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OPR Workshop Information Exchange => Photoshop Discussion => Topic started by: glennab on February 16, 2008, 05:00:08 PM

Title: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: glennab on February 16, 2008, 05:00:08 PM
Hi volunteers.  I've been talking about this technique for months and decided to take a day off from restoring and try to get this information together for you.  I've found it invaluable.

Thanks much to Larry Becker, Executive Director of NAPP for giving me the okay to relay this information to you, and to Dave Cross, at whose seminar I learned this and many other awesome techniques.


THE MOST PRECISE  COLOR CORRECTION METHOD I'VE DISCOVERED!


1. In Photoshop go to Image/Adjustments/Curves.  On the top menu bar, set your Sample Size to 3px by 3px.  This prevents you from clicking on a "maverick" pixel that will throw off your correction, as is possible using the 1px by 1px.

(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/1-3x3sample.jpg)

2. Double click on each eyedropper and set the RGB values as follows:

(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/2-WhitePointNumbers.jpg)

(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/3-BlackPointNumbers.jpg)

(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/4-Midtonenumbers.jpg)

These values will prevent your getting shadows with obliterated details and your highlights from being blown-out.

3. When you save the dialog box, Photoshop will ask whether you want to keep the values as defaults.  Say yes.

4. Duplicate the original image layer.

5. Create a threshold adjustment layer above the dupe.

6. Use the threshold slider to find your highlight and shadow points:  For highlights, move the slider to the far right.  Then slowly move it left until you begin to see white areas.  Use the preview toggle to ensure that you're setting your point on the actual image and not on damage.  You can use the up and down arrows to have finer control over the movement of the slider (Up= 1 number higher ; Down=1 number lower). Shift/click on the area that appears to be the "whitest", and a small cross-haired circle with the number 1 below it will appear.

7. Without leaving the threshold dialogue box, shift the slider to the far left and begin slowly moving it to the right until black areas appear. Follow the same guidelines as for setting the white point, shift-click, and you'll see a small cross-haired circle with the number 2 below it.

8. Close the threshold dialog box.  The markers will disappear, but they'll show up again later. Discard the threshold adjustment layer.

9. To set your mid-tone (gamma), create a new layer above the dupe layer and fill it with 50% gray.  Set the gray layer to the Difference blend mode.  The image will look VERY strange.  Above the gray layer, create another threshold adjustment layer.  Move the slider to the left until you see white areas.  Choose the smallest white area that is part of the image, rather than damage (shift-click). A small cross-haired circle with the number 3 below it will appear.  Often the gamma point will coincide with either the white or the black point.  If so, just remember which it is.

10. Close the threshold dialogue box and discard the threshold and gray layers.

11. Go back to your curves dialog box. The set points will reappear on your image.  Choose the white-point eyedropper and click it in the exact center of the cross hairs of your number 1 circle.  Choose the black-point dropper and click in the center of the number 2 circle.  For the mid-tones use either the number 3 circle or the 1 or 2 that coincided with the gamma point. By using your shift lock, you can see targets that are identical to those you set.  When one is on top of the other you won't see a target, so you'll know you're directly over it.

If you toggle between the original and adjusted duplicate layer, you'll be amazed.

Note: This won't always give you perfect color correction, but I've found that it's a great starting point, and usually any further adjustments you make will be minor.  The beauty of this method is that there's no guessing.  You set your numbers, set your points, and as long as you're on a part of the image that's relatively pristine you'll get phenomenal results.

I have screen shots that I can post if any of this tutorial needs refinement, and I'll be happy to provide more information to anyone who wants or needs it.  I'm also going to post a couple of samples.

ORIGINAL
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/5-Original.jpg)

COLOR ADJUSTED
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/14-AdjustedPhoto-2.jpg)

COLOR ADJUSTED AND TWEAKED
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/15-AdjustedAndTweaked-1.jpg)

SAMPLE 2 ORIGINAL
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/BoyOriginal.jpg)

SAMPLE 2 ADJUSTED
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/BoyCorrected.jpg)

SAMPLE 3 ORIGINAL
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/Little-Girl-Orig.jpg)

SAMPLE 3 ADJUSTED
(http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n222/glennab-fla/Little-Girl-ColorCorr.jpg)

My best to all of you,

Glenna
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: cmpentecost on February 16, 2008, 06:55:57 PM
Thanks for sharing this Glenna.  Great information!

Chris
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: Mhayes on February 16, 2008, 09:07:21 PM
Hi Glenna,

Great tutorial! Scott Kelby also showed this technique in his book: The Phototoshop CS2 Book For Digital Photographers. This will be a help to those haven't been to the seminar or have Kelby's book.

Margie
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: Atlantis on February 17, 2008, 10:23:51 AM
Thanks a million. Copy-pasted it. I like to have different approaches in my sleeves in case one of them fails to give me the desired results.
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: mschonher on February 17, 2008, 12:44:57 PM
Glenna, thanks so much for sharing this great tut. I can't wait to try it out. I've done something similar but it did not include the grey eyedropper or the 3x3 pixel choice...good job Glenna!..........Mary
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: John on February 18, 2008, 10:42:56 AM
Just came across this Glenna, nice work!  Keep 'em coming!

