Does anyone use AUTO-COLOR in photoshop

[john_smith107]

I was told that I should not use AUTO Color or Auto Levels(In

photoshop 7) on any images I scan in.

 

Is this correct?

 

Should I be using Auto Color and Auto Levels or should I do the color

adjustments another way?

 

Any info would be Great!

[phule]

As with every other tool, you use what you want when you want, but you shouldn't let the computer tell you what the best decision is.

 

I use auto color as a guide peg: "Hmm, I wonder what the computer things this should really look like? *click* Eegads, that's terrible. But now I know what to /not/ do."

[Craig_Cooper11664875449]

Auto colour is a very destructive comand - just check your histogram before and after an

application of it

[timarmes]

Hi,

 

I find autocolor very useful, but i don't let it rule the show. Read this:

 

http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/17164.html?origin=story

 

Tim

[jon_austin]

Whenever I edit an image for the first time, the first steps I take are to click on Auto Levels, Auto Contrast and Auto Color Correction -- one at a time -- and undo each in turn, if I don't like the results.

 

Sometimes I like the results of one of more of these automatic modifications very much, and keep the changes. Other times, they demonstrate that the image has room for improvement, but they don't quite nail it, so I'll undo and apply settings manually, using a trial and error approach.

[john_eyres]

I dont use auto color at all. From my personal experiences, it makes my images look warm. ie add red and yellow.

It all depends on how you want your image to look.

However I do use auto levels quite often. Usually I let auto levels sort itself out then tweak the levels manually.

[Spearhead]

<i>I dont use auto color at all. From my personal experiences, it makes my images look warm. ie add red and yellow.</i><p>

 

If you use the method in te article that Tim references, this won't happen. It's a very useful tool, but not if you just click on it in default mode.

[john_smith107]

Thanks for all the info guys!

 

It has been a big help

[mendel_leisk]

You can open the levels dialogue, then select options (I think that's what it's called, not at home pc), you can specify white and black point %'s to be clipped, set both %'s to a low number, say 0 or .01.

 

While still in that dialogue, you have 3 options for applying the clip:

 

1. preserve color balance (auto contrast)

 

2. clip each channel (auto levels)

 

3. find dark and light colors (auto color)

 

plus: you can tick "snap neutral midtones"

 

I find if I output a flat scan through Vuescan (with Color|Color balance set to "none")

 

And then apply the #3 approach in levels (auto color) with very light or no clip, with "snap neutral midtones" ticked, I get fairly good result, atleast with few color slides I've scanned of late.

 

When people put down "auto everything", perhaps they're referring to using it with DEFAULT clipping, which tends to be heavier. With the levels dialogue, you can change this default to very low or 0 clip, and set it case by case.