How to remove a color cast?

Hello everyone!

I´ve been re-editing some older files and the more I look at them the more I hate them!!!
I find that colour casts are one of the major problems I find in my images and now that I am using a calibrated monitor I would like to render a natural-looking image with some personal touch but not with a ton of colour cast.

So my question is: how do you handle this issue. I mostly use DPP for culling and first-step editing but then export to PS CS6.

Many thanks for your advise and help.

JuanK

I use CS6 not DPP. Here are three ways in CS6:

A. - Duplicate the background or create a "merge visible" layer.
- Under filters, select blur - average
- Then under Image - Adjustments choose Invert
- Change layer blend mode to Color
- Adjust opacity to suit
- May need to boost saturation and/or use curves to finish

B. If you use Color Efex Pro, I like the color slider in the Pro Contrast preset

C. Also in Color Efex Pro, there is a Color Cast preset

Many thanks Karen!

I will give this technique a try!

Juan Carlos

Good suggestions from Karen.

In PS you can also make a Curves adjustment layer and use the neutral (middle) eyedropper to click on an area that should be neutral -- if there is one. The result may need a little tweaking, though, with Color Balance or the middle slider in the color channels of the curve dialog.

There is also the Color Balance adjustment, which may do a good job.

In LR/ACR there is an eyedropper in the White Balance section. Click it on an area that should be neutral. Once you have a correct white balance, you can Sync it to other shots in the same light.

All these settings may need tweaking though, for any given image.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Diane Miller

Good suggestions from Karen.

In PS you can also make a Curves adjustment layer and use the neutral (middle) eyedropper to click on an area that should be neutral -- if there is one. The result may need a little tweaking, though, with Color Balance or the middle slider in the color channels of the curve dialog.

There is also the Color Balance adjustment, which may do a good job.

In LR/ACR there is an eyedropper in the White Balance section. Click it on an area that should be neutral. Once you have a correct white balance, you can Sync it to other shots in the same light.

All these settings may need tweaking though, for any given image.

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Thanks very much Diane!

I will give this a try!

Hi Juan, I do it two ways I will either use a color balance layer and eye ball it not very precise but I often want some of the color balance to remain as shot. Here is a good video on how to find the midtone and use a curves adjustment to correct https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmJKh4nl7zQ and here is another tutorial on how to set up curves and to use all three eye droppers to correct color cast. http://digital-photography-school.co...-in-photoshop/ One thing with using the curve adjustment is it will get rid of those nice warm colors you get from shooting in golden light.

Juan,

see this article on my blog http://arihazeghiphotography.com/blo...n-photography/

for most images just using the color temperature slider in DPP should give you accurate colors. For scenes with multiple or reflective light sources, use the grey point in DPP to adjust the WB

hope this helps

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Lacy

Hi Juan, I do it two ways I will either use a color balance layer and eye ball it not very precise but I often want some of the color balance to remain as shot. Here is a good video on how to find the midtone and use a curves adjustment to correct https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmJKh4nl7zQ and here is another tutorial on how to set up curves and to use all three eye droppers to correct color cast. http://digital-photography-school.co...-in-photoshop/ One thing with using the curve adjustment is it will get rid of those nice warm colors you get from shooting in golden light.

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Many thanks Don, I will give this a try.

Juan Carlos

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi

Juan,

see this article on my blog http://arihazeghiphotography.com/blo...n-photography/

for most images just using the color temperature slider in DPP should give you accurate colors. For scenes with multiple or reflective light sources, use the grey point in DPP to adjust the WB


hope this helps

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Thanks a lot Arash! I will give your technique a try and will get back to you guys with a comparison!

Nice suggestions. I use NIK as well. I also have a related question. Do you guys shoot with auto white balance? I do and I always intent to adjust everything in the pp work, but a friend of mine suggested to set the WB always manually of I want accurate results. What is your take on it? Is it always correctable in the PP work? Or it is worth the effort to adjust the WB each and every time manually?

Thanks.

It is very difficult to guess at the most accurate WB, and the WB set in camera is only a starting point for the raw converter. The most accurate is to shoot a gray card in the same light as the subject and adjust the WB of each image to match that in the raw processor. Of course, you would want to moderate that to preserve some warm (or other) natural light, to taste. Often I will remove some of the warmth but not all -- it can be rendered too strongly by a raw converter and is not necessarily "how it was." It also depends strongly on the Camera Profile chosen, which is an often-overlooked adjustment. (And some of the choices there deserve to be hidden.)

