial

[spystyle]

Mister P to the rescue!

Thanks

[spystyle]

Well I'll be d@mned, it worked perfectly. It was not at all "easy" though, mind numbingly tricky the first time.

Here it is correted :

[spystyle]

OK, here are Mister P's words with a little added for n00bs. I don't think he'll mind.

-------------------------------------------

1. Open "bad" image.

File > Open



2. Add a new blank layer.

Layer > New Layer, click OK



3. Fill new layer with 50% Gray

Press Shift-Backspace (on PC), click OK





4. Change the Layers Mode to Difference. (Image will be odd looking, but don't worry)

Click histogram tab, layers tab, change the drop down menu to "difference"





5. Now add a new Threshold Adjustment Layer, which will pop-up an odd looking histogram with one slider in the middle.

Layer > New adjustment layer > Threshold



6. Slide the slider all the way to the left, and then slowly back to the right till you see some black areas, and then stop and hit OK.



7. Click Navigator tab and zoom in so the black area is big

8. Now, switch to the Color Sampler Picker tool (NOT the Eyedropper).

Right click the eyedroper tool to change it to Color Picker tool

9. Using the Color Sampler Picker, pick right in the black area (Turn CapsLock ON to get a bullseye pointer that is easier to use).



10. Now delete or turn off the Threshold and the gray filled layers, as they are not needed anymore.

Layer > Delete layer, click yes
Layer > Delete layer, click yes

11. Make sure you are on the Image layer. Now add a Curves Adjustment Layer.

Layer > New Adjustment layer > Curves



12. Click the Gray (middle) eyedropper in the dialog, and pick right on the Color Sampler Point. (Caps Lock ON is easier)



Use the Black and White eyedropper too if you have blacks and whites in the image.
Image should be "color corrected" now, so close the dialog by hitting OK.
With Color Sampler Picker still active, click the "Clear" button in the top toolbar to remove the "point"

Fixed



Thanks to Mister Pickles for his instructions

[korman]

Craig,

here's another way that works quite well if you have white areas in your picture such as the wall behind the girls and if you're not afraid of numbers and histograms.

First check as per Benji's article the exposure of your image, specially the highlights. In your image, the most interesting area is bright spot on the little girl's forehead. I get a RGB reading there of 255/222/151. If you work with the curves, you might as well fix those and reduce all values by at least 15.

Next check the RGB reading of something that should be white or neutral grey like the wall. I selected a spot on the wall quite far up, because it appeared brightest and got 228/179/111. If that colour was white or grey, the 3 values should be the same. To get the same values everywhere, we could to add 0/49/117.

Before doing that, take the opportunity to fix the exposure too by subtracting the 15 from above. Now we have -15/34/102.

Before we get ahead, lets do a quick check on the brightest spot with the correction. (255/222/151) + (-15/34/102) = (240/256/253). That's cutting it a little close on green channel, so lets subtract another 4 everywhere to get a correction of: (-19/30/98 ).

In Gimp I need to move the red colour curve down to (255,236), the green curve to the left to (221,255) and the blue one to (153, 255) as shown in the attached image.

Now the wall should be reasonably white and you can go on modifying the white balance so that you get the skin tones you want. The other attached images shows the result from that operation without any further correction of the skin tones.

Perhaps this helps.

Korman

[spystyle]

Well, I never thought I'd say this but ... Good post Korman, Thanks.

[spystyle]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pickles

Try this thread....

JPG White Balance Fix Tutorial

I wonder if there is a photoshop plugin that would do this automatically?

[spystyle]

Oh snap, I stumbled upon a way to achieve similar results with 2 clicks.

Adobe Photoshop elements 6 "quick editor"

Enhance > Auto Smart Fix (ALT + CTRL + M)
Enhance > Auto Color Correction (SHIFT + CTRL + B)

This is assuming the exposure is a little dim, as a rule of thumb underexposed images that are brightened need to have a little saturation removed manually.

Of course auto things don't work all the time, but so far fixing my Thanksgiving photos it has worked.

Cheers,
Craig

[WayneF]

One click often works too, so to speak. CTRL-L to open the Adobe Levels tool. Then click the center eyedropper to make that center eyedropper be the effective tool. Then click some spot in the image which ought to be white or any neutral gray (from light to dark, doesnt matter so long as it ought to be neutral gray). This center eyedropper will remove any color cast present at that spot, over the full image.

In this case, click the lower right corner of the white interior border around the picture on the wall. Presto. Looks right to me. Certainly much better. Use 100% viewing size to help click on your goal.

This only works to the extent that clicked spot should actually be white or neutral gray. If it is a bit off, then bad results (so you Cancel or Undo). For example, clicking a front tooth here does not quite work. Many pictures include something suitable, but we can include a white or gray card in the corner of a test picture for this purpose, to click on and then be cropped out.

[spystyle]

Thanks for chiming in Wayne

---------

OMG and SNAP !!!

I have been using Elements (as opposed to PS CS3), specifically Element's "quick edit", and I can not belive how easy it is to use! It has only the options you need to quickly and easily fix a messed up pic - I am ripping through the messed up pics my neices took on Thanksgiving with such ease. I don't use the auto modes as I stated above, now I just use the few sliders available in "quick edit" mode and it is sweet.

I heartily recommend Elements' quick edit to anyone who finds full blown photoshop rather overwhelming.

It's awesome I just had to tell someone.

Cheers,
Craig

[yaksha]

Dear spystyle

Easiiest way to do the job is to open in Picasa 3 and click onthe button I am feeling lucky. Zap and your picture is perfect.

Yaksha

[R. House]

Spystyle, just some advise. Forget the easyest way and find a correct way. The "auto fixit" might work for most of your photos, but when you get one of those special keepers you want to do it right. A good excercise in white ballance is Rawtherapy. The WB selector usually gives very good results. Learning the tools and practice will make post processing more rewarding and less time consuming...easier. The easiest way should also be a correct way for you. WB is a subjective choice and using auto fixit is letting a software programmer decide for you.

[spystyle]

I agree. The auto mode doesn't work all the time and I should pick a program and learn it

I'm liking Element's quick editor for now. I appreciate how simple and intuitive it is.

Have fun
Craig

[PrestonSmith]

The advantage of using Adobe Camera Raw is that you can fix one or one hundred all at once, assuming they need the same correction. Once you are in ACR, click Select All, make your corrections on one photo and it is appied to all. Done.

[swampler]

If you shoot in RAW mode, you can just change it afterward to the light bulb setting.

[spystyle]

Interesting, I did not know that.

Though for these Thanksgiving pics, they were from two different cameras and the events took place in several different (badly lit) rooms, so each pic pretty much had to be individually edited.

Anyway, thanks for chiming in Some love RAW, I personally avoid complicating things and that includes using JPG. Ken Rockwell has an interesting article about RAW.

Simplicity, it's a thing of beauty to me. Though I can still dig those who love complex Rubix cube type things

Have fun!
Craig