Color correction - what do you do?

I've realised how much good color correction can help a picture - and especially portraits. I have a pretty good method I think, but I'd like to see/hear what you guys do. So I'm posting a portrait of one of my friends taken in tungsten light with auto white balance (which didn't do a great job).

I'd like for you to see how good you can make it look. And please - only contrast / saturation / color corrections. No borders / frames and no crops. That way, it'll be easier to compare the results.

Here's the image:



Here's the result with the workflow I currently have:



My workflow for this image was:

1) Add a curves layer. Use the grey dropper on the wall behind him to color correct.
2) Add a levels layer to bring up the contrast.

3) Duplicate the image and convert it to B&W with my favourite B&W method. It's important to get a B&W image with some 'snap' in it.
4) Copy the B&W image as a new layer and set the blending mode to luminosity.
5) Add a 'warming filter' - a solid color layer with orange set at 5% opacity.

Cheers,
Hans

Hi Hans

Here is my quick effort. Firstly did an auto colour correction.

Then in colour balance mainly reducing the red in all three areas, adding a slight yellow and some blue

Howie

Not sure what happened but here is the correct image revamped.

Here is my also quick effort. (More time might have gotten better skin tones.)

I used levels and hue & saturation adjustment layers, whitened the teeth and eyes and sharpened the image slightly. Here are the results.

Original



Revised



George Burke

Selective color adjustment layer - "neutrals" with c0,m-15,y0,b-25
Select eyes - selective color "neutrals" with c+9
Dodge teeth, USM .8,100,0
--
Kent
http://www.pbase.com/kentc

I know that Kent C "has skeelz", but his version looks all wrong to me. That said, I've only ever calibrated my monitor by eye, so who knows?

Anyhow, my version is below the original.

1) simple level adjustment to maximize range
2) curves to taste

3) Middle eyedropper on wall behin ear to correct color cast (assumed neutral gray/white)

4) Selected and desaturated the teeth (looks more natural than dodgin to my eye).

= Ed =

Hans Kilian said:

Here's the image:

Click to expand...

--
= Ed Rotberg =

'A waist is a terrible thing to mind'

Hans,

Good color correction can help an image but only if you have a good workflow. Such a workflow starts with acquisition of the image and progresses from there. Shooting a RAW format is the ideal way to begin with as color correcting and WB is much easier with a RAW file and you don't even need to do any more color correction in PS.

Now if you don't shoot in RAW and are stuck with or prefer JPEG, then your shot planning has to be more critical. Getting that good shot to start with cuts down drastically on post editing.

Your monitor has to be calibrated properly as well or your color corrections will be a hit or miss deal depending on your output. The examples that you posted would lead me to think that your monitor is not calibrated properly. On my calibrated monitor, the first image is only slightly underexposed and the second one has blown highlights on the forehead, nose and cheek. The histogram would be dominant on the left side with probably a gap on the right. A quick fix I would recommend is to slide the right pointer until it just touches the place where a peak starts and then mayber move the middle pointer a tad to the left to balance the change. Then a slight backing off of the reds with a hue-sat adjustment using reds only. You could then maybe do a little dodgin of the eyes and teeth. This example took only a couple of minutes using the above suggestions:
http://www.vizualgroove.com/digitalimaging/hans.htm
Hope this helps,
VG

Hans Kilian said:

I've realised how much good color correction can help a picture -
and especially portraits. I have a pretty good method I think, but
I'd like to see/hear what you guys do. So I'm posting a portrait of
one of my friends taken in tungsten light with auto white balance
(which didn't do a great job).

I'd like for you to see how good you can make it look. And please -
only contrast / saturation / color corrections. No borders / frames
and no crops. That way, it'll be easier to compare the results.

Here's the image:



Here's the result with the workflow I currently have:



My workflow for this image was:
1) Add a curves layer. Use the grey dropper on the wall behind him
to color correct.
2) Add a levels layer to bring up the contrast.
3) Duplicate the image and convert it to B&W with my favourite B&W
method. It's important to get a B&W image with some 'snap' in it.
4) Copy the B&W image as a new layer and set the blending mode to
luminosity.
5) Add a 'warming filter' - a solid color layer with orange set at
5% opacity.

Cheers,
Hans

Click to expand...

