In this video,
I will show you the power of the
Curves Auto Color correction options
and how you can use it to
color correct and color match your images in Photoshop.
To follow along, you can download the images for this video.
The link is below in the description.
How to remove a color cast from a photo
by using my favorite algorithm in the color correction options.
So, this is the document that I'm going to work with.
We have several layers here and let's start with example number one.
As you can see, this image needs color correction and you can use
the Curves adjustment layer to color correct this image.
You can go into the new adjustment layer icon and select Curves.
From here, I'm just going to click-and-drag this layer down
so it's above example number one.
And I'm going to click on the Auto button
when you click on Auto Photoshop will apply an
automatic color adjustment to this image.
And it doesn't give you the best result.
In my opinion, the default algorithm the Photoshop uses is not the best,
but luckily there's a few others that we can select.
That, in my opinion, are better.
You can hold Alt on Windows, Option on the Mac
and click on the Auto button
to bring up the Auto color correction option.
From here, you can select from one of these algorithms.
By default, Photoshop uses Enhance Brightness and Contrast.
You can click on the other algorithms to see the result.
My favorite algorithm is the Find Dark and Light Colors algorithm
as you can see, it does a fantastic job.
I also like to check Snap Neutral midtones to get a better color balance.
And I also like to set this as my default algorithm
to use when applying the Auto color correction options.
I'll press OK, and now next time that I create
a Curves Adjustment layer and click on Auto Photoshop will apply that algorithm.
And in my opinion, it does a much, much better job most of the time.
Again, I encourage you to change your
default algorithm to color balance your images faster.
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and now let's look at the following example.
We have a similar issue.
The image is too warm and it needs to be color corrected.
And of course, you can create a new adjustment layer from the new adjustment
layer icon and you can press on the auto button to see what Photoshop does.
In this case, Photoshop did in color correct this image.
This image has color correction issues
that are too difficult for the auto color correction to solve.
But if we select this center eyedropper
the midtone eyedropper
and click anywhere on the image that should be a neutral Gray.
Like these columns, these columns should be white.
They shouldn't have any color cast.
We can click on them, and you can see that Photoshop removes
the color cast and it looks much, much better.
I know that you're probably thinking,
well, why not just click on this midpoint eyedropper to begin with
and make that selection without going into the auto button?
Well, let me show you why.
If you create a Curves Adjustment Layer
and select that eyedropper
and click on the same area,
notice that Photoshop
does indeed remove the color casts, but the image is still washed out.
That's one of the advantages of doing the previous method
that Photoshop adds contrast to the image automatically.
And if the image is not color corrected,
you can always continue to the next step and use this gray point eyedropper
to click on an area that should have a neutral gray.
So that's why I prefer to use this algorithm.
In a lot of cases, just click on an auto
will solve all your issues.
And if they don't, all you need to do is
click on a Gray point eyedropper and click over any area in the image
that should be a neutral Gray,
and the best thing about this is that you can experiment.
For example, you can click on different areas of the image
to see what gives you the best result,
and when you find something that you like, that's what you stay with.
Next, let's look at how we can use this algorithm to color match a layer.
This technique works great when compositing
and the background has a strong color cast or color tint.
In this example,
I want the Jet to have the same color cast as the sky
to make it look more realistic.
To start I'll create a new Curves Adjustment layer
and to only affect the jet and nothing else
I'm going to click on this icon here to clip it to the layer below.
This down-pointing arrow represents a clipping mask, which means that
this Adjustment Layer will only affect the layer directly below it and nothing else.
So, any adjustment that I make will only affect the jet.
I can also click on this icon to reset the adjustment layer.
By the way, you could also, use a keyboard shortcut if you like.
You don't have to click on this icon.
A lot of times I prefer using the keyboard shortcut,
which is Ctrl Alt G on Windows,
that's Command Option G on the Mac
and you can create a Clipping Mask
like you see there.
So, now that we have our
Curves Adjustment Layer clipped to the jet layer,
I can hold Alt on Windows, Option on the Mac, and click on Auto.
That will bring up the Auto Color Correction Options.
And from here, you can see that we have target colors.
Earlier we used black and white as our shadows and highlights.
And if we're trying to neutralize an image
to remove a color cast, that's exactly what we want.
But in this case, we don't want to remove a color cast
we want to actually introduce a color cast
so that the jet matches the background.
So, we need to tell Photoshop
to have different shadow colors and different highlight colors.
The first step is to uncheck Snap Neutral Midtones,
and we can double-click on shadows to set the shadows color.
And what you want to do here is look
at the background and click at the color of the shadow,
something that has a color cast.
By the way, right now, this is not going to work.
If I just were to click on this Orange area here,
notice that Photoshop makes the entire plane white.
That's because I didn't select the Curves thumbnail here.
I selected the Layer Mask thumbnail,
so, everything is white as you can see from that thumbnail preview.
So two things you can do.
Number one is you can hold Ctrl on Windows
Command on the Mac
and click
to actually select the color in the image
as you see here.
Or you could cancel out of this.
And click on the thumbnail.
Notice the focus, the white outline, is now on the thumbnail.
If I hold Alt on Windows, Option on the Mac,
and go back into Auto
uncheck Snap Neutral Midtones,
I can click on the Shadows swatch,
and now when I click, I'll Select the actual color
that is found in the background and not the white of the layer mask.
Again, that's because the focus, the white outline,
is on the Curves Adjustment Layer Thumbnail
and not the layer mask.
So, what you want to do here is select the color of the shadows.
So, I'm going to select this Orange.
And if I'm happy with that, I can make it darker by bringing it down.
Or I could also adjust the Hue by dragging this slider.
So what I'll do is I'll Select this Orange color here.
I'm more concerned about
the color that I'm applying
and not so concerned about the contrast.
We're going to worry about that later.
So, for now I'll just press OK,
and I can click on the highlights Swatch and then click on the highlights.
So, you don't want to use white or any other specular highlight.
You want to use something that represents
the highlight colors.
In this case, maybe yellow.
And if it's too yellow or too bright or too dark,
you hold always adjust it by clicking and dragging on this point
and then using the slider, again, to control the color.
So, in this case, I want it more in the oranges rather than the yellow.
So, something like this should work.
Then you can press OK.
So, we apply the shadow colors in the highlight colors.
Next, we need to work on the contrast.
And to do so, just press OK.
Photoshop will ask you,
if you want to make these colors the new default colors.
In most cases, you don't want to do this.
So, just press No.
And now, with this RGB curve,
you can adjust the contrast of the image.
See that?
So, I can click down like so
to make the shadows darker
and I can click and drag up to make the highlights brighter.
And that gives it the right contrast for this scene.
That's before
and after.
I'm sure that by now you can see the power
of the Auto Color Corrections,
and that is one of the best tools
for color correcting and color matching in Photoshop.
applying color to a photo, then check out my easy method for applying color grades.
You can watch the video here!
Thank you so much for watching!