Auto WB is often a good choice, and adjust in conversion. Use a preset if you want the convenience of matching a series of shots in the same light. I find it easier to do that in Lightroom, with a quick Sync. Then for an image that's going to get special treatment, I would look closely at it and probably tweak it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Diane Miller

It is very difficult to guess at the most accurate WB, and the WB set in camera is only a starting point for the raw converter. The most accurate is to shoot a gray card in the same light as the subject and adjust the WB of each image to match that in the raw processor. Of course, you would want to moderate that to preserve some warm (or other) natural light, to taste. Often I will remove some of the warmth but not all -- it can be rendered too strongly by a raw converter and is not necessarily "how it was." It also depends strongly on the Camera Profile chosen, which is an often-overlooked adjustment. (And some of the choices there deserve to be hidden.)

Auto WB is often a good choice, and adjust in conversion. Use a preset if you want the convenience of matching a series of shots in the same light. I find it easier to do that in Lightroom, with a quick Sync. Then for an image that's going to get special treatment, I would look closely at it and probably tweak it.

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Diane, I red somewhere that for best results the Picture profile should be set to Neutral with contrast at 0% as this will help get better dinamic range. How true is this? I´ve tried it a couple of times but then I have to boost saturation more than I like. Any help in this regard in highly appreciated.
Juan Carlos

The dynamic range is a function of the sensor. I think what that meant was to help bring the image into the raw converter with the best histogram -- which means the best details in darks and lights, and good color. Of course, if you choose a profile that gives too much contrast or whatever, you can always move the sliders to reduce the effect. But of course, that is limited by the light and exposure on the subject.

A good way to decide on the profile to set in camera is by which one will give a reasonable preview of blown out whites (blinkies) as that is important in deciding how to adjust your shooting parameters to get the best exposure (aperture, shutter speed and ISO). Neutral probably is the best choice for that, although the image will look low contrast on the back of the camera. That's what you want.

A good raw file will start with low contrast (as much as allowed by the light and subject) and therefore low saturation -- those are things you can increase. You can always look at the different profiles in the raw converter and choose the one you like best, but they will only be a starting point. Some are just ugly with some images -- I usually use (for Canon) either Adobe Standard, Camera Standard or Camera Neutral. Along with Exposure, at the minimum I will always look at the histogram and move the sliders to adjust the white and black points, the detail in the lights and darks and the midtone contrast (Clarity). Along with Vibrance that's usually all a good image needs, but there are simple adjustments for individual colors (HSL) and a Curve as well.

You shouldn't have to boost saturation more than you like, though. I love the Vibrance adjustment in LR/ACR as an alternative to saturation -- it boosts the less-saturated colors first, which gives a more subtle and realistic look. It is also in PS.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Diane Miller

The dynamic range is a function of the sensor. I think what that meant was to help bring the image into the raw converter with the best histogram -- which means the best details in darks and lights, and good color. Of course, if you choose a profile that gives too much contrast or whatever, you can always move the sliders to reduce the effect. But of course, that is limited by the light and exposure on the subject.

A good way to decide on the profile to set in camera is by which one will give a reasonable preview of blown out whites (blinkies) as that is important in deciding how to adjust your shooting parameters to get the best exposure (aperture, shutter speed and ISO). Neutral probably is the best choice for that, although the image will look low contrast on the back of the camera. That's what you want.

A good raw file will start with low contrast (as much as allowed by the light and subject) and therefore low saturation -- those are things you can increase. You can always look at the different profiles in the raw converter and choose the one you like best, but they will only be a starting point. Some are just ugly with some images -- I usually use (for Canon) either Adobe Standard, Camera Standard or Camera Neutral. Along with Exposure, at the minimum I will always look at the histogram and move the sliders to adjust the white and black points, the detail in the lights and darks and the midtone contrast (Clarity). Along with Vibrance that's usually all a good image needs, but there are simple adjustments for individual colors (HSL) and a Curve as well.

You shouldn't have to boost saturation more than you like, though. I love the Vibrance adjustment in LR/ACR as an alternative to saturation -- it boosts the less-saturated colors first, which gives a more subtle and realistic look. It is also in PS.

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Many thanks Diane for taking the time to reply to my previous question. I will read this again until I ``digest´´ all this great info. :)

Juan, I use the neutral picture style and adjust the contrast to -5 and saturation to -3 and sharpens to +5. This gives me a close representation of the actual raw file. The histogram is based off of the embedded JPEG created when shooting in Raw using other pictures styles can result in you making exposure decisions were you leave extra headroom for the highlights that could be used for improving shadow detail. When viewing the images in the field I only look at the histogram and for blinkes on the LCD never judge your exposure off what the images looks like on the back of the LCD.