Hans Kilian said:

I've realised how much good color correction can help a picture -
and especially portraits. I have a pretty good method I think, but
I'd like to see/hear what you guys do. So I'm posting a portrait of
one of my friends taken in tungsten light with auto white balance
(which didn't do a great job).

I'd like for you to see how good you can make it look. And please -
only contrast / saturation / color corrections. No borders / frames
and no crops. That way, it'll be easier to compare the results.

Here's the image:

Click to expand...

Here's my retouching job:



Here's what I did:

Add Levels adjustment layer for overall range: 1 - 1.21 - 200
Add Hue/Saturation adjustment layer for overall color:
Reds S -30, L +13
Yellows S - 20, L -17

Selected whites of eyes, Hue/Saturation S -14, L +5
Selected teeth, Hue Saturation S -20, L +10

Flattened, converted to sRGB profile.

--Al Evans

Hans Kilian said:

I'd like for you to see how good you can make it look. And please -
only contrast / saturation / color corrections. No borders / frames
and no crops. That way, it'll be easier to compare the results.

Click to expand...

1 - Levels to pump up contrast, and remove some of the color cast

2 - Hue/Sat to desaturate the reds a little. Was too ruddy.

3 - Played with the curves a little bit to give it a little more snap.

4 - After curves, it seemed a little too yellow, so back to Hue/Sat to fix it.

5 - Unsharp Mask. Just a little bit.

6 - Teeth start to bother me, so make a mask for them, Hue/Sat to whiten them, then brightness/contrast to brighten them.

A question - What color was the sweater? Bluish or Grey?

Result:



Original



--
http://www.xfade.com

Hans
My Try

Hope this works since my ISP changed the site builder and so everything is all confused.

http://trellixff1.business.earthlink.net/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://home.earthlink.net/~ashokananda/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/carsten-original-copy.jpg&target=tlx_new
Ashok

Hans Kilian said:

I've realised how much good color correction can help a picture -
and especially portraits. I have a pretty good method I think, but
I'd like to see/hear what you guys do. So I'm posting a portrait of
one of my friends taken in tungsten light with auto white balance
(which didn't do a great job).

I'd like for you to see how good you can make it look. And please -
only contrast / saturation / color corrections. No borders / frames
and no crops. That way, it'll be easier to compare the results.

Here's the image:



Here's the result with the workflow I currently have:



My workflow for this image was:
1) Add a curves layer. Use the grey dropper on the wall behind him
to color correct.
2) Add a levels layer to bring up the contrast.
3) Duplicate the image and convert it to B&W with my favourite B&W
method. It's important to get a B&W image with some 'snap' in it.
4) Copy the B&W image as a new layer and set the blending mode to
luminosity.
5) Add a 'warming filter' - a solid color layer with orange set at
5% opacity.

Cheers,
Hans

Click to expand...

Well it posted the link but did not embed the photo. Got to call the ISP.
Ashok

Ashok said:

http://trellixff1.business.earthlink.net/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://home.earthlink.net/~ashokananda/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/carsten-original-copy.jpg&target=tlx_new
Ashok

Hans Kilian said:

I've realised how much good color correction can help a picture -
and especially portraits. I have a pretty good method I think, but
I'd like to see/hear what you guys do. So I'm posting a portrait of
one of my friends taken in tungsten light with auto white balance
(which didn't do a great job).

I'd like for you to see how good you can make it look. And please -
only contrast / saturation / color corrections. No borders / frames
and no crops. That way, it'll be easier to compare the results.

Here's the image:



Here's the result with the workflow I currently have:



My workflow for this image was:
1) Add a curves layer. Use the grey dropper on the wall behind him
to color correct.
2) Add a levels layer to bring up the contrast.
3) Duplicate the image and convert it to B&W with my favourite B&W
method. It's important to get a B&W image with some 'snap' in it.
4) Copy the B&W image as a new layer and set the blending mode to
luminosity.
5) Add a 'warming filter' - a solid color layer with orange set at
5% opacity.

Cheers,
Hans

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hans Kilian said:

I'd like for you to see how good you can make it look. And please -
only contrast / saturation / color corrections. No borders / frames
and no crops. That way, it'll be easier to compare the results.

My workflow for this image was:
1) Add a curves layer. Use the grey dropper on the wall behind him
to color correct.
2) Add a levels layer to bring up the contrast.
3) Duplicate the image and convert it to B&W with my favourite B&W
method. It's important to get a B&W image with some 'snap' in it.
4) Copy the B&W image as a new layer and set the blending mode to
luminosity.
5) Add a 'warming filter' - a solid color layer with orange set at
5% opacity.

