Setting Black & White Points When There is No Black & White in the Photo

[AJ Witt]

I'm hoping this question has not been asked in these forums before, as I checked and couldn't find anything. If it has been discussed in the past, please excuse me.

I have some pictures that I took that have a bit of a color cast in them. A lot of time I will use a curves adjustment layer to set my black and white points. However, not all photos have black and white areas. I am curious as to how some of you tackle these kind of situations.

Thanks for any input you ca provide!

AJ

[Charles Glatzer]

Here are two quick and simple methods that work well with uncomplicated global shifts.

1) Ctrl/Cmd J to duplicate the bkgd layer, Filter > Blur > Average, Ctrl/Cmd I to invert the color, change Layer Blend Mode to Color use layer opacity to tweak.

2) Ctrl/Cmd J to duplicate the bkgd layer, then use the mid-tone eyedropper in Layers or Curves picking something that should be neutral in color, use layer opacity to tweak.

NIK Color Effex Filters > White Neutralizer is outstanding!

Chas

[David Thomasson]

I am curious as to how some of you tackle these kind of situations.

Thanks for any input you ca provide!

AJ

The solution always depends on the problem, and for that I would need to see an image. Can you post one?

[Desmond Chan]

[anip]
I have some pictures that I took that have a bit of a color cast in them. A lot of time I will use a curves adjustment layer to set my black and white points. However, not all photos have black and white areas. I am curious as to how some of you tackle these kind of situations.

Here's what I could think of:

If you set black and white points to correct color but you don't have black and white points (I assume you mean points that should be pure white and pure black), then it could depend on how you want your photograph to look like. After all, the viewers likely are not there when you took the photograph and so they may not know what the colors should look like. If you realize there's a color cast, presumably you must be able to tell from looking at some of the colors in your photograph. In other words, the yellow, for example, may not look yellow to you. To make it yellow again, you have to know what RGB values yellow should have. On page 98 of the book Professional Photoshop by Dan Margulis, about yellow it says the B value should be low, the R and the G about equal but much higher than B. As you can imagine, it describes more than one shade of yellow. But as long as the RGB values meet that description, it's still considered a yellow. How yellow? It depends on which one you want. Similarly for other colors, if you have some ideas what their RGB or LAB values should be, then you can color correct accordingly to your liking.

If your photograph does not have black and white points and you want to correct the color, looks for something that should be grey and neutralize it.

If your photograph does not have black and white points, find something close to them and force them into the black and white points and see if you like the results. You can do the same to the grey point. After all, it's you who knows better what you want (can be something natural looking or simply whatever you have in mind).

If you set the black and white points to adjust contrast, errr...I don't think you need them to set the contrast :)

That's it for now :D