John
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: Hannie on March 16, 2008, 04:00:38 PM
Thank you for taking the time and trouble to write all this down (after all we all know how much you hate writing  ;))!
I started with a photo that I had just corrected, color, tone etc.  Then I tried your method and I was very happy to see that the photo came out much better than when I did it. 
Great tut Glenna!

:hug:

Hannie
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: glennab on March 16, 2008, 07:55:00 PM
Hannie and all

I'm so glad this tutorial has been helpful for you.  It's the first technique I use on any image that I want to color correct, be it a restoration or a photo at work.  Most of the time it's amazing!  Sometimes a little more tweaking is in order, but it's a great start, especially with mid-tones.

One thing I forgot to mention is that when I was corresponding with Larry Becker, executive director of  NAPP, I asked him if any of the organization's gurus would be willing to help us with especially difficult issues in our restorations.  He told me that while they couldn't answer a large number of individual inquiries, if we had a specific problem we wanted addressed as a group, I could contact him and he'd put the question out to his experts.  So if we have a consensus on an issue that's especially troubling, I'll be glad to contact Larry and see if we get a response (my guess is we will, because he's a great guy and is very supportive of OPR).

Cheers!

Glenna
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: cmpentecost on March 16, 2008, 11:09:05 PM
For any of us that are NAPP members, we could just post it in the NAPP forums, rather than bothering Larry with it.  The NAPP forums are great for helping to resolve Photoshop problems.

Chris
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: jneil2 on March 17, 2008, 04:33:00 PM
Thanks, Glenna.  I have bookmarked this one for easy access...

Jan
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: Johnboy on August 14, 2008, 08:43:14 PM
Glenna,

I have used this technique with my last two restorations. It is amazing how well it works.

I have a comment on your step 9 to set the mid-tone. I am in Photoshop CS and recently discovered a need for an additional step. That is, I have to set the Mode to Difference under the Blending section in the Fill dialog box in CS along with doing it in the Layers palette. When I first used the tutorial instructions I did not get a strange looking result. I thought, 'Oh, well.' and went on. However in recent playing around I thought what will happen if I set Difference in the fill dialog too. Results as described. See below for the settings for the Fill dialog in CS:
(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/4379/picture1rp0.jpg)


This same tutorial appeared in the May, 2008 issue of Macworld. The author of the article is Scott Kelby. Here is the Macworld link for anyone interested: http://www.macworld.com/article/132982-2/2008/04/digitalphoto2505.html

The instructions to set the mid-point are basically the same in the article as you stated Glenna. So my situation must be unique to CS.

Johnboy
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: glennab on August 14, 2008, 10:21:33 PM
Hi JB

I'm so glad the tutorial has been such a help to you.  I don't know what I'd do without it.  I guess CS must be a bit different from CS2 and CS3, because I've never had to use the blending mode in the fill dialog.  There's always the possibility that it could be a more accurate way to get results.  Whatever works!

I didn't see Scott's article – I'm months behind in my trade magazine reading.  I'll have to check it out.  If I remember correctly, Dave Cross said that the technique was Scott's to begin with.  The gurus' guru!

Cheers,

GK
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: Mhayes on August 14, 2008, 10:59:23 PM
Johnboy, I have CS2 and do the same thing, but after I add a layer with Overlay for the blending mode and 50% gray check off; I then go to the layers section and the pull down blending section and then choose Difference. NAPP carried it one step further by the use of the threshold adjustment to pin point where the black on Difference first shows up. This tip works pretty good, but you will come across a photo that will not have a good gray to work with.

Margie
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: Johnboy on August 15, 2008, 12:13:56 PM
Marge,

I'll keep your tip in mind. I just wasn't sure if ran into was a CS thing, or carried over to the other Photoshop versions. (I also considered operator error which I think it was to begin with.) I really began to wonder when I read the Macworld article as they typically present information using the latest app and Mac OS on the market.

Thanks Marge.

Johnboy
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: mitzs on September 19, 2008, 02:22:07 AM
So do you guys always do color correction first before you do anything else? And thanks for the tut glenna, I am always looking for good resources.
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: Tess (Tassie D) on September 19, 2008, 02:27:39 AM
Most of us do color correct Mitzs, it makes it a lot easier to work with the photo and repair with the right color.
If you look over to the left of the forum you'll see the official OPR handbook which gives the do's and don'ts and tips.
Its in pdf format so you can save it to use as a reference.
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: mitzs on September 19, 2008, 02:40:18 AM
Tassie you Rock! Thank you for being so helpfull tonight.  :hug:
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: Tess (Tassie D) on September 19, 2008, 03:09:44 AM
You're most welcome mitzs. Its afternoon here in Australia so us aussies have a while before its bedtime.  :)
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: CariLeigh on December 20, 2009, 10:07:41 PM
I don't know what is wrong with my Photoshop, but it will not allow me to click the 3X3 selection at the top when I open curves. It greys out the drop down menu and wont let me click it at all.
Any advice on what may be going on here?
Title: Re: FINALLY, the color correction tutorial
Post by: glennab on December 21, 2009, 09:11:58 AM
Cari, I'm not sure what's happening that your pull down menu doesn't show right away, but you can access it by going to the curves menu and hitting the options key.  Your menu will then show in the upper left corner.  I'll investigate that more when I get home from work.  Now you have me intrigued.

Have a great day.

GK