Cheers,
Hans

Click to expand...

Hans the first thing I didwa sto run a levels adjustment and then I got rid of the glare on his nose and forehead. I used curves and a skin color chart to produce some better skin tones. After this I noticed it would work better to change his color tone and the background colors seperately so that's what I did.

Ken

Proceduere:

1) Use eyedropper tool and click on the inner white area of left eye (as you are looking at the photo). This will now be the new foreground color. Add New layer and fill with this foreground tint, then ctl+I, Blend = Overlay, flatten (This step removes the color cast)

2) Select neck and head, ctl+j, Add Channels mixer Adjustment layer, Red Channel R=120, G=-5, B=-5 Blue Channel R=-5, G=-5, B=120. Flatten (This step brightens the reds and blues)
3) Levels=RGB = 0, 1.13, 232, flatten
4) USM 20/50/0, then again (ctl+f) (This removes the haze) flatten

5) Ctl+j, Gauss blur at 4 pix, add black layer mask and paint out skin blemishes etc with white paint brush
I think thats it. Flatten and save
Hope you like it
Thanks
Ashok

Ashok said:

http://trellixff1.business.earthlink.net/imagelib/sitebuilder/misc/show_image.html?linkedwidth=actual&linkpath=http://home.earthlink.net/~ashokananda/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/carsten-original-copy.jpg&target=tlx_new
Ashok

Hans Kilian said:

I've realised how much good color correction can help a picture -
and especially portraits. I have a pretty good method I think, but
I'd like to see/hear what you guys do. So I'm posting a portrait of
one of my friends taken in tungsten light with auto white balance
(which didn't do a great job).

I'd like for you to see how good you can make it look. And please -
only contrast / saturation / color corrections. No borders / frames
and no crops. That way, it'll be easier to compare the results.

Here's the image:



Here's the result with the workflow I currently have:



My workflow for this image was:
1) Add a curves layer. Use the grey dropper on the wall behind him
to color correct.
2) Add a levels layer to bring up the contrast.
3) Duplicate the image and convert it to B&W with my favourite B&W
method. It's important to get a B&W image with some 'snap' in it.
4) Copy the B&W image as a new layer and set the blending mode to
luminosity.
5) Add a 'warming filter' - a solid color layer with orange set at
5% opacity.

Cheers,
Hans

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I used curves to a large degree, then some spot correcting with selections using hue and contrast.

Bob Quinn



----------------------------------

Hans Kilian said:

I've realised how much good color correction can help a picture -
and especially portraits. I have a pretty good method I think, but
I'd like to see/hear what you guys do. So I'm posting a portrait of
one of my friends taken in tungsten light with auto white balance
(which didn't do a great job).

I'd like for you to see how good you can make it look. And please -
only contrast / saturation / color corrections. No borders / frames
and no crops. That way, it'll be easier to compare the results.

Here's the image:



Here's the result with the workflow I currently have:



My workflow for this image was:
1) Add a curves layer. Use the grey dropper on the wall behind him
to color correct.
2) Add a levels layer to bring up the contrast.
3) Duplicate the image and convert it to B&W with my favourite B&W
method. It's important to get a B&W image with some 'snap' in it.
4) Copy the B&W image as a new layer and set the blending mode to
luminosity.
5) Add a 'warming filter' - a solid color layer with orange set at
5% opacity.

Cheers,
Hans

Click to expand...

Very interesting - so many different results Here is my version - curves, then saturation and hue.



Best regards, zz

Hans Kilian wrote:
Here's the image:



Here's the result with the workflow I currently have:

I used

Levels
Color Correction
Un-Saturated a little
Used soft Light brush on teeth then Lowered Opacity
used a little USM



Frank

http://www.pbase.com/frankallen

C-2100UZ A-200

Here's another version.

I used curves to brighten it, then a selective color adjustment layer, then a levels layer set to Soft Light at low opacity to add a little contrast. Also desaturated and dodged the teeth and sharpened it a little:

MW said:

Here's another version.

I used curves to brighten it, then a selective color adjustment
layer, then a levels layer set to Soft Light at low opacity to add
a little contrast. Also desaturated and dodged the teeth and
sharpened it a little:

Click to expand...

--
Deanne

Here's my stab at it: