I have a bad habit in photoshop. Sometimes I sit there for 2-3 hours messing with one image (if it is worth it) and I try all kinds of settings. One thing I found that I liked to sometimes do to portraits is to create a B&W layer. I use Nik Color Efex Pro to do a B&W conversion which will also create a new layer. If you do not have this plug in filter, you can just duplicate the layer by choosing “Layer” and then “Duplicate Layer”. On that duplicate layer convert it to B&W by choosing “Image”, “Adjustments” and then “Desaturate” from the top menu in Photoshop. Again, I am using CS3.
If you do have Nik Color Efex, just choose the filter and choose the “B&W Conversion” filter:
After this step I will have two layers. One will be my adjusted color layer and the other will be the B&W converted layer. Choose the B&W layer and set the opacity to about 20%.
Finally, I choose the “DODGE” tool from the toolbar on the left side of the screen in Photoshop. I set the brush size to 147 and chose “midtones” under the RANGE setting. I then set the exposure to between 10-15%. I took the tool and ran it across his face to brighten it up a bit more. Doing this makes the subject stand out just a bit more IMO, but it is not always necessary.
so here is what I ended up with:
Honestly, I am still not happy with the AFTER result but with a JPEG it is about as good as you can get using photoshop. While the original was a bit overly warm to me, this corrected version SO FAR seems a little too “COLD” or blue. How do I dix this?
I start with choosing “Layer”, then “Duplicate Layer” in the menu. I then mess with the saturation to see if it helps or just makes it worse. Here I boosted the saturation a bit and here is the result.
and with some more tweaking of the brightness and contrast and saturation I got this (click for larger):
and once again here is the BEFORE image - click for larger:
So by using some of the tools in photoshop you can improve the color of your OUT OF WHACK JPEGS!
Hope some of you found this helpful. Also, this was a lesson on how I color correct my images in CS3. I am sure many out there have different methods. This is just one of them.
Thanks for looking! More coming soon! New reviews this week! Also, what camera/lens would you like to see me review? I now have access to just about any camera or lens and would love to review whatever gets the most requests. This week I am getting the Olympus E3 and E30 with the 12-60 and 14-54II lenses. Those reviews will be up very soon. After that I was thinking of the following:
Sony A900
Nikon D5000
Olympus E620
Canon 500D
Leica 24 Summilux Lens
Leica 35 Summicron Lens
Leica M9
Oh wait, that last one is not out quite yet :) Let me know what you want to see me review AFTER the Oly E3 and E30 cameras! Just add a comment here if you like, or email me! Thanks!!
Steve
HOW TO FIX THE COLOR IN YOUR IMAGES - LESSON 2
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Well here I am again with another quick and easy photoshop lesson. If you have seen Lesson 1, you will know its been a little while since that post. I have been extremely busy with cameras coming and going and this weekend I had a break from shooting. I decided to put up a quick and easy lesson on how to fix the color in your JPEG digital images!
This past Friday I was sent an e-mail from a buddy of mine who wanted me to fix the color in one of his images. It was a portrait of his friend and it appeared to me that the white balance was wayyyyyyy off! Also, whatever was used for lighting was also way off.
After looking at it and wondering if I could fix it I sent him a message saying I would try. I did not get the RAW file, but a TIFF. In any case I went to work on it and the end result came out pretty good. Maybe not perfect but the best I could do without a RAW file.
I will not post that image here as it is not mine to post, but I did find an image from last year that I snapped of my goofball son with a Canon 5D and 24L lens. The White Balance of that camera kind of stinks with indoor light so it had some room for improvement. I have the RAW file but will only use the JPEG here as I want to see if the color and be fixed.
Here is the “before” image:
As you can see it is kind of on the yellow warm side. I believe I had the camera on AUTO WHITE BALANCE which is where many people leave their cameras. This image, to me looks awful. What I want to do here is fix the color, then maybe de-saturate it a bit and sharpen up the face a bit.
The first thing I do is adjust the color balance in photoshop. I choose “adjustments” and then “color balance” from the top menus:
You can see the settings I used on this image. If your image is on the yellow/warm side then this is a good place to start to “cool it off”. You can mess with the sliders here and see what happens when you slide them to their extremes. This will help you to see what they do.
Next, I adjust the saturation. I actually LOWER it a little as I prefer less saturation when it comes to portraits, but this is personal preference. If you like high saturation with your portraits then you can skip this step.
The most important step of fixing “off” color is the COLOR BALANCE tool. But, if you want to make sure your images are always spot on, shoot in RAW mode and adjust during your conversion!
After this saturation adjustment I went ahead and adjusted the brightness and contrast to bring a little light to his face:
