Colour cast issues - can anyone help me edit this image?

<p>Hi everyone!</p>

<p>Having a few issues with this photo... the original was a little red so I added some blue to compensate for it using a colour cast remover in my NIK software, however it just looks too yellow to me, but when I try to remove some yellow in hue & saturation it looks too bland.</p>

<p>If anyone would like to have a play with this photo please feel free and let me know what you did as I'm really struggling. Thanks heaps!</p><div></div>

<p>Looking at it again I can see there are serious issues here I'm not liking the colour at all.. help! :(</p>

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<p>Using Capture NX2, for a quick go at it. Mostly I just desaturated the skin a bit, used a curve change to brighten and boost contrast in the same areas, and then warmed the color there some to make up for the slight graying introduced by desaturating those reds.</p><div></div>

<p>Ugh. I was a little too heavy handed there (not enough coffee yet this morning). But I think approaching this through some selective desaturation is probably the key.</p>

<p>I brought it into Camera RAW. CS3 let's you work on JPGs in the RAW converter, and used the white balance dropper on the highlites in her eyes.</p>

<p><img src="http://tssullivan.net/00T9wT-127917584rev.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Did you capture in RAW?<br>

White balance setting if you catured in jpeg?<br>

Couple of minutes work in CS4.</p>

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<p>Hi June - not sure how helpful this will be ... I'm more accustomed to doing color balance for landscape shots. Here I used curves and threshold layers to do the color balance; then added a hue/saturation layer to desaturate the reds and yellows a little - then lightened the reds.</p>

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<p>thanks for all the help - really like some of these! I did capture in RAW - Will try to adjust white balance. Just really annoyed with the image in general, should be a nice shot but the colour is just not working for me. I'll give it a go in the morning after reading everyone's suggestions and re-post.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

<p>June, a bit off topic, but since this _is_ a good shot, why not try a bw conversion?</p>

<p>There's a lot of ways to achieve the result that you want. I'm not a Photoshop expert but I usually start color correction by setting the levels on each individual color first. Then some desaturation to get the flower color down a bit. </p><div></div>

<p>I gave it a go in ACR 4.6. Here are the settings applied in sRGB space.</p>

<p>Color Temp sliders: +10, -5<br>

Exposure: -35<br>

Split Tone: The first three sliders...218, 31, -40</p>

<p>If you feel it's too yellow back off the (+10) top color temp slider. The main issue I see with that image is her entire skin is one hue and that being way too pinkish magenta. Skin looks more realistic and more 3D if you can give it a two tone appearance which is why I applied a cool setting in Split Tone and let Color Temp add warmth.</p><div></div>

<p>I lobe what you've done with it Tim. Skin has more depth and looks a whole let better. Thanks so for the tips! And Max - I'll give B+W a go - thanks for the suggestion.</p>

<p>A good way to correct this color issue is to use the Variations filter in Photoshop (Image/adjustments/variations). You have to know about the Color wheel to understand how this filter works (<a href="http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/color_cast/color_wheel.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/color_cast/visible_color_spectrum.html&usg=__hgR7hU6U2YyEgB8c_ZNq1y6IZm8=&h=553&w=538&sz=36&hl=fr&start=11&um=1&tbnid=NX7AZzKD2S0ftM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcolor%2Bwheel%26hl%3Dfr%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1">http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/color_cast/color_wheel.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.graphic-design.com/Photoshop/color_cast/visible_color_spectrum.html&usg=__hgR7hU6U2YyEgB8c_ZNq1y6IZm8=&h=553&w=538&sz=36&hl=fr&start=11&um=1&tbnid=NX7AZzKD2S0ftM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcolor%2Bwheel%26hl%3Dfr%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1</a>)<br>

For example, more cyan means less red. If you click once on 'more cyan', this will take off some red from picture, if you click twice on 'more cyan', this will take off some more red. If you click on 'more blue' this will take off some yellow...Just make some experiences with this having in mind that the Variations filter is like the color wheel</p>

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<p>I tried two quick ways, this one the best this time: PS CS2 I used on this one.<br>

Control-U to get to the Saturation adjustment, then choose the RED channel and dial it back down some, maybe 25 points or so. Nothing else.</p><div></div>

<p>June,<br>

it is a correlated color temperature issue.<br>

The image has a magenta cast.<br>

To solve the issue I modified the CCT.<br>

Another suggestion is: avoid lifting.</p>

<p>Jacopo</p><div></div>

<p>For web use you need to post in sRGB- there are big differences between color managed (and non-managed browsers). You posted in AdobeRGB.<br>

Here's a version (converted to sRGB for web). It has one edit in it- clicked around with the gray dropper only.</p><div></div>

<p>My effort,<br>

Selective color with reds selected, black -30, yellow +25, magenta -20.<br>

With yellow selected, black +100. I also masked the flower and her mouth.</p><div></div>

<p>Tweaked in camera raw and a colors adjustment with selective colors in CS3 with a curves adjustment and a slight softening with a blur layer.</p><div></div>

<p>I just took Matt's version and set the white point somewhere in the teeth, then faded back in color mode.<br>

Dan</p><div></div>

<p>Here's my attempt, used a variety of filters like Hue/Saturation; Photo Filter; Color Balance; and Selective Color... Took 3 minutes and would probably take as long for me to type out the settings here. If you want though, I can...</p><div></div>

<p>Wow - thanks for all the efforts! This has really helped me a lot on a photo I was jist havibg zero luck with. Thank you! :)</p>

<p>Here's my version , made with 2 channel blends, using the apply image command, blended the red into the green in linear dodge mode at opacity of 10%. Then blended the green into the red in multiply mode at 15% opacity.</p>

<p>Raymond</p><div></div>

<p>Yes please, Ryan! I love what you did... looks fantastic</p>

<p>Looking at the lady's teeth in the original photo there does appear to be a slight color cast to the picture. But the real issue seems to be that she has a very flushed (technically I think its called a roseate) skin tone. Others are right, I think, desaturating will help. But she also has quite freckled skin in addition and this somehow accentuates the problem in the photo. Why not combine a bit of blurring / skin smoothing with the color adjustment. I am sure that would assist by improving skin tonality. I like Dan Murano's version above which looks pretty close to an optimum photo to my eyes. If you take my suggestion about blurring skin make sure that you deselect the eyes and go the opposite way with these - sharpen them a tad! They are OK now but sharper eyes always seem to make for a better photo.</p>

<p>Alright, well here goes...</p>

<p>First Selective Color, select Red; set Cyan -2, Magenta -11, Yellow 0, Black -7.</p>

<p>Next Color Balance, Shadows -7, +2, -9 Midtones -4, -6, -12 Highlights -3, +5, -1.</p>

<p>Hue/Saturation -7 Saturation.</p>

<p>Photo Filter, Warming Filter (85) 9%.</p>

<p>I also sharpened it a little (Smart Sharpen-Lens Blur-Amount 75, Radius 0.1) and resaturated the flower by selecting only it and using Curves. Bear in mind all of those are adjustable to taste, some of it may not be neccesary or there maybe a better way but I tinker til satisfied.</p>