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HELP: fluorescent color correction in PS7.0

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Peter N

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I took some pictures today inside a restaurant where they had fluorescent lights. I used Canon 420Ex external flash with my Canon Powershot G3.

Per the camera's user manual, it suggested me to set the White Balance to Flash, as opposed to Flourescent, when using external flash. I did just that, and unfortunately, my pictures turned out to be yellowish as the result of the flourescent lights. I wish I set the White Balance to Flourescent instead, as it worked pretty well in the past when I shot with built-in flash.

I am very new to PS7.0, only knowing few basic retouching techniques (USM, curves). By accident, I discovered that there was a way to take away the yellowish color in my pictures. Here is the workflow:
1) Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation
2) In the Edit window, select Yellows (Ctrl+2)
3) reduce Saturation to negative; in my case, -35 seemed to work well
4) increase Saturation to positive; in my case, +40 seemed to work well

The result was pretty promising, but I am not sure if this is the right approach.

Can you please let me know if this was the right approach to deal with the yellowish color problem caused by not setting White Balance to Flourescent? If not, can you share the right approach?

Appreciate any inputs.

--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
 
as a side note, you may even wish to look into the imagefactory.com's white balance filter. It's about $40 or so, but hey, it's a snap and can adjust all levels of white balance incorrectness.

the demo is nice, but doesn't allow you to apply the changes to your image to view it full size or on screen, but it is good. The nice thing is to just over compensate the adjustment a bit and then fade it using the edit menu in PS.

I adjusted the image in this thread. view the first thread and to see the original.

good luck.

tim
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=3864405
Peter N said:
I took some pictures today inside a restaurant where they had
fluorescent lights. I used Canon 420Ex external flash with my
Canon Powershot G3.

Per the camera's user manual, it suggested me to set the White
Balance to Flash, as opposed to Flourescent, when using external
flash. I did just that, and unfortunately, my pictures turned out
to be yellowish as the result of the flourescent lights. I wish I
set the White Balance to Flourescent instead, as it worked pretty
well in the past when I shot with built-in flash.

I am very new to PS7.0, only knowing few basic retouching
techniques (USM, curves). By accident, I discovered that there was
a way to take away the yellowish color in my pictures. Here is the
workflow:
1) Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation
2) In the Edit window, select Yellows (Ctrl+2)
3) reduce Saturation to negative; in my case, -35 seemed to work well
4) increase Saturation to positive; in my case, +40 seemed to work
well

The result was pretty promising, but I am not sure if this is the
right approach.

Can you please let me know if this was the right approach to deal
with the yellowish color problem caused by not setting White
Balance to Flourescent? If not, can you share the right approach?

Appreciate any inputs.

--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
 
The easiest way without seeing the actual image is to change the mode to LAB, then go into the B channel and pull one of the ends of the curves away from the yellow side. Depending on how you have your curves set up. This will change the yellow to a blue and should fix the issue.

The change should be made in the shadow end (where both side bars are black).

Good Luck
Matt
Peter N said:
I took some pictures today inside a restaurant where they had
fluorescent lights. I used Canon 420Ex external flash with my
Canon Powershot G3.

Per the camera's user manual, it suggested me to set the White
Balance to Flash, as opposed to Flourescent, when using external
flash. I did just that, and unfortunately, my pictures turned out
to be yellowish as the result of the flourescent lights. I wish I
set the White Balance to Flourescent instead, as it worked pretty
well in the past when I shot with built-in flash.

I am very new to PS7.0, only knowing few basic retouching
techniques (USM, curves). By accident, I discovered that there was
a way to take away the yellowish color in my pictures. Here is the
workflow:
1) Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation
2) In the Edit window, select Yellows (Ctrl+2)
3) reduce Saturation to negative; in my case, -35 seemed to work well
4) increase Saturation to positive; in my case, +40 seemed to work
well

The result was pretty promising, but I am not sure if this is the
right approach.

Can you please let me know if this was the right approach to deal
with the yellowish color problem caused by not setting White
Balance to Flourescent? If not, can you share the right approach?

Appreciate any inputs.

--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
 
Hi Matt:

Thanks alot for your feedbacks; however, I can't seem to follow your steps on my PS7.0. I couldn't find the "yellow side" as you indicated. To ensure I follow it right, here is what I did:
1) Image--> Mode--> Lab Color
2) Image--> Adjustments--> Curves
3) Select Channel b

From here, I did not see any color; so I am not sure what you meant by "yellow side". If possible, can you send me your action with a sample picture you sucessfully fixed the problem? If you need a sample picture, please let me know.

Thanks again for your help!
matt coppel said:
The change should be made in the shadow end (where both side bars
are black).

