Advice on color correcting a neg scan

Hey everyone,<br>I am posting an untouched negative scan from a

previous wedding. I chose this one because the color doesn't look the

way it should. The prints from the lab look great, but I would like to

know how to do it at home. Could you offer advice on techniques in

PSCS to make the color look more natural? I am trying to learn more

about color correction using PS with negative scans. Thanks for your

advice.<br>Duane<div></div>

You may try the neutral gray eyedropper in Curve or Level as a start.

which tutorial books are you using?

Something like this?

 

I did a very quick adjustment of the midtones using the Curves dialog. I decided to make the shadow in the brides dress neutral (which it probably shouldn't be). I dropped the green curve so it's level at my chosen 'neutral point' matched the red curve. I also raised the blue curve, although not all the way. Raising the blue to also match made the image too cold for my tastes, so I kind of comprimised about half way.

 

Keep in mind that I'm doing this on my laptop display that is not calibrated, so what I'm seeing may be completely off.<div></div>

I used the "set gray point" (in Level or Curve) to click on the suit then clip the white point a little to increase contrast. Your 2nd picture looks a little too much magenta.

Thanks to everyone for their help. <br>Eric: I have been reading the tutorials available at Creative Pro's website.<br>Alan, that looks great.<br> Any other books or websites you recommend?<br>Thanks,Duane

The Scott Kelby book for digital photogrpahers is great, i like the easy reading style. He'll go through step by step on setting up your eye dropers (values and size) in curves and explaining where to sample from.

After checking some CS2 books, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240519841/qid=1137649101/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-0603940-7152968?s=books&v=glance&n=283155">this</a> is what I like most. It goes through the basics instead of filling the book with tricks.

Scanning colour negative film is often problematic as the film often has a colour cast. One way to tell if your image has a colour cast is to run the eye dropper tool over a a part of the image that should be white. The RGB values should be fairly similiar. If one channel is higher than the others it will indicate a colour cast.

 

The first step I take is to go into levels, or curves and set the highlight/shadow points. This will normally take care of any colour cast. I have done this with your image and increased the brightness a little.

 

There are lots of good books out there which will explain this.<div></div>

What has to be understood is that color cast is directly linked to exposure levels. A shot

that looks decently exposed but has a strong warm/yellow cast to it will look darker when

the color cast is neutralized. This makes getting the white balance as close as possible in

the camera even more important ... especially if you're shooting higher ISOs.

 

When in PS correcting RAW files, it's best to neutralize the white balance first to see the

true levels of exposure correction needed. PSCS2 ARC offers quite a range of exposure

controls to correct a file, but it needs to be the color temp you want first. Once corrected

you may wish to slightly tweak the temp to taste again before saving.