![]() This is done with the opposite approach that I used for the black point. Step 5: Adjust The White Pointĭepending on your image, you may need to adjust the white point’s values as well. Green channel adjustment and resulting target point values. The goal is to get them as close as possible.įigure 6. This technique requires some tinkering back and forth-keep your eye on the values as you go. Adjusting one channel can affect the other channels’ values and the other target points’ values as well. In doing so, the red channel also shifted to 30 (Figure 5). I started with the blue channel, clicking on the bottom left corner and dragging straight up until I got a value of 30. Since the only option is to increase the values at the black end of the curve, I needed to increase the output of the blue and green channels (both with values of 26) to get closer to the red channel’s value of 31. That was it for the midtones in this example. Bonus-the blue channel clipping from Step 1 was corrected by this adjustment. It’s the blue value I wanted to bring up to match, so in the Channel dropdown, I selected “Blue.” Since I was adjusting the midtones, I clicked on the center of the diagonal line (in the middle of the grid) and dragged that point straight up until all three values, R, G and B, were identical at 106. In this example, the gray point’s red and green values were identical at 106. The Tone Curve tool palette, Point tab, Channel dropdown and midtone adjustment point, and midtone values (top left) are outlined in red. White objects in shadow can work well.įigure 4. Do your best to find an area that should be a neutral, midtone gray. This one is the trickiest of the three and is where the “art” of this technique comes in. Choose a spot that is as close to pure white with no detail as possible. To do this in ACR, you use the Color Sampler Tool, which looks like an eyedropper with a small target, found in the toolbar above the image. With the exposure set, the next step is to select a white, gray and black point in the image. Step 2: Targeting With The Color Sampler Tool It’s not absolutely critical that you have no clipping, but keep an eye on those warnings and avoid it whenever possible. I opted for the midtones because I was confident I could bring that back later. Ideally, you won’t have any clipping in this case I had to choose between clipping the red channel in the image’s highlights or clipping the blue channel in the midtones. This is indicating that the blue channel is being clipped (losing data). Notice the clipping warning at the top left of the histogram in Figure 2. The image after making initial adjustments to the exposure. By targeting three points in an image-one white, one black and one gray-and adjusting their individual RGB values to be as close to identical as possible (I aim for a variance of 3 or less), you’ll arrive at neutral color throughout the image.įigure 2. For example, a pixel with values of R=255, G=255 and B=255 is pure white, while one with values of R=0, G=0, B=0 is pure black. The fundamental concept to understand is that when the RGB values for a given pixel are identical, you have a color-neutral pixel. The science comes from comparing and adjusting the RGB values of three target points in the image: one white point, one black point and one gray point. This technique to achieve neutral fall color is part science and part art. I generally prefer to shoot in RAW, so in this example I’ll be using Adobe Camera Raw, but you can use it with JPEGs, too, in any software application that offers curves adjustments. ![]() The following technique uses the curves tool to get to that neutral starting point. Whatever your preferences, a good place to start when developing an image is with neutral, balanced color and make further adjustments from there if desired. Some will decry overly saturated colors as unnatural, and I’ll admit to sharing the opinion that it’s easy to go too far with color adjustments, but ultimately it’s up to you to decide what looks best for your photographs. Interpreting color in an image is our prerogative as photographers. Right: Final image after all adjustments. Left: RAW file as captured by the camera.
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