New to color correcting

zozo · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:09 pm Post subject: New to color correcting

Hey all,

Ive never really used photoshop to do alot of color correcting and photo retouching so I was wondering if I could get some feedback on this shot. Thanks in advance.

BryanDowning · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:19 pm Post subject:

You did great! You can see the face so much better in the second picture. The snow is much brighter as well. Good job.

cyborg · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 1:38 pm Post subject:

wow! what a difference....that looks great..you even made the shine of her pants stand out really well

vel · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 3:35 pm Post subject:

it really is nice

good technique, keep it up

thehermit · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 4:29 pm Post subject:

The picture is high key in the blue channel, you have ramped the blue channel instead of neutralising it, in other words you have gone the wrong way. You have done a good job of bringing some of the details in the shadows out.

thehermit · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 4:48 pm Post subject:

Here it is colour corrected - here is the method I used, bear with me if it gets confusing.

Duplicate the photo layer (as standard)

Add a Threshold Adjustment layer. Double click the Threshold Adjustment layer in the Layers Palette. The context sensitve box should come up with the Histogram and the 3 eyedroppers. Underneath the Histogram is a slider, slide it to the left until there are nearly no black pixels left in your image. Mark this point with the Colour Sampler Tool ( I on the keyboard and it may help you find a single pixel if you use an accurate cursor (Caps Lock). To mark the White point double click the Threshold Adjustment layer again and repeat the above steps.

You should be left with a picture with 2 pointers on the canvas marking the B&W points. If not make sure that you have been using the Colour Sampler Tool and not just the Eyedropper Tool.

You can now throw away the Threshold Adjustment layer.

Add a Curves or Levels Adjustment layer. Navigate to the black and white eyedroppers and align the marks on the canvas to the eyedropper points.

Welcome to your 1st colour corrected photo! Big Wink

(hopefully) Colour correcting should really be the 1st thing you do when looking at a photo.

I also added a high pass sharpen technique with a soft light blend mode to just pick up on some of the details and then went a little further by adding a slight fill flash method to bring some details out of the shadow even more (not neccesary - but hey!)

Hope this helps you. I would also like to add that the technique is not my own but Katrin Eismanns, I share it with the intention of spreading knowledge.

vel · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 4:52 pm Post subject:

i dont think its as good.. maybe more "correct" color-wise, but it doesnt look as good

nice try though

zozo · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 5:41 pm Post subject:

Hey thehermit,

I did want to saturate the blues to get the "Cold" that that day was, but your techniques will definetly come in handy for some other shots I need to fix. Thanks for the tip!

thehermit · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 5:52 pm Post subject:

It's fine whatever way you feel best suits the image - the method I supplied has only bought out the colour that was there on the actual day, the blue is a colour caste.

It doesn't need colour correcting if you are happy with the image

zozo · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 5:55 pm Post subject:

Hey thehermit,

Im trying that tip out now on antother image. When adding the threshhold adjustment layer I do get the histogram but I dont any eyedroppers, just a slider. Im using CS for Windows.

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