The primary purpose of Photoshop is to act as a digital darkroom where images can be corrected, enhanced, and refined. How do you know an image needs touch-up? You can pretty much assume every image can look a little (or even a lot) better than how the camera captured it. Whether it’s adjusting the exposure, increasing contrast, or boosting saturation, Photoshop is the place to improve an image.
Learning how to spot problems and then choosing the right correction technique is an essential part of mastering Photoshop. Several different tools are available, some more useful than others. By analyzing the most important tools and determining in which situations they might help you, a more thorough understanding of color correction is possible.
New users often have a hard time when color correcting or enhancing images. They generally lose sight of the goal: making the image look better and believable. Many users go “too far” in their quest to fix images. If the image starts to look fake or too altered, it will be distracting. While getting it “right” requires some practice, here’s some general advice to get you started:
• Identify what’s wrong. Before you can fix a picture, be sure you have decided on what’s wrong. Is it too dark? Is the sky washed out? Has the picture faded over time? Make a list and prioritize the issues you find in each image. It’s easiest to fix one problem at a time, and if you identify those problems, you’ll know when to stop twiddling with the image.
• Work with a copy of the image. Before you start to color correct an image, you should duplicate it. This way you can return to an original version if you make a mistake or go too far in your image touch-up. After opening your file, choose File > Save As and name the duplicate version that will be corrected. Color correction can be a destructive process, meaning that you cannot revert to the original state at a later time. By preserving an original version of the image or employing adjustment layers, nondestructive editing is possible. Some users also choose to duplicate the Background layer at the bottom of the layer stack.
• Edit with adjustment layers. Adjustment layers allow you to apply most of the image correction commands as nondestructive effects. They are added as a layer above the actual image; the adjustment layer can be blended, masked, or deleted at any time. Additionally, if you select the adjustment layer, you can modify its properties in the Adjustments panel. The same modifications are available in both the Adjustments menu and Adjustments panel. You should work with an adjustment layer whenever possible because its flexibility will be important for future revisions.
• Get a fresh opinion. It’s not a bad idea to step back and examine your work. Open the backup copy of the original image and compare it to the image you’ve been working on. This before-and-after comparison can be very useful. If you have a fresh set of eyes nearby, ask that person for his or her opinion.
Photoshop offers several image adjustments, but only a few are used most often. Commands such as Levels and Curves are used by professionals to achieve outstanding results. These professional imaging techniques may take a little time to get comfortable with, but the power they offer is worth your investment.
The Levels command corrects tonal ranges and color balance issues. With this command you can fix poor exposure. Additionally, you can perform color correction by manually identifying a white point and black point in the image. Nearly every image can benefit from making a Levels adjustment.
To understand Levels, it is essential to be able to read a histogram. This graph works as a visual guide for adjusting the image. The Levels adjustment has its own histogram that is visible when working in the Adjustments panel. You may also want to call up the Histogram panel (Window > Histogram) and leave it open while color correcting. You can also expand the Histogram panel by clicking the submenu and choosing All Channels View. Let’s give the command a try:
When working with the Levels adjustment layer, you may have noticed the Auto button. This command button triggers an analysis of the histogram data by Photoshop that is then used to modify the individual controls of the Levels adjustment. In many cases this results in an image that is properly adjusted for color balance and exposure issues. In others it will get you closer to a corrected image.
If you have several images from the same camera or shoot, they may need the same Levels adjustment. The Save button allows you to save a Levels adjustment (to the folder that contains the image is a good place). You can then click the Load button to apply that adjustment to another image.
In the first Levels example you made a Levels adjustment to all the channels evenly. In the Auto-Levels example, you let Photoshop adjust the levels and remove color cast using an automated algorithm. The Levels command can be further isolated to a specific channel by clicking the drop-down list in the center of the Levels dialog box. This allows you to tackle color cast issues, such as spill from a background, a bad white balance, or a photo shot under mixed or colored lighting.
PHOTO BY JAMES BALL
You can also use the Levels command to correct skin tones and isolated areas in an image. The Set White Point and Set Black Point eyedroppers work well, but sometimes it can be difficult to find a pure white or black point in your image. Let’s try fixing color and exposure manually:
PHOTO BY JAMES BALL
When working with a grayscale or CMYK file, the axes go from light to dark. When working with RGB images, the scales are reversed. This means that pulling a control point up or down may have a different effect depending on your image mode.
Most users will either use Curves a lot or they won’t use it at all. The Curves interface is more complex than Levels, which scares away many users. While Levels gives you three control points (highlights, midtones, and shadows), the Curves adjustment allows for up to 16 control points. This can significantly open up more options when adjusting color and exposure.
