Color balance refers to the proper mixture of red, green, and blue in an image. Adjusting the color balance in Photoshop can help you achieve more natural-looking colors in your photos by removing unwanted color casts.
Proper color balance helps make the colors in an image appear more vivid, pure, and pleasing to the eye. It also ensures that neutral colors like white, grey and black are truly neutral and not tinted towards some color.
There are several ways to adjust color balance in Photoshop. In this article, we will go through the various methods you can use to fix color casts and adjust the overall mixture of colors in your images.
Assessing the Existing Color Balance
Before you can adjust the colors in an image, you need to assess whether and how the existing color balance needs to be corrected. Here are some things to check:
– Look for color casts. Does the image have an unwanted tint of a particular color, like yellow, blue, red, etc? This is usually easy to spot by eye.
– Check if neutral colors look neutral. Examine areas like white walls, grey pavement, black text, etc. If they have a color tint, then the color balance needs fixing.
– Take color readings. Use the eyedropper tool to take sample readings of whites, neutrals and black points. If they deviate greatly from pure RGB values, then color correction is required.
– Trust your eyes. Simply look at your image and rely on your visual perception. If some colors seem overly vivid or muted, then the color balance likely needs adjusting.
Assessing the existing color balance helps you determine which areas need adjusting and by how much. Once you’ve determined that the image needs color correction, then you can move on to the actual editing.
Using Auto Color Correction
One of the quickest and easiest ways to adjust color balance in Photoshop is by using the auto color correction options. Here are the steps:
1. Open the image in Photoshop.
2. Go to Image > Auto Color. This will bring up a dialog box with some color correction options.
3. Try the ‘Auto’ setting first. This will automatically analyze the image and apply color corrections.
4. If ‘Auto’ doesn’t give you satisfactory results, try the other options like ‘Find Dark & Light Colors’ or ‘Enhance Monochromatic Contrast’.
5. You can also select the ‘Snap Neutral Midtones’ option to remove any color casts from the midtones.
6. Click OK to apply the auto corrections.
Auto color works quite well in many cases and can save you a lot of time over manual editing. Be sure to try different auto settings to see which one works best for your particular image.
Using adjustment layers for color balance
For more control over color balance, you can use Photoshop’s adjustment layers. Here are some steps:
1. Open the image and add a new adjustment layer by clicking the ‘Create new fill or adjustment layer’ icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.
2. Choose either ‘Photo Filter’, ‘Color Balance’ or ‘Hue/Saturation’ depending on how much control you need.
3. Photo Filter lets you choose warming and cooling filter effects to offset color casts.
4. Color Balance has sliders for adjusting the mixture of Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green and Yellow/Blue.
5. Hue/Saturation can adjust individual color channels like Reds, Yellows, etc.
6. Adjust the sliders and settings until you achieve the desired color balance. You can toggle the adjustment layer on/off to preview the changes.
7. You can also try applying multiple adjustment layers for more targeted corrections.
Using adjustment layers is very flexible and non-destructive to your original image. You can go back and tweak the corrections any time.
Trying Black & White conversion
Another handy tip for assessing color balance issues is to convert the image to black & white. This removes the influence of colors and lets you judge the lighting and tones more objectively.
To convert to black & white:
1. Go to Image > Mode > Grayscale to convert the image to grayscale.
2. Then add a Black & White adjustment layer and adjust the color sliders. Dramatic color casts in the original will show up as overly bright or dark areas when converted to black & white.
3. Once you’ve identified the problem colors, you can go back to the color version and make targeted adjustments to those hues using Hue/Saturation layers.
Using black & white conversion reveals color casts, banding and tonal balance issues that may be hard to spot otherwise. It’s a useful technique for color correction.
Using the Targeted Adjustment Tool
The Targeted Adjustment Tool lets you pinpoint and alter specific colors in the image. To use it:
1. Select the Targeted Adjustment Tool (TAT) in the toolbar.
2. Click on a color in your image you want to adjust. This will place a color pin marker.
3. Without releasing the mouse, drag left or right to adjust that color. A Hue/Saturation slider will appear.
4. Adjust the hue, saturation and lightness of the color to your liking.
5. Repeat this process for other colors in your image. Multiple adjustment pins can be added.
The Targeted Adjustment Tool is perfect for neutralizing color casts or enhancing specific colors. It gives you very fine control over color corrections.
Using Color Samplers
Color samplers let you target and measure colors for adjustment. To use them:
1. Place color sampler points on important neutral colors like grey, white or black via the Color Sampler Tool (eyedropper).
2. The Info panel will then display the color values (RGB, CMYK etc) at each sampler point.
3. Use adjustment layers to correct any color cast. The sampler points will reflect the changing values as you adjust.
4. Stop adjusting when the sampled neutrals reach proper neutral values without any color tint.
This technique helps ensure colors are neutrally balanced. Having the measured color values handy makes it easier to reach the correct balance.
Correcting Skin Tones
Adjusting skin tones is important when editing portraits. Here are some tips:
– Add a Hue/Saturation layer and reduce reds and oranges to lessen ruddiness.
– Use the Color Balance adjustment layer to add or reduce cyan/red and magenta/green specifically.
– Try the Selective Color adjustment layer to alter the skin tone colors like neutrals, blacks and whites.
– Use the Color Replacement tool to select and change the skin tone to a suitable color.
– Make dodge and burn adjustments on a separate layer to lighten/darken the skin selectively.
– Finish off with some sharpening, glow and saturation adjustments targeted only on the skin areas.
Pay attention to keep skin tones natural, subtle and pleasing. Don’t overdo the adjustments.
Matching Colors between Images
You can match the color balance of one image to another using adjustment layers:
1. Open both images – the one with the desired color balance, and the one to be corrected.
2. Add a Color Balance adjustment layer to the image to be corrected.
3. Sample a middle grey point from the reference image by using the color sampler tool.
4. Tweak the adjustment layer sliders until the same middle grey is achieved in the corrected image.
5. Sample white and black points and match those. The color balance should now match closely.
6. You can also use curves or hue/saturation layers to get the colors closer if needed.
Matching colors this way helps composite images together more seamlessly.
Conclusion
Adjusting color balance in Photoshop properly takes some practice and experience. Use the methods outlined in this article to remove color casts, fix skin tones, match colors across images and achieve more natural, visually pleasing color balance in your photos. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the different tools and adjustment layers. With a bit of practice, you’ll be adept at correcting any color issues in your images.
