Color Temperature and the digital dark room
Most people don’t think of color as having a temperature. This is actually a concept of theoretical physics where the light spectrum balance of white light sources is rated numerically. Warm colors, the reds are lower on the numerical scale and cooler colors the blues are higher. Cameras are provided with a white balance to detect the color spectrum and adjust to the proper colors. But sometimes the sensors don’t do the right job because depending on where you are affects the color temperature and white balance of your camera. If you are inside with ambient lighting your photos may come out with a yellowish haze, fluorescent lighting will give you a different effect. Also if you are outside in direct sunlight your photos may come out with a bluish haze depending on the time of day and the UV rays the sun is letting off.
Most photo editing software can correct these effects for you.
As you can see in this photo with the blue haze; I took with my Olympus E-500 I did not use any filters and this was taken early in the morning.
I used Photoshop CS3 to fix the photo.
First I applied a warming filter
Curves I adjusted each color individually instead of together
• Blue output 26 and input 93
• Green output 136 and input 175
• Red output 47 and input 31
I then used Hue/Saturation; Master – hue to 31, saturation to 19, lightness to 0
I then used Match color; luminance to 119, intensity to 135, fades 0
Using selective colors;
• Red – cyan -37, magenta -54, yellow +31, black 0
• Blue – cyan 0, magenta -41, yellow 0, black 0
As you can see almost any picture can be fixed in you digital darkroom.
photo editing, photoshop, white balance, color temperature, digital camera
July 6th, 2007 at 4:36 am
I am so glad I visited your site. As a writer, I’m always taking photos. I decided reading this column is equivalent to a course in digi photog.
I enjoyed what I read and will return again!
Kay
July 6th, 2007 at 5:15 am
Thank you, I hope I can keep your interest! If there is anyting you want me to touch on just let me know!
Thank you again!