Let’s try the Curves command on a practice image:
The primary advantage of Curves is that you have precise control over which points get mapped (whereas in Levels you do not). Another benefit is that Curves adjustments can use several points connected by a curved line (as opposed to Levels, which uses only three control points) to make adjustments. So, color correction can be applied in a more gradual manner (without the hard clipping that can be associated with Levels).
When the Curves Editor is open, you can easily add control points. Click the icon that looks like a pointing finger, and then just click and drag in the image to modify the curve. The control points will appear in the editor. These can be moved to lighten or darken the image.
The Hue/Saturation command lets you adjust the hue, saturation, and lightness of color components in an image. Additionally, you can simultaneously adjust all the colors in an image. This command can work in two ways:
• To adjust colors in an image that appears slightly out of phase or skewed toward a color, such as an image that appears to have a blue overcast
• To create stylistic changes by dramatically changing colors in an object, such as trying out different combinations of colors in a logo
• Levels
• Curves
• Hue/Saturation
• Vibrance
• Shadow/Highlights
When combined with a selection command (such as Color Range), the Hue/Saturation command can be used to selectively enhance colors in an image.
Let’s give the command a try:
A Hue/Saturation adjustment can be a very quick way to experiment with color options. You can use it to quickly change the fill colors of an object by making a global adjustment. This works well when experimenting with different color combinations. Let’s try it out:
You can also use the Hue/Saturation command to tint an image. If you are working with a grayscale image, you need to convert it to an RGB image first.
The adjustment layer automatically has a Layer Mask attached, which allows you to mask the effect.
When working with photos, many choose to have very saturated and rich colors. The problem with too much saturation is that it can cause clipping (a flattening of the range of colors). To help with this, Photoshop offers the Vibrance command. Unlike Saturation, Vibrance only boosts those parts of a photo that are less saturated. It also respects skin tones, which means photos look more natural when pumping up the intensity of color.
Although a Levels or Curves command can usually get the color-correction job done, there are often atypical problems that require particular commands. These other commands have special purposes and should generally be reserved for the unique problems they address. Let’s take a look at the specialty commands.
You can use the Match Color command to remove a color cast from an image. It is most useful when you have a color-accurate reference photo of a subject. That can then serve as a basis for correcting other photos of the same subject. The Match Color command adjusts the brightness, color saturation, and color balance in an image. The command enables fine control over luminance and color within the image. Let’s give it a try:
If you want to create a dramatic grayscale or duotone effect, the most effective way is to use a Black & White adjustment layer. But unlike a simple saturation adjustment, you maintain full control over how individual colors are converted. This allows you to emphasize or deemphasize specific colors and tonal ranges. Additionally, you can tint the grayscale by applying a color tone to the image (such as a sepia tone).
You can adjust the color sliders to emphasize gray tones of specific colors in an image. Each image is unique, so you’ll need to find the right balance. Drag a slider to the left to darken or to the right to lighten. Be sure to select the Preview check box so you can see the results of your changes.
Normally, I recommend avoiding the Auto buttons, but with the Black & White adjustment layer it works well. Auto sets a grayscale mix based on the image’s color values. It attempts to maximize the distribution of gray values. The Auto mix often produces excellent results and can serve as the starting point for tweaking gray values using the color sliders.
You can use the Gradient Map to dramatically or subtly stylize images. The effect works best when used as an adjustment layer. The command works by mapping the colors of a gradient to the image based on the luminance values of the source image. Let’s give the technique a try:
Professional photographers often place glass filters in front of the camera lens. These can be used to “cool” or “warm” a picture, or to add special effects. Since Photoshop often tries to simulate or correct for steps not taken in the field, the addition of Photo Filters was a logical evolution for Photoshop.
Adobe added to the “real-time,” color-correction options with the addition of 20 different adjustments. These layers simulate the traditional colored glass filters. Besides the built-in presets, you can also choose custom colors from the Photo Filter interface using the standard Color Picker.
Stealing Sunsets
There are three main groupings for color effects:
• Warming Filter (85 and LBA) and Cooling Filter (80 and LBB). These adjustment layers are meant to even out photos that were not properly white balanced. The Cooling Filter (80 or LBB) makes images bluer to simulate cooler ambient light. The Warming Filter (85 or LBA) makes images warmer to simulate hotter ambient light.
• Warming Filter (81) and Cooling Filter (82). These adjustment layers are similar to the previous filters but cast a more pronounced color. The Warming Filter (81) makes the photo more yellow, and the Cooling Filter (82) makes the photo bluer.
• Individual Colors. The Photo Filter also has 14 preset colors to choose from. These can be used for two primary purposes: to add a complementary color to a scene to remove color cast or for stylistic reasons.
