Pixmaker wrote:
OK, guys. . .I’m about to disclose to the graphics world the effect of taking those stupid pills last night. (though I did discover that it only takes one!)
I shot a group of portraits using a combination of daylight and soft flash fill but pulled a "dumsht" by failing to set a new custom white balance. Now the images, although correctly exposed and nice looking, all need color correction, something I rarely do. (That’s because I usually pull off "attaboys." Years ago, my flight instructor told me it takes 17 "attaboys" to cancel a single "dumbsht.")
To further compound the severity of the "dumbsht," I failed to include a gray card in a single one of the frames. The best I can do is to use a white shirt collar as an approximation to white, then subtract some blue (or green, or both.) It’s still just a guess because white shirts are hardly a consistent white.
The only saving grace is that the lighting of all the portraits is the same so, if I can get a single good balance, it will probably apply closely to all.
Question: How do I save a satisfactory white balance so as to apply it to subsequent images? I’m using PS-7. I read Kelby and Evening and, while very good info, they didn’t quite give me the "insert tab A into slot B" kind of answer I need. (Remember the stupid pill.)
I will be in you debt for a simple answer.
There’s nothing wrong with using a white shirt as a neutral reference. You will probably get good results as follows:
1) convert to Lab mode
2) create a sample point on a darker area of the white shirt.
3) move the center of the a and b curves so that a and b are zero for that
sample point. Fine tune the center of the b curve as necessary.
4) save the resulting curve either as a curve file, or an adjustment layer,
and apply it to your other images.
If the above doesn’t do it, post a copy somewhere and some of us will see what we can do.
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com