Good Luck
Matt
Peter N said:
I took some pictures today inside a restaurant where they had
fluorescent lights. I used Canon 420Ex external flash with my
Canon Powershot G3.

Per the camera's user manual, it suggested me to set the White
Balance to Flash, as opposed to Flourescent, when using external
flash. I did just that, and unfortunately, my pictures turned out
to be yellowish as the result of the flourescent lights. I wish I
set the White Balance to Flourescent instead, as it worked pretty
well in the past when I shot with built-in flash.

I am very new to PS7.0, only knowing few basic retouching
techniques (USM, curves). By accident, I discovered that there was
a way to take away the yellowish color in my pictures. Here is the
workflow:
1) Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation
2) In the Edit window, select Yellows (Ctrl+2)
3) reduce Saturation to negative; in my case, -35 seemed to work well
4) increase Saturation to positive; in my case, +40 seemed to work
well

The result was pretty promising, but I am not sure if this is the
right approach.

Can you please let me know if this was the right approach to deal
with the yellowish color problem caused by not setting White
Balance to Flourescent? If not, can you share the right approach?

Appreciate any inputs.

--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
 
Lab is a weird color space, however B is a slider of blue/yellow. If your photoshop curves have the white areas in the bottome left then the top left is blue and the lower right is yellow. By moving the curve toward the upper left you will be adding blue tones and taking out yellow ones.

A photo would be nice to try and help better.

Matt
Peter N said:
From here, I did not see any color; so I am not sure what you meant
by "yellow side". If possible, can you send me your action with a
sample picture you sucessfully fixed the problem? If you need a
sample picture, please let me know.

Thanks again for your help!
matt coppel said:
The change should be made in the shadow end (where both side bars
are black).

Good Luck
Matt
Peter N said:
I took some pictures today inside a restaurant where they had
fluorescent lights. I used Canon 420Ex external flash with my
Canon Powershot G3.

Per the camera's user manual, it suggested me to set the White
Balance to Flash, as opposed to Flourescent, when using external
flash. I did just that, and unfortunately, my pictures turned out
to be yellowish as the result of the flourescent lights. I wish I
set the White Balance to Flourescent instead, as it worked pretty
well in the past when I shot with built-in flash.

I am very new to PS7.0, only knowing few basic retouching
techniques (USM, curves). By accident, I discovered that there was
a way to take away the yellowish color in my pictures. Here is the
workflow:
1) Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation
2) In the Edit window, select Yellows (Ctrl+2)
3) reduce Saturation to negative; in my case, -35 seemed to work well
4) increase Saturation to positive; in my case, +40 seemed to work
well

The result was pretty promising, but I am not sure if this is the
right approach.

Can you please let me know if this was the right approach to deal
with the yellowish color problem caused by not setting White
Balance to Flourescent? If not, can you share the right approach?

Appreciate any inputs.

--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
 
Hi Matt:
I just posted a sample. It was a cropped version from the original.
If you can provide the action, that would be great! Thanks for your help.

http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/g3_photos/flouescent.jpg
matt coppel said:
A photo would be nice to try and help better.

Matt
Peter N said:
From here, I did not see any color; so I am not sure what you meant
by "yellow side". If possible, can you send me your action with a
sample picture you sucessfully fixed the problem? If you need a
sample picture, please let me know.

Thanks again for your help!
matt coppel said:
The change should be made in the shadow end (where both side bars
are black).

Good Luck
Matt
Peter N said:
I took some pictures today inside a restaurant where they had
fluorescent lights. I used Canon 420Ex external flash with my
Canon Powershot G3.

Per the camera's user manual, it suggested me to set the White
Balance to Flash, as opposed to Flourescent, when using external
flash. I did just that, and unfortunately, my pictures turned out
to be yellowish as the result of the flourescent lights. I wish I
set the White Balance to Flourescent instead, as it worked pretty
well in the past when I shot with built-in flash.

I am very new to PS7.0, only knowing few basic retouching
techniques (USM, curves). By accident, I discovered that there was
a way to take away the yellowish color in my pictures. Here is the
workflow:
1) Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation
2) In the Edit window, select Yellows (Ctrl+2)
3) reduce Saturation to negative; in my case, -35 seemed to work well
4) increase Saturation to positive; in my case, +40 seemed to work
well

The result was pretty promising, but I am not sure if this is the
right approach.

Can you please let me know if this was the right approach to deal
with the yellowish color problem caused by not setting White
Balance to Flourescent? If not, can you share the right approach?

Appreciate any inputs.

--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
 
One thing I enjoy about photoshop is the numerous ways to do everything. I just finished the gurus tutorial on using curves located at

http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/photoshop/curves1.html

I opened the curves adjustment just like you did, but I selected the middle eyedropper and found a neutral area to correct the color. I selected the wall at the top left of the photograph. One click and the colors shift. The example is attached.

