White balance/color correction

[TwoWheeler]

I've been using my "-meh-" shots for editing practice - what I refer to as "polishing turds". The goal is not to "save" them, just to see if I can improve them. That way, if I ever get a good image, I'll know what to do with it!

This one - and a series I took the same session - has been giving me fits. As shot, I got a weird bluish cast. If I get rid of that, I end up with nuclear greens and/or neon reds. I tried pulling saturation back a touch of both colors, which sort of works, but something still seems "off", no?

 

[Bryan Conner]

I have always found waterfall/forest stream images to be a pain to color balance. I think it is because the scenes often contain different light temperatures. There may be some areas that are lit by sunlight, others in complete shade and all things in between.

Is the image a raw image? If so, what editing software are you using? If you are using Lightroom Classic/ACR, which color profile are you using? I have found that choosing the most pleasing color profile in the beginning makes color editing easier.....sometimes. I have had good results using the new Adaptive Color profile in Adobe Camera Raw or LrC.

If you use another raw editor maybe someone else can help.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

Shadows and light. I get this with birds all the time when half is sunlit, half is in the shadows. No easy fix. If it's obvious and/or annoying what I'll do is get the sunlit section right and then use the brush adjustment in Lightroom/ACR to color over the problematic shadowy areas and do a separate white balance on them to warm them up to match.

 

[TwoWheeler]

I have always found waterfall/forest stream images to be a pain to color balance. I think it is because the scenes often contain different light temperatures. There may be some areas that are lit by sunlight, others in complete shade and all things in between.

Shadows and light. I get this with birds all the time when half is sunlit, half is in the shadows. No easy fix. If it's obvious and/or annoying what I'll do is get the sunlit section right and then use the brush adjustment in Lightroom/ACR to color over the problematic shadowy areas and do a separate white balance on them to warm them up to match.

What's weird is this was late fall, the trees were bare and the sky was overcast - pretty much perfectly even lighting and no tree canopy to give a color cast. Oddly, I have almost no issues with summer shots. There may be a color cast, but it's usually all in one direction.

Is the image a raw image? If so, what editing software are you using?

Raw image, Capture One.

But you both agree there's something wonky in both the left -unedited- and right -edited- sides, just different wonkiness?

 

[ACEkin]

Is this going in the right direction? I took the liberty of downloading the combined image and applying one of my white balance procedures to it. I hope you don't mind. For a better comparison, you may download this and view both of them in an image-viewing application by quickly switching between the two.

 

[TwoWheeler]

Is this going in the right direction?

No, it's still a crappy photo...

I took the liberty of downloading the combined image and applying one of my white balance procedures to it. I hope you don't mind. For a better comparison, you may download this and view both of them in an image-viewing application by quickly switching between the two.

It's subtle, but better - the reds don't look as neon.

This is the unedited version - JPEG for upload here - the previous was a screenshot to show the before/after. The water has a bluish cast. In trying to get rid of that, I either make the greens go nuclear or the browns go neon.

• Join to view EXIF data.

 

[ACEkin]

I applied the process I explained in the following article. It requires Photoshop but is extremely simple:

Remove color cast using Photoshop in a simple way

Removing color cast from an image can be a tricky process. This easy to follow method will remove the color cast, there is even a Photoshop action in the post.

www.keptlight.com

Later I added a variation that pushes it back to Lightroom where the color cast can be removed, but it still goes through Photoshop:

Remove color cast in Lightroom with help from Photoshop

As-shot or auto color balance may not always yield good results for many reasons. Removing the color cast in Lightroom is possible with help from Photoshop.

www.keptlight.com

You may also consider using luminance range or color range masking to adjust the colors in different parts of the image. All these are available if you use Photoshop and Lightroom.

 

[ACEkin]

Here is a version edited in Photoshop to remove the color cast and then for better colors for my eyes and my display calibration. I'll be glad to post a link to the PSD file if anyone wants to see the adjustments.