Color Fix Express

Nikolai

Got this hint from the NAPP DVD 7 along with my next year NAPP memebership "early renewal" :

If you are pressed for time and want to fix colors *F*A*S*T* one of the ways to do it is to use Image|Adjustments|Match Color... dialog and check its Neutralize checkbox. You can also play with other options, Fade being the most important, but the default set "100 | 100 | 0" is also OK. The whole thing takes less than 2 seconds, and if you like it, you can create an action and assign a shortcut to it, so it will take even less...:wink

As always with Photoshop, there are many other ways to do a color fix, and nothing would work 100% in 100% of cases, but this is one really quick and quite potent tool.

HTH

Shay Stephens

I just tried it and it looks like it has promise. Thanks for the tip. I'm going to do some experiments with this.

Nikolai wrote:

Image|Adjustments|Match Color...

Nikolai

My pleasure :-)

Shay Stephens wrote:

I just tried it and it looks like it has promise. Thanks for the tip. I'm going to do some experiments with this.

I think I'm gonna incorporate it as one of my regular steps when doing Image Processing from CR2s to JPGs...

Glad you liked it:-)

Cheers!

Shay Stephens

It is a unique routine as the results are not the same as auto color or levels white point adjustments, it looks like it works better than both of those methods. It seems to me at first blush that it is more in line with a color filter being used.

After some initial tests, I do get better results manually deciding on a color filter (warm/cool) to apply, and better still dialing in the right WB adjustment in RAW, but if there is no way or desire to do it manually, this looks like a good way to automate the process.

Nikolai

I agree

Shay Stephens wrote:

It is a unique routine as the results are not the same as auto color or levels white point adjustments, it looks like it works better than both of those methods. It seems to me at first blush that it is more in line with a color filter being used.

After some initial tests, I do get better results manually deciding on a color filter (warm/cool) to apply, and better still dialing in the right WB adjustment in RAW, but if there is no way or desire to do it manually, this looks like a good way to automate the process.

It's not a replacement for a toughtful manual color correction, but as a "bang for the buck" I think it can hold its candle:-)

Nikolai

I also noticed
That it's NOT good for the sunrise/sunset pictures, since they DO have a very distinctive cast and you want to keep it.
However, it does a pretty good job for usually inferior "interior" pictures when you have a had-to-fix mix of luminescent/tungsten/flash.
Again, not a panacea, but a cheap over-the-counter one-size-fits-all microwaveable solution...:):