 |
 |

 |
Greenish
cast from
fluorescent lighting. |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
Photos taken under fluorescent or mercury vapor lights have
a greenish cast.
Color compensation can be used to bring out the actual color. |
 |
 |
 |
| Fluorescent lights contain a strong green
component, to which the human eye is not very sensitive. Therefore, daylight balance slide film or
a digital camera set for daylight white balance records far more green than you can see when taking
a picture. This greenish cast results in a very unpleasant looking photograph.
Fortunately, this unwanted greenish cast can be removed. |
 |
| There are several methods for removing colorcast. In
Photoshop, you can use the special eyedropper to correct the portion of the picture that should
be neutral gray, thereby correcting the overall color balance. |
 |
 |




|
Pictures like this are common
when taken in office buildings, subway platforms, or residences with fluorescent lighting. |
 |




|
From the Image menu > Color compensation > open
Tone curve. (If using the Adjustment laver, from the main menu > New adjustment layer > open Tone
curve.)
Next, select the eyedropper target. Double-click on each of the three eyedroppers and set the target.
Set the highlight eyedroppers for R, G, and B to 247. This sets the point clicked to 247 for R, G, and B. (See "column" for
details about each target value.)
The intermediate eyedroppers for R, G, and B are all 127. Since this is the value you want, no change is necessary.
Set the shadow eyedroppers for R, G, and B to 7. |
 |
 |

![Column: [Tone Curve] eyedropper target setting](../../images/application/colorcast/colorcast01_text03_e.gif)
The reason for setting the highlight eyedroppers to
247, the intermediate ones to 127, and the shadow ones to 7 is to prevent washed out highlights
and lost shadow detail.
If the highlight RGB eyedroppers are all set to 255, the result is pure white with no detail.
If the shadow RGB eyedroppers are all set to 0, the result is pure black with no detail.
That is why we set the highlight eyedroppers to 247 and the shadow eyedroppers to 7.
The total range of a digital image is 0 to 255, or 256 steps, so the intermediate eyedroppers are set to the halfway
point of 127.
We will use these values for these lessons.
These are not absolute values, but we will use them as our standard values. |
|
|




|
Now that the eyedropper target
settings are fixed, click inside the image with the highlight and intermediate eyedroppers.
The highlight eyedroppers for RGB are set to 247 to give a neutral white. Therefore, click on a point in the image
that should be white. The point will become a white highlight and the RGB color balance will be corrected automatically. |


|
As with the highlight eyedropper,
which was set to a neutral white, the intermediate eyedropper is set to a neutral gray (RGB = 127).
Clicking on a point that should be gray will automatically adjust the color balance. In the sample
illustration, a part of the ceiling is indicated. Unpainted concrete is usually gray. The clothes
of the person in the foreground are also white/gray with a greenish cast. By clicking on the ceiling,
you can correct the color of both the ceiling and the dress. Now click. You should see a significant
improvement. This type of adjustment is quite effective at correcting the greenish cast caused by
fluorescent light. If you are not satisfied with the results, change the sample point and click again. |



|
You haven't yet used the shadow
eyedropper, but the highlight and intermediate adjustments have already done an excellent job of
correcting the greenish cast, and you don't even need to use the shadow eyedropper. Leave Tone curves
open and proceed to the next step. |




|
Although the eyedropper is very
convenient for setting standard gray, it is not appropriate for use for fine brightness compensation.
Therefore, continue to work with Tone curves. Since the basic color compensation was set with the
eyedroppers, only the RGB curve is adjusted by Tone curves. In order to brighten the overall feeling,
some shadows will be made brighter, and the middle tones to highlights will also be brightened, and
the highlights made cleaner.
Click OK to set the changes. |
|
|