Simple white balance and color correction from RAW
a basic color correction on a RAW photo - 2/28/08Step 1
This is normally the first step i always make after deciding how am i going to process the picture.Open the Adobe Bridge application. Navigate to the folder containing the photo you would like to work on.
Normally under the default view in Adobe Bridge all the folders will be listed in the top left window pane. After clicking on the chosen one, the pictures contained therein will display as a filmstrip at the bottom of the window
Step 2
You might need to scroll through the filmstrip to find the picture you want.When you find your chosen picture in the filmstrip, place the mouse cursor on it and Right Click. A list of dialogs will appear and you will choose Open in Camera RAW and click on it.
Step 3
Now your image has opened in the new Camera RAW window.Here is where we will do most of the white balance adjustments, color corrections, cropping, dust spot removal,red eye removal and a host of many other adjustments.
Working with the raw image rather than a Jpg assures us that the picture will be processed with the maximum of quality and no irreversible damage is done to the picture as when postprocess as a Jpg.In Camera RAW, the first thing i like to do is to set the right White Balance.
Navigate to the top of the page where you will find a toolbar. Click on the third icon from the left which is an Eyedropper icon. This is the one that sets the White Balance by clicking it on an area in the picture which either contains an area of solid white or an area that contains solid 18% grey. Make sure the patch of white you choose does not contain specular highligts (blown out white-contains no color information)
18% grey, or middle gray is just that. Concrete bare walls or lighter pavement are middle gray.Storm clouds are also middle gray as also the regular white skin on people.
Step 4
This image was shot at night and under very strong Tungsten light, hence the strong reddish color cast. Evaluating the image i found a spot of non shiny bare metal on this metal structure and was confident is somewhere really close to middlle gray. After choosing the White Balance eyedropper i positioned it over my chosen spot and clicked the mouse on it.
Step 5
You can see the dramatic change in the following screenshot and the fact that my evaluation was almost spot on. White balance now established, it leaves us free to concentrate on some color correction next.
Step 6
My first color correction step for this file was very subtle. I increased the Exposure to +20; Brightness to +10 and Clarity to +50.
Step 7
Next i moved to the Hue/Saturation/Luminosity section of the menu. You will find this as the 4th icon from the left in the RAW tools palette on the right side of the window. It is also circled in Red for easy identification. I first started with the Saturation sliders. Looking at the picture so far i noticed that the concrete pavement at the bottom of the frame still shows an orange hue as well as the metal structure.
I moved the Orange slider to a -90 value thus taking the remaining reddish-orange tint out of the pavement and metal structure. Then again the Yellow slider to a value of -10 and this really brought everything back to the natural color. I then boosted the blue in the night sky to a value of +45 to bring it closer to how it looked at dusk.
Step 8
This done, i switched to the Luminosity sliders where i went with a +45 Orange value to lighten up the foreground and highlights in the structure, a +40 value for the yellow slider also to ligten up a bit the aforementioned elements and gave a -60 value to the Blue to darken the sky and make it look more like i saw it at that time of dusk.
Of course these steps are suited for this particular picture and different aproach might have been taken on a different file. Also the possibilities are endless and i could have gotten to almost the same end result by other methods.
But i think this particular approach constitutes a good begining of a possible complex workflow and the choice is up to the photographer.
