correctmyphotos

I often ask people with digital cameras if they are pleased with the color they are getting from their camera.  The answer is usually, “Yeah, I guess its okay.” If I push a little and suggest that maybe the photos are a little dull and maybe not as vivid as when they use a film camera they acknowledge a bit of disappointment with digital photography. But, even if they know the color is not right they don’t have a clue as to how to fix it.

Fixing Color is Difficult
If you have tried to use the software that came with your camera or some other photo editing software like Photoshop Elements you know it is one of the most frustrating and difficult challenges. If the tools in Photoshop were easy their wouldn’t be a market for the hundreds of thousands of articles and the many books devoted to Color Correcting Photos in Photoshop. For most of us, it is just too much work and take too much time to fix the color. And, if you’ve tried to use the auto color feature you probably found that it really doesn’t do much good on most photos (see the middle photo in the example below).

The Original Color (left) is dull, Elements Auto Fix is a little better (middle), OneClick Color is accurate (right)

So, is there really and easy way to fix color?
I am going to assume you have Photoshop Elements to edit your photos, but you don’t have a good understanding of Levels and Curves and all the other color tools (and really don’t care to learn it).

Color Correction using Elements Quick Fix

After opening and image file click on the Quick button on the right hand panel and a set of color correction tools  and  Before & After image windows will appear. First, I suggest you click on the Auto button under General Fixes. If you don’t like the result click on the Reset on top of the After image and then go to the Lighting tool set. Carefully adjust the three sliders until you are satisfied with the result. Then, jump down to the Saturation slider in the Color tools section and gently move the saturation until you are happy with the photo. In general, I would stay away from the other color tools as you will start the “chase your tail” exercise that will chew up a lot of time with marginal results.

There is a better and easier way to achieve good color.
If you are willing to spend a few dollars you can add a plug-in to Elements to help with the color correction process. PictoColor has several to choose from, however, the easiest and least expensive is iCorrect OneClick.  The plug-ins are available for Windows or Mac versions of Photoshop and Elements.

iCorrect OneClick from PictoColor is an easy way to color correct photos

If you have iCorrect OneClick installed under Filters in Elements simply click on Filters/PictoColor/iCorrect OneClick to activate the plug-in. Then move the cursor to something neutral in the image (black, white, or grey) and click the mouse. (No, beige is not neutral in photography.) The OneClick technology is totally different and more sophisticated than the color correction tools in Photoshop, or any other photo editor, in that it is based on color management profiling algorithms. That is probably more than you need to know, but it is what makes the difference. You have to tell OneClick what part of the image is supposed to be neutral and then it will do a global analysis of the image and automatically remove the color cast (that what makes the image appear dull or off color), and adjusts brightness, contrast and saturation. Generally, that is all you need to do to Make the Color Right and the photo come alive. If you think you need to tweak a little more just click on the enhancement button and you can make further adjustments to over all brightness, highlight and shadow brightness, contrast and saturation. It really does work and you can see the difference in the third panel of the comparison image above.

Now, if you don’t have Photoshop or Elements you can get OneClick technology in an easy to use Windows editor, CorrectPhoto.  Here is the screen shot of the Before/After view of CorrectPhoto with OneClick color.

CorrectPhoto Editor with OneClick Color is available for Windows Computers

PictoColor has two more color correction plug-ins, iCorrect Portrait and iCorrect EditLab Pro with more advanced color correction technology and I will cover these in future posts. But, for most of us amateurs and photo enthusiasts, iCorrect OneClick or CorrectPhoto is just perfect for making your photos come alive. You will be proud to share them with others. And, if your pictures are worth sharing with others they are worth Making the Color Right.

Wayne  http://www.correctphoto.com