Color Tips

[JerBear]

Email the support section at Adobe, maybe they have a solution for you.

My question to you is, if you are color blind, then how do you know the photos are washed out?

As for shooting black and white, I am with you, it is to limiting. Why

Good luck

JM

[erniehatt]

Hi,
I am colour blind very similar it seems to yourself.
Generally, as explained above, flatness is lack of contrast, due to incorrect exposure or white balance, and as you say you are pretty sure these are correct, so why not change some of your in camera settings, for saturation, and contrast.
I hate to say this, there is very little difference in shooting in jpeg or raw, you are using CS3, so you can open jpegs in raw and use all the features. I have experimented with this by taking a combination of raw + jpeg, for me there is no difference.
I agree the BW alterative is out, I manually set white ballance using the CWB (custom white balance) look on the net there are quite a few Kelvin charts up there. Good luck. Ernie

[KFriede451]

I'll do a picture and post the original, a color correction based on a tutorial, and what I think looks good. My biggest problem with corrections is in faces. One time I apparently made someone's face orange? Of course I was younger and just new to photo editing.....

[Crane]

I'm color 'blind' too. Not too much, but enough to hear stupid jokes from people thinking we see only in BW.
Besides everything that were alredy suggested above, you can try comparing histograms of different channels. If the picture is, let's say, too red, the histogram of the red channel will show.
And by the way, I think photographic 'mistakes' caused by colorbindness is a good way of showing people how we (literally) see the world. I consider it a reason NOT to give up (Beethoven was deaf when he wrote the 9th Symphony, so, who knows).

[djtrev]

Originally Posted by KFriede451

I'll do a picture and post the original, a color correction based on a tutorial, and what I think looks good. My biggest problem with corrections is in faces. One time I apparently made someone's face orange? Of course I was younger and just new to photo editing.....

Great topic, KFriede -- I am mildly "colour deficient" also, pretty much the same you describe. For certain colour intensities, I find it difficult to distinguish grey/green, green/brown, blue/purple, etc... It's always on the fringes where these colours meet. Over the years and being well aware of this minor disability, I have worked on trying to distinguish colours better simply by confirming with people what a particular colour was when I saw it (not just on computer screen, but everywhere) -- and I've found that over time (years) I've learnt to distinguish them a little better. There's probably no scientific basis to this (I think the green cones in your eyes are physically deficient so your brain never 'receives' the signal that other people receive), but I'm a believer in the adaptability of the human brain and have at least lulled myself into thinking I can perceive colour better than 10 yrs ago. ;-)

Anyway, I find the hardest part about having this impairment is getting white balance correct (colour temperature and tint), especially the skin tones. Making someone's face orange is easy by setting the colour temp too warm.

Here are my hints:

1) I find that my eyes respond well when I can compare colours side-by-side. If you can get hold of some well-balanced images under various lighting, then you can refer to these while you're tuning your work.

2) Spend the money to have your monitor/screen correctly calibrated. It will help when you show others your stuff on screen for comments, and if you believe my theory then it may also help you learn the colours better over time.

3) Use the magic white balance tool in your editing software -- it seems to get pretty close for me in Apple Aperture.

4) Use manual white balance on your camera. There aren't many settings, so it is not hard to learn (on my 40D the main ones are: sunlight, shade, cloud, tungsten bulb). After each shot, review the image on the camera screen by holding the camera up and comparing the scene with what's on the screen. You should easily be able to see if it's too cold or too warm.

5) When you get a buddy to check your images, have the image open in the editing software and let them adjust the sliders for the colour temp and tint.

Hope this helps.
J

[RoyL]

Under normal circumstances, as long as you have exposed correctly, Photoshp and Camera Raw will deal with most color issues for you.

White Balance normally can be left on Daylight because even on a flat cloudy day you can warm the image in either software. Never leave it set to Auto because you have no idea what you are working with.

The fact that you shoot Raw is great as all color information is retained, even if you do shoot Black & White. I have a Fuji S9600 which I use for Sunsets and video, and I had an assignment to shoot in B&W. I left the image format set on Raw and when I was shooting I had a fair idea on what the B&W image would look like but much to my surprise, when I took the images into Camera Raw they were color.

Take a shot into Camera Raw and click on White Balance, I always start with As Shot then I use the down arrow to go through the list checking the result. You will not, or may not be able to do this, but try it anyway. If you feal that you cannot differentiate then select Auto (which tends to leave the image cold) or Daylight (which leaves the image warm). Now click on Auto for exposure, contrast, etc. If you have to