Color correcting no-flashl digital pics

[Meddler]

There is another technique that can improve pictures.

Make a duplicate layer
Blur that layer (I use 25 pixels for a 5Mp image)
Change the mode to Multiply (Burn)
Adjust the transparancy until the picture is to your liking.

For best results do this after any levels adjustments. It can result in a loss of detail.

 

[saltywater]

Here are the before and after versions of my experimenting with Mandrake's method.

Before:

After:

I think I'm going to enjoy trying this on other shots.

Thank You

 

[mandrake]

But if you go into the hue/saturation tool and change the hue for 'Blues' by -30 and 'Yellows' by -20 (a little more might be better), you get the following. It turns the purple water blue again and warms up the vegetation:

 

[saltywater]

Thank You again,

That is even better. I was just getting ready to go back to play with that image some more to reduce the purple and you told me how to do it. This is going to be fun to clean up a few of my pictures.

Mike

 

[mandrake]

It's pretty staggering, isn't it? My first photographic trip was to Little Cayman in April 2002, and I have tons of photos from that trip that have that blue/green cast (until I figured out how to work the strobe reasonably consistently). Going back and using these techniques on them has been a real pleasure.

Using the hue/saturation tool can be pretty simple, as in your picture, or extremely complicated, depending on the photo. I could make a very long post just on the use of this tool, but it's better if everyone tries to work it out for themselves. I'll just warn that it's very easy in fixing some colors to damage others. Anything that's magenta to start with can be turned a really solid blue, which can make your fairy basslet heads look pretty awful. Also, changing the hue can really accentuate any color noise in your photo -- it usually shows up as patches of purple in your blue water. I've come up with a couple of techniques for dealing with this, but they're very involved and vary from picture to picture. Also, you tend to end up with a bit of a yellow cast overall, which I then try to deal with in the levels tool (changing the midtone sliders for red/green/blue until it looks just right).

 

[sapphire]

James connell once bubbled...
here's the job setup as a loadable action.

i'm working on a fix to auto adjust the amount red put in - mandrake's right , it needs tweeking. still a good fix.

after the action is run you still need to tweek the red channle a little and sharpen.

Thank you for posting this - but I am a little dense and I still don't get it. Once I downloaded this and ran it, it just pulls up Photoshop Elements. What do I do then? Or should I open Photoshop, pull up a photo, and THEN run your loadable action?

Thanks for the help !

sapphire

 

[James connell]

sapphire once bubbled...


Thank you for posting this - but I am a little dense and I still don't get it. Once I downloaded this and ran it, it just pulls up Photoshop Elements. What do I do then? Or should I open Photoshop, pull up a photo, and THEN run your loadable action?

Thanks for the help !

sapphire

once the action is installed, you open a pix and run the action. then do what ever fine tuning you wish and "save as" to get a fixed copy.

i don't have elements - i use PS7.
the action should be saved in \Photoshop 7.0\Presets\Photoshop Actions. it may be nessesary to 'load' it. for that you use the small sideways arrow in the actions window - select "open actions..." and douple left click (on PC) 'underwater'. to run the action select the "actions" tab in the 'history/actions/toolpreset' window, find the action left click it to highlite it then click the small arrow at the bottom of the window to run it. PS6 is almost the same.

my daughter has elements on her machine - i haven't figured out how to run an action on it! but it has the same dir structure - Photoshop Elements\Presets\Photoshop actions so the action would go there.

 

[Eli]

Thanks Mandrake, Gilligan & everyone for such a great tool. I tried it on a unsalvageable completely blue photo, and it actually salvaged it! ( Yes I did also clone out the scattered light)


Uncorrected Stingray & Friend


Corrected Stingray & Friend

Pretty Amazing
:relaxing:

 

[sapphire]

James connell once bubbled...


once the action is installed, you open a pix and run the action. then do what ever fine tuning you wish and "save as" to get a fixed copy.

i don't have elements - i use PS7.
the action should be saved in \Photoshop 7.0\Presets\Photoshop Actions. it may be nessesary to 'load' it. for that you use the small sideways arrow in the actions window - select "open actions..." and douple left click (on PC) 'underwater'. to run the action select the "actions" tab in the 'history/actions/toolpreset' window, find the action left click it to highlite it then click the small arrow at the bottom of the window to run it. PS6 is almost the same.

my daughter has elements on her machine - i haven't figured out how to run an action on it! but it has the same dir structure - Photoshop Elements\Presets\Photoshop actions so the action would go there.

I haven't given up - I was able to move the action into the correct folder. But when I try to use the "preset manager" to pull it up, I can only pull up "brushes" "swatches" "gradients" and "patterns". I was unable to follow the suggestion above, I could not find an "open actions" option anywhere. Perhaps this is a difference between Elements and 7.0??

Anyone out there with Elements figure this out?

Thanks

sapphire

 

[ssra30]

Mandrake, I also would like to thank you very much for posting the process on digitaldiver. I understand that it is not a fix all but it is definitely very useful. I was away diving over the weekend and tried out my new rig. Still have not check all the pics from the trip yet but I am sure there will be some pics that will need your help