How to adjust and correct the colour balance in an image.

By Eugene Struthers

In this months editorial. I will be showing you how to adjust and correct the colour balance in an image. This is a great process for changing the specific colours in your images. If you have any aged or faded images or have any images that require the colourcast to be removed. This simple process will assist you to bring back the orginal colours before they faded.

The original image.

Using Adobe Photoshop CS5. I opened the image, and then pressed (Ctrl+J) to duplicate the back ground layer. You should always make a copy of the original. As a safety measure so that you have a back up. Just in case you need back track and redo a few steps.

I then click onto Image on the top menu bar allowing it to drop down a sub menu. I scrolled down to the adjustments header and then across to colour balance subheading "titled: color balance". As indicated by the image above.

This is evident in the second and third images as we untick the preview button. You will notice that the models eyes are highlighted and now sparkle, especially around the iris and pupil. Giving the image its own "punch factor" as more detail is revealed.

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A "colour balance" dialog box then will appear. As indicated by the image above. To display the adjustments you will be making as you make them, click the preview box.

You will then need to choose the tones in the image that you want to affect. Start by clicking onto the "Shadows" radio button. In this example, I have input the values: -47 for Cyan, -3 for Magenta and +11 for Yellow. Click and drag the slider toward the colour you would like to add more of. As indicated by the image above.

In the above example, I Clicked onto the "Midtone" radio button in the centre. I then proceeded to input the values: -42 for Cyan, -7 for Magenta and +1 for Yellow.

In this final step, I Clicked onto the "Highlights" radio button to the far right. I then proceeded to input the values: -14 for Cyan, -7 for Magenta and +20 for Yellow. To add a warm cast to this image I dragged the slider towards the red or the magenta. To add a cool cast, I would obviously then drag the slider towards the blue or cyan.

By clicking okay. I have committed myself to applying these colour balance options. Photoshop will then make colour adjustments to the image. This colour balance command option can assist you to eliminate the colourcasts that can sometimes permeate a digital photo and cause it to fade. As I discussed in a previous editorial - with regards the use of the variations command. In certain situations, some indoor incandescent or fluorescent lighting can add a yellowish or bluish tint to your images. We can then remove these tints by adding blue or red using the method and procedure above.

Another example:

 

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