Let’s try applying a Photo Filter adjustment layer:
Exposure problems often plague photos. Dark shadows may make a photo seem unusable, but Photoshop offers a powerful command for fixing these problems. The image command Shadows/Highlights is very flexible for solving problems. The command can help salvage images where the subject is silhouetted from strong backlight. You can also use the command to improve subjects who have been washed out by the camera’s flash.
The Shadows/Highlights command does more than lighten or darken an image. It makes adjustments by analyzing neighboring pixels. However, when first opened, the tool is very basic. It is important to select the Show More Options check box, which adds significant control. Let’s give the command a try:
The Shadow/Highlights command is not available as an adjustment layer. You can still apply it in a nondestructive manner by first converting the photo to a Smart Object.
• Amount. This value determines how strong of an adjustment is made to the image.
• Tonal Width. Small values affect a reduced region; larger values include the midtones. If pushed too high, halos appear around the edges of the image.
• Radius. Is a tolerance setting that examines neighboring pixels to determine the affected area.
• Color Correction. This slider modifies the saturation of the adjusted areas. Essentially, it can counterbalance washed-out images.
• Brightness. If you’re working on a grayscale image, Color Correction is replaced by a Brightness control.
• Midtone Contrast. This adjustment affects the contrast in the midtones of a photo. Positive values increase contrast, whereas negative values reduce contrast.
• Black Clip and White Clip. This adjustment modifies the black point of shadows and lowers the white point of highlights. This can lower the intensity of the effect.
If you’d like extra practice, you can open the image Ch10_ Shadows_Highlights_2.tif and repeat the command.
Starting with Photoshop CS2, support was added for 32-bit images. Generally referred to as high dynamic range (HDR), these images offer great flexibility in exposure. These images can better handle re-creating the wide range of exposures found in outdoor scenes or intense lighting conditions. The Exposure adjustment is usually used on images that exist in 32-bit space and is said to be a 32-bit floating point operation (often shortened to float).
Creating an HDR image is a combination of shooting techniques and a Photoshop command. It requires that the camera be secured firmly to a tripod and that you are careful when triggering or adjusting the camera to not move it (or allow anything to move in the shot either). Several photos at various exposures are taken of the same scene (a minimum of three; usually five to seven is adequate). The camera should have its auto-bracket and ISO features disabled. Each shot should be about two f-stops apart. The user then harnesses the Merge to HDR command (File > Automate > Merge to HDR) to create the 32-bit image. You’ll create an HDR image later in the book, but for now let’s jump ahead to an HDR image that’s already built.
• Exposure. Modifies the highlight end of the tonal range with little effect on the extreme shadows.
• Offset. Darkens the shadows and midtones with little effect on highlights.
• Gamma. Adjusts the gamma of the photo.
• Set Black Point eyedropper. Sets the Offset, which shifts the selected pixel to zero.
• Set White Point eyedropper. Sets the Exposure, which shifts the selected pixel to white (1.0 for HDR images).
• Midtone eyedropper. Sets the Exposure, which shifts the selected pixel to the middle gray.
The Invert image adjustment creates an image that is a direct inverse or negative. This can be useful in a variety of situations, including inversing a Layer Mask, making a positive from a scanned negative, or switching a black background to white. When an image is inverted, the brightness of each pixel is assigned the inverse value from the 256 color-values scale. This means that a 0 value would map to 255, whereas a 35 value would map to 215.
If you are scanning negatives into a computer, be sure to set up your scanner correctly and specify that you are scanning a film negative. You can use the Invert command to creative a positive image, but you’ll need to do additional color correction.
The Equalize command can restore contrast to a washed-out photo. The command attempts to redistribute pixels so that they are equally balanced across the entire range of brightness values. The command works best when you sample a small area that will drive the overall adjustment. The Equalize command takes the lightest area and remaps it to pure white, and takes the darkest area and remaps it to pure black. Let’s give it a try:
The Camera Raw support in Photoshop is enabled by a plug-in (essentially an application that runs inside Photoshop). With Camera Raw you can import and develop raw files, and then pass them onto Adobe Photoshop. Camera Raw is designed to work with the native files recorded by many cameras.
Raw files are not really a file type but rather a description for several manufacturer-specific file formats. You’ll find several different file formats in use, and they will vary by camera manufacturer.
A Camera Raw file contains unprocessed and uncompressed data, as captured by the digital camera’s image sensor. These native files contain much more color and exposure information than a JPEG or TIFF file. The camera also includes metadata, such as white balance, exposure, and more, specifying how that information should be treated. You’ll find a detailed 14-page bonus chapter on the DVD called “Using Camera Raw.”
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