color correction tutorial
Program(s)+version: Photoshop 7
Involves: Levels, Color Balance, Brightness/Contrast
Translatable: to PSP and Gimp, afaik
Steps: 5-6
Difficulty: easy to medium. Basic knownledge (i.e. working with layers and blend modes) of your program is assumed.
Notes: Works best on blue and green tinted caps, but the theory can be tweaked for just about any cap.
Caps used in this tutorial are mine (left) and marishna's (center and right).
Crop your image to your liking or work on the full image and crop at the very end. This is pretty much a personal preference thing. I usually like to work on the full image and crop when I'm done with the coloring, but before I add any textures or finishing effects.
If you're planning on a close-up crop though, doing the coloring on the full image makes a bit more sense than on the cropped picture, as you have a bigger range of colors in the full picture.
STEP ONE
Natural skin color is sort of orange-y, so we need to get those colors back into the picture, while we remove the green or blue tint the picture has. While it's of course possible to add both yellow and red (making orange) at the same time, doing it in stages gives a bit more control.
So first, create a Levels layer to add some red to the image. For this, add some red in the Red Channel by dragging the middle slider to the left. Then go to the Green channel and reduce the green a bit by dragging the middle slider to the right (green's complementary color is magenta, so this also adds some red at the same time as reducing the amount of green in the picture). Last go to the Blue channel and either add blue or remove it, depending on what the picture needs (I removed blue from the middle picture, but added a tiny bit to the right and left pictures)
Red: 0 / 1,06 / 255
Green: 0 / 0,92 / 255
Blue: 0 / 1,02 / 255Red: 0 / 1,06 / 255
Green: 0 / 0,92 / 255
Blue: 0 / 0,88 / 255Red: 0 / 1,06 / 255
Green: 0 / 0,92 / 255
Blue: 0 / 1,02 / 255
STEP TWO
Create a new Levels layer to add yellow to the image. This is done by reducing blue in the Blue channel, as blue's complementary color is yellow. Also add some more red and green as needed in the respective channels. Look at your image when you drag the slider.
Red: 0 / 1,06 / 255
Green: 0 / 1,04 / 255
Blue: 0 / 0,91 / 255Red: 0 / 1,28 / 255
Green: 0 / 1,04 / 255
Blue: 0 / 0,78 / 255Red: 0 / 1,06 / 255
Green: 0 / 1,04 / 255
Blue: 0 / 0,91 / 255
STEP THREE
It's time to brighten the image up. Doing this with a Color Balance layer set to Screen works great, because it gives the possibility to add a bit more coloring at the same time. I mainly upped more red and yellow in the midtones and shadows and upped cyan and blue in the highlights. Lower the opacity of the Color Balance layer as needed.
Midtones: 12 / 0 / -10
Highlights: -6 / 2 / 9
Shadows: 12 / 6 / 6
set to Screen 42%
Midtones: 12 / 0 / -10
Highlights: -6 / 2 / 9
Shadows: 12 / 6 / 6
set to Screen 86%Midtones: 12 / 0 / -10
Highlights: -6 / 2 / 9
Shadows: 12 / 6 / 6
set to Screen 42%
STEP FOUR
Create a Color fill layer with a dark red set to Exclusion. This'll even out the contrast which is helpful for the next step, and lightens up the darkest areas of the cap. I use #0C0300.
STEP FIVE
Duplicate the Background layer and drag it to the top. Then go to Image - Adjustments - Brightness/Contrast and increase the brightness and lower contrast for this layer only.
Set this layer to Overlay, or if that's too much contrast, set it to Soft Light instead. You can also lower the opacity of this layer to suit your image. If the base was too discolored, and too much of this discolorization gets back into the icon with this step, desaturate this layer or copy/merge (stamp) all your layers up to this point instead of using a duplicate of your base layer.
duplicated background layer, with brightness/contrast adjusted
(B +50 / C -20)
set to Soft Light 100%
duplicated background layer, with brightness/contrast adjusted
(B +50 / C -20)
set to Soft Light 50%duplicated background layer, with brightness/contrast adjusted
(B +50 / C -20)
set to Soft Light 100%
Your picture might be done at this point, or it might need a bit further mending. It depends on the picture you're working with and the coloring you're going for.
STEP SIX - OPTIONAL
For my examples, I decided to finish each in a different way. The left picture still had a bit too much green for my opinion. On the middle picture, I wanted the colors to pop some more. On the right picture, I was satisfied with the coloring, but wanted it a bit brighter.
How you finish up your picture depends partly on what you think still needs fixing and the methods you're most comfortable with. If you love Selective Color, go for that. If you're more comfortable with Color Balance or Curves or Color Fill layers, use those. Go wild. Every picture is different and there's never the one ultimate way for coloring.
Here, I'm sure I could have gotten very similar coloring had I used Color Burn layers or Channel Mixer, but I found the easiest way to control the rest of coloring was Selective Color (Method: Absolute - to make the colors pop some more).
Reds: C -30 / M +6 / Y +7 / B +8
Yellows: C -16 / Y +36
Greens: C -58 / Y +100
Cyans: C +37 / Y -41 / B +6
Neutrals: C -3 / M +1 / Y +3
Blacks: B +2
Mostly, I wanted to give this picture a overall warmer, redder coloring, I used a Color Balance layer.
Midtones: 15 / 0 / -24
Highlights: 3 / 0 / 3
Shadows: -3 / 0 / 7
As I only wanted to brighten this picture, I used two copy/merged layers. I set the first copy/merged layer to Multiply at 25% to get a richer coloring, and the second copy merged layer to Screen at 100% to brighten the picture.
- Comments make me happy
- Feel free to ask any question about the tutorial.