Original Picture
Blue jeans come in many shades of blue — except the pair seen to the left. How do I know? For the same reason that fence posts are brown and bushes are green. Usually the context of a scene provides the barometer of truth. Examining the composite picture, I knew something just wasn’t right. The entire appearance scene has a lifeless “cold” look. In my evaluation, two related issues contributed to the overall imbalance problem: the reddish cast, and a lack of warmth in the skin tones.
Since I promised to keep this blog simple, I’m going to show you how to correct color using Photoshop Elements software. The technique works equally well in many software packages. Basically, you need a Hue, Saturation, and Brightness tool and a Replace Color tool. If you have access to Adobe Photoshop (any version will do) then use the tools of the same name.
The first challenge is the removal of the overall reddish color cast. I met this challenge using the Saturation, Hue, and Temperature using the sliders in the Color palette of the tool bin.
Color sliders
Once again, having a regularly calibrated and color corrected monitor aided the color correction process. As I mentioned before, correct color is based on three contributing factors; camera capture, software-based color correction, and printer calibration. When making color adjustments in the software phase, total confidence in your monitor’s display accuracy is critical.
Replace Color dialog
The second challenge also had to do with a red cast, but this one affected specifically the wood and skin tones. To add warmth to these colors, I summoned the Replace Color dialog , and selected the cowboy’s hand. I extended the Fuzziness selection (by sliding it to the right) to include the wooden posts. Since both items were on the pink side, the single selection encompassed both elements. I then changed the Hue to deliver a warmer tone of red, and boosted the Saturation. Answering these two challenges changed an OK picture to an accurate portrayal of jeans, fence posts, and skin color. The image at the bottom shows the resulting image.
Color adjusted file
Remember, good color is not as bad as it looks.