Haynes

 
Thanks Haynes for the tip.
Haynes said:
One thing I enjoy about photoshop is the numerous ways to do
everything. I just finished the gurus tutorial on using curves
located at

http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/photoshop/curves1.html

I opened the curves adjustment just like you did, but I selected
the middle eyedropper and found a neutral area to correct the
color. I selected the wall at the top left of the photograph. One
click and the colors shift. The example is attached.

Haynes

Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
 
FWIW:



tim
Peter N said:
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/g3_photos/flouescent.jpg
matt coppel said:
A photo would be nice to try and help better.

Matt
Peter N said:
From here, I did not see any color; so I am not sure what you meant
by "yellow side". If possible, can you send me your action with a
sample picture you sucessfully fixed the problem? If you need a
sample picture, please let me know.

Thanks again for your help!
matt coppel said:
The change should be made in the shadow end (where both side bars
are black).

Good Luck
Matt
Peter N said:
I took some pictures today inside a restaurant where they had
fluorescent lights. I used Canon 420Ex external flash with my
Canon Powershot G3.

Per the camera's user manual, it suggested me to set the White
Balance to Flash, as opposed to Flourescent, when using external
flash. I did just that, and unfortunately, my pictures turned out
to be yellowish as the result of the flourescent lights. I wish I
set the White Balance to Flourescent instead, as it worked pretty
well in the past when I shot with built-in flash.

I am very new to PS7.0, only knowing few basic retouching
techniques (USM, curves). By accident, I discovered that there was
a way to take away the yellowish color in my pictures. Here is the
workflow:
1) Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation
2) In the Edit window, select Yellows (Ctrl+2)
3) reduce Saturation to negative; in my case, -35 seemed to work well
4) increase Saturation to positive; in my case, +40 seemed to work
well

The result was pretty promising, but I am not sure if this is the
right approach.

Can you please let me know if this was the right approach to deal
with the yellowish color problem caused by not setting White
Balance to Flourescent? If not, can you share the right approach?

Appreciate any inputs.

--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
 
Tim:

I like the natural looking color of the skin from your retouch. Can you possible share your workflow with me? I have a bunch of Thanksgiving family reunion shots that look yellowish, so I am very in need to clean them all up before I loose my face with my family members (they thought my expensive G3 camera could do wonders to their pictures, and it's not so easy to explain photography is hard sometimes!)

Thanks!
Tim Lauro said:


tim
Peter N said:
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/g3_photos/flouescent.jpg
matt coppel said:
A photo would be nice to try and help better.

Matt
Peter N said:
From here, I did not see any color; so I am not sure what you meant
by "yellow side". If possible, can you send me your action with a
sample picture you sucessfully fixed the problem? If you need a
sample picture, please let me know.

Thanks again for your help!
matt coppel said:
The change should be made in the shadow end (where both side bars
are black).

Good Luck
Matt
Peter N said:
I took some pictures today inside a restaurant where they had
fluorescent lights. I used Canon 420Ex external flash with my
Canon Powershot G3.

Per the camera's user manual, it suggested me to set the White
Balance to Flash, as opposed to Flourescent, when using external
flash. I did just that, and unfortunately, my pictures turned out
to be yellowish as the result of the flourescent lights. I wish I
set the White Balance to Flourescent instead, as it worked pretty
well in the past when I shot with built-in flash.

I am very new to PS7.0, only knowing few basic retouching
techniques (USM, curves). By accident, I discovered that there was
a way to take away the yellowish color in my pictures. Here is the
workflow:
1) Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation
2) In the Edit window, select Yellows (Ctrl+2)
3) reduce Saturation to negative; in my case, -35 seemed to work well
4) increase Saturation to positive; in my case, +40 seemed to work
well

The result was pretty promising, but I am not sure if this is the
right approach.

Can you please let me know if this was the right approach to deal
with the yellowish color problem caused by not setting White
Balance to Flourescent? If not, can you share the right approach?

Appreciate any inputs.

--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
 
The color balance came from the tool I mentioned earlier. The filter costs about $40 or so, but it keeps the adustments very simple and can be faded until you get the desired output.

Next I removed the fire extinguisher with the cloan tool. Lastly, I used a soft focus action that I have. Probably a wee bit too much, but I did it all pretty quick.

It looks like you used a flash on this shot. Not sure, but the camera probably over-rides the manual white balance setting. However you may find that without the flash a manual WB setting will work best. See here for what I mean: http://www.pbase.com/image/6957598

The only other point would be to perhaps invest in an external flash to mount on the G3. The image was a bit underexposed or at least it appears that it would have benefited from some more light. The glare from the wall probably caused it. Bouncing or using a softbox would help: http://www.lumiquest.com/comparison.htm

Enjoy!

tim
Peter N said:
I like the natural looking color of the skin from your retouch.
Can you possible share your workflow with me? I have a bunch of
Thanksgiving family reunion shots that look yellowish, so I am very
in need to clean them all up before I loose my face with my family
members (they thought my expensive G3 camera could do wonders to
their pictures, and it's not so easy to explain photography is hard
sometimes!)

Thanks!
Tim Lauro said:


tim
Peter N said:
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/g3_photos/flouescent.jpg
matt coppel said:
A photo would be nice to try and help better.

Matt
Peter N said:
From here, I did not see any color; so I am not sure what you meant
by "yellow side". If possible, can you send me your action with a
sample picture you sucessfully fixed the problem? If you need a
sample picture, please let me know.

Thanks again for your help!
matt coppel said:
The change should be made in the shadow end (where both side bars
are black).

Good Luck
Matt
Peter N said:
I took some pictures today inside a restaurant where they had
fluorescent lights. I used Canon 420Ex external flash with my
Canon Powershot G3.

Per the camera's user manual, it suggested me to set the White
Balance to Flash, as opposed to Flourescent, when using external
flash. I did just that, and unfortunately, my pictures turned out
to be yellowish as the result of the flourescent lights. I wish I
set the White Balance to Flourescent instead, as it worked pretty
well in the past when I shot with built-in flash.

I am very new to PS7.0, only knowing few basic retouching
techniques (USM, curves). By accident, I discovered that there was
a way to take away the yellowish color in my pictures. Here is the
workflow:
1) Image --> Adjustments --> Hue/Saturation
2) In the Edit window, select Yellows (Ctrl+2)
3) reduce Saturation to negative; in my case, -35 seemed to work well
4) increase Saturation to positive; in my case, +40 seemed to work
well

The result was pretty promising, but I am not sure if this is the
right approach.

Can you please let me know if this was the right approach to deal
with the yellowish color problem caused by not setting White
Balance to Flourescent? If not, can you share the right approach?

Appreciate any inputs.

--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
 
Tim Lauro said:
It looks like you used a flash on this shot. Not sure, but the
camera probably over-rides the manual white balance setting.
However you may find that without the flash a manual WB setting
will work best. See here for what I mean:
http://www.pbase.com/image/6957598
Click to expand...
The problem is that the flash is not powerful enough to overcome the room lighting. Likely it was firing in some type of fill flash mode that is likely automatic and out of the user's control.

Your fix is the best as it is very easy. It shouldn't be a problem to fix images like this with huge white walls in the background.
 
Hello Peter,

My Pbase service was not working properly and allowing me to post images so my comments are somewhat late, however; below is an adjusted image for your review.

If you want further details of steps used, I will be pleased to supply to you – by Email would be better but could post here if need be. I think that since you use Photoshop, you should not have to spend $’s for additional software just to adjust the color balance or (color cast correction). Hope this helps, Vernon…



--
http://www.pbase.com/vrain
 
Hi Vernon:

Thanks! I love that skin look; it looks even more natural. Yes, I definitely like to get details/actions of how you did it in PS.

Can you please send further details to my email address ([email protected]).

Thanks so much!
Vernon D Rainwater said:
Hello Peter,
My Pbase service was not working properly and allowing me to post
images so my comments are somewhat late, however; below is an
adjusted image for your review.
If you want further details of steps used, I will be pleased to
supply to you – by Email would be better but could post here if
need be. I think that since you use Photoshop, you should not have
to spend $’s for additional software just to adjust the color
balance or (color cast correction). Hope this helps, Vernon…



--
http://www.pbase.com/vrain
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
 
Peter N said:
Thanks! I love that skin look; it looks even more natural. Yes, I
definitely like to get details/actions of how you did it in PS.

Can you please send further details to my email address
([email protected]).

Thanks so much!
Vernon D Rainwater said:
Hello Peter,
My Pbase service was not working properly and allowing me to post
images so my comments are somewhat late, however; below is an
adjusted image for your review.
If you want further details of steps used, I will be pleased to
supply to you – by Email would be better but could post here if
need be. I think that since you use Photoshop, you should not have
to spend $’s for additional software just to adjust the color
balance or (color cast correction). Hope this helps, Vernon…



--
http://www.pbase.com/vrain
Click to expand...
--
Peter

G3 - it's amazing!
http://myg3shots.dynu.com/gallery/
Click to expand...
I just completed sent you an email with the procedure.
--
Vernon...
http://www.pbase.com/vrain
 
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