Rich,
You may want to try the Color Cast correction tool…
Enhance > Adjust Color > Color Cast
With the tool open, click with the eyedropper cursor on various areas of your image that should be black, white or gray – try various spots to see which gives you the best result.
Byron
Another suggestion
Enhance> Auto Color Correction I often get very good results with this selection.
Or, maybe you’ve already tried this?
Just on account of because…
If your digital camera allows a manual white balance adjusment. You might check out Warm Cards: <
http://www.studio1productions.com/warm_cards.htm>
I have been using them with my Nikon 5700, and have got very good results. I have been using the 1/2 warm card, after I set my lights I use the set white balance with this card and helps the skin tones alot. They also have cards for 1 warm thru 3 warm, and grey and white.
There is a special card set for digital cameras, it is differant from there other set.
For what it’s worth,
Ralph
<
http://www.darkstar.us>
Ralph, thanks a lot – will have to look into the cards!
I don’t mean to be cheap but for those of us who are amateurs wouldn’t a piece of colored cardstock work just as well?
Terri
If you knew the colors, for instance, the warm cards are actually a shade of blue, the warmer, the bluer..er..er.
By telling the camera that this blue is white is how it works. Providing you get the right shade, I suppose it would be possible.
Ralph
<
http://www.darkstar.us>
Back in my film photography days and working in a color darkroom, we used a set of color correction filters to check the color balance of finished prints.
I wonder if you could use those same filters when looking at the monitor or whether you’d have to print an image first to judge?
Just wondering……
Dick
That worked very well. I still had to ajust red a bit, but this got me very close. Thanks.
I wonder if you could use those same filters when looking at the monitor or whether you’d have to print an image first to judge?
Dick, Photoshop CS includes photographic filters for just that. I hope they’ll be in the next version of Elements, too. They’re really great.
Dick, I suppose you refer to the "Kodak color print viewing filter set" ? (If I remember the name the right way)
I remember (from the days before digital)I tried to use this kit as a reference to judge some slides before printing, but it did provide hardly any useful information.
I suppose it is just only for checking the finished prints as you should be able to judge the images in daylight too to compare to the "filtered" prints to check wether it might improve this way.
I almost forgot about this filter kit and I think I’ll ask my wife where I might find it. 😉 It might be a useful tool to check my inkjetprints too.
(I still haven’t seen it on anyones Christmas list either)
Leen
Leen–
Yep that’s the one. It was always, for me, harder to use that set on prints from transparencies, than it was on prints from negs.
I was taking a color class at a local community college when I first ran into those filters. Once I had the theory explained to me, it got easier. I should have bought a set back then, they were cheaper!
Dick
I should have bought a set back then, they were cheaper!
Yeah, Dick, but back then in the Stone Age, the dollar was worth a lot more…:) Bert
That’s true, Bert, and I didn’t have any more them then than I do now!
For correcting White Balance in PSE, you might try going back to Levels and correcting the Red, Green and Blue channels separately. If this makes your contrast drop, you can then correct the levels of the RGB composite channel. This is done thru the drop down at the top of the Levels dialog box. Apply it to an adjustment layer.
In the Levels command, there are also eyedroppers that you can use to click on the image to set its white or black point(s). find some portion of the image that should be white or black in click on it.
These aren’t the greatest methods, but they might help.
OT – I also vote for the Warm Cards. The create nice warm light in landscapes, and the green one does a nice correction in fluorescent light. I’m not crazy about the warm effect when there are people in the shot.
Each card also has a White Card on the back side, so you can always use that for setting WB. The "digital" set also comes with a Kodak Gray Card.
There is also another trick that works great. Put a Pringles potato chip lid over the lens. Point the camera toward the light source, and press the button set your custom white balance. You have to experiment a bit with where to point the camera (ie. not directly into the sun), but this works great 99% of the time.
Warning…. Don’t eat the Pringles. They’ll kill you.
Marshall
Warning…. Don’t eat the Pringles. They’ll kill you
I can see it now. I go shopping with my wife. I put a package of Pringles in the basket, and she berates me for buying junk food.
My answer, of course, is the I need them for white balance measurements with my camera. I can see the look on her face now.
"YEAH, RIGHT!"
🙂
bert
LOL
Because I’m cheap and don’t like to waste food (I guess I’m calling Pringles food), I put the lid in my camera bag and the Pringles can in the snack cabinet.
My wife who has a lifelong aversion to Pringles, angrily said "Where did the Pringles come from?" I told her the store was giving them away because they were shipped without the plastic lids. She threw them in the trash, which relieved my guilt. She wasted food, I didn’t. Plus I now have a great $1.69 White Balancer.
🙂
I just knew there had to be a good story that went with that tip!
