This seemed like a good idea for some practice on colour cast correction. :'(
The originally white borders of the image were pale blue. The EXIF data showed that the camera used to make the image was set to AWB so I presume it added blue at least to the whole image to attempt correction.
I have a number of versions made using different methods and had them going round in a slideshow for the last couple of days. I think this looks best, if I try to reduce the cast much further the image starts to look unnatural.
The fairly drastic adjustments produced some scatted odd colour pixels so I used Noiseware on the original to reduce the problem I also adjusted the skin tones on this one very slightly to make the girl and boy stand out a little from the background.
Suggestions/comments please. (and yes, I have inverted this message :crazy:)
Athol
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s145/atholg/perry20_zpsyf9ijb48.jpg) (http://s151.photobucket.com/user/atholg/media/perry20_zpsyf9ijb48.jpg.html)
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s145/atholg/perry%2020%20vsn%203%20copy%20WIP_zps7lmdcutm.jpg) (http://s151.photobucket.com/user/atholg/media/perry%2020%20vsn%203%20copy%20WIP_zps7lmdcutm.jpg.html)
Athol, it was so kind of you to invert your post and we no longer have to stand on our head to read it.
Beautiful restore and you did very well on the color issue. I tried every method I could think of but there were no improvements really.
One thing that I did try that changed the oranges and yellow some is to use the gray dropper in a Curves adjustment layer. I sampled around the upper left brick area. Drawback was fainter colors so I turned up the Vibrance a whole lot.
Hannie
(http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb18/marijtje2/OPR/athol_1.jpg) (http://s210.photobucket.com/user/marijtje2/media/OPR/athol_1.jpg.html)
Looking good and so relieved that it was right side up. However, I do like your upside down avatar, Athol. ;)
Margie
Thanks Hannie,
I had completely missed using the concrete blocks for a grey reference, I had been using the girls sweater so a good suggestion. I also think that the original must have been very orange so there is a limit to how far I can go in trying for a 'normal" white balance.
I had the same problems with loss of colour on a number of my attempts. Increasing saturation didn't help and CS2 doesn't have vibrance
For this one I duplicated the final merge in my WIP, used a curve with the wall for grey reference only and set its opacity to 60%. Did a final trim of levels. I think it looks like a reasonable compromise, it is much closer to a neutral white balance but it is certainly one of those that you keep tinkering with.
Happy to fiddle some more and I appear to be keeping SWMBO happy :up:
Athol
(http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s145/atholg/perry%2020%20vsn%203%20copy%20wip%202_zpsxo8n0rdv.jpg) (http://s151.photobucket.com/user/atholg/media/perry%2020%20vsn%203%20copy%20wip%202_zpsxo8n0rdv.jpg.html)