A Really Tough Color Correction Job

This is the toughest color correction I've ever tried. It's a picture of the famous screenwriter, Joe Eszterhas. (He wrote "Basic Instinct".) In this shot, Joe's lit by my camera's flash, but the wall is lit by the room's electric lighting. The color cast is just a mess. Here's the original shot:



Here's the most I could do with it, after trying all kinds of different things:



To get a sense of what the colors really were like in the room, here's a shot taken with no flash:



How did I do? I'm sure someone here can do far better. If so, please give me some tips on how you did it!

Vik_R said:

This is the toughest color correction I've ever tried. It's a
picture of the famous screenwriter, Joe Eszterhas. (He wrote "Basic
Instinct".) In this shot, Joe's lit by my camera's flash, but the
wall is lit by the room's electric lighting. The color cast is just
a mess. Here's the original shot:



Here's the most I could do with it, after trying all kinds of
different things:



To get a sense of what the colors really were like in the room,
here's a shot taken with no flash:



How did I do? I'm sure someone here can do far better. If so,
please give me some tips on how you did it!

Click to expand...

cspringer said:

cspringer said:

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Click to expand...

Needs a little cleaning. gc

Bravo!

Sal

yep...that is why I posted the first one. I like the colors better but after I thought the request was to make it look like his example of what the colors were.

GCam said:

Needs a little cleaning. gc

Click to expand...

went with hue and sat, and selective colors. then some color painting on the wood in the upper right corner
match color to portrait

Well, I would say your attempt is pretty bad.



Try opening the pic in Photoshop. Then separate the writer from background and in layers menu choose New Adjustment Layer/Selective colour and play with slides. It is quite easy.

cspringer said:

GCam said:

Needs a little cleaning. gc

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

The cleaning I was referring to was on my try, Chip. gc

That is amazing.

Here's what I tried before:

• Use blur average to remove color cast
• Saturated color to bring color back
• Matched color to the other image I posted

But that didn't work nearly as well as what you folks did.

Here's what I just tried after reading this thread:

• Selective Color

-- picked Yellows, and subtracted 100% from the yellow slider
-- picked Reds and subtracted 50% from the magenta slider

• Matched Color to the other image I posted
• Used blur average to correct color cast
• Used white eyedropper in the Levels dialog on the top part of his sleeve
• Applied local contrast

Here's what I got so far with this approach:



It still looks like it has a color cast, compared to what others here posted.

I don't seem to be able to get the hang of using the hue/saturation dialog yet. When you use hue/saturation, do you edit the Master (all colors), or do you edit individual colors via the pull-down in the hue/saturation dialog?

each area was addressed on its own layer as skin, wood etc reflects colors at different levels then the layers were flatten
You know the book is red, black, white
you know skin is average I started with that layer and adjusted
then split the layers and worked on the wood

It always helps to know the shade or color of each area so I had to guess on the wood It still seemed flat

this is a learning place not a pick on people place

Pick on people? I have provided him with a way how to do it easily. So hands off me. As for my version, I do not have the time to do it, so I at least tried to contribute somehow, with an advice. So I would say it is YOU who pick on me.

Tom Bennett said:

this is a learning place not a pick on people place

Click to expand...

Not sure if the back wall was originally neutral in neutral light
or whether it was simply a less saturated yellow. Here are two
possibilities, the third being the original.

Or slightly pinker face:



vs.

Those are all amazing, erichard. Did you put Joe on a separate layer, and then use Selective Color?

Thanks.

I used multiple layers, and perhaps I would have done some things differently since the reds on the books aren't good reds. I did a hue saturation layer and adjusted the yellows by decreasing the yellow saturation somewhat for the whole picture (pull down "yellow" to see the yellow saturation slider). There was a levels layer to boost the blacks while lightening up the photo (black slider to the right, gray slider to the left a little), masking out any areas on the wall that were overexposed from this layer using a soft brush (black in foreground on white mask). Also used a color balance layer, pulling the sliders toward blue and green (more on the blue than green).To selectively brighten his face, I used curves to brighten the whole picture till his face looked good, then put a total black mask on it, then painted with white in the foreground on to his face, in order to get just his face and not overexpose the rest of the pic. I did the same with another hue saturation layer to get his face and arms the correct flesh color, selectively painting the mask in those areas with white in the foreground (mask totally black). Did the same with some contrast, in a brightness/contrast layer, painting in the effect on his face, which seem a little flat. Did the same masking to reduce noise on his shirt in another layer (placed above the background.) Sharpened the whole photo in the lightness channel of LabColor.

I'm not sure how advanced you are, whether to explain more or less, but the masking makes everything rather easy, and they weren't necessarily precise masks.

I also worked in 16 bit color from the beginning, converting back to 8 bit before saving the jpeg in order to post it.

Some creative cropping is still necessary as in CSpringer's example.

I'm still learning, so others may have a better approach. This forum is better than any book. My monitor(s) are not yet color corrected, so what I see may be different that what others see on the web. Someday I'll get a calibrator.

BTW, if shot in RAW, the white balance slider in the raw panel would make this photo much easier to handle, as would the tint slider I suppose.

Regards Richard

erichard, thanks so much for this detailed description! It's just what I need. I'm going to study it and learn from it.

I got rid of the entire yellow cast be desaturating yellows in hue/sat.

There is still a small color cast in the top right corner.

Then I added some curves adj, selective color and sharpened to make it kinda plain jane version.

Best.

It involves several steps of either global or selective color correction, plus a few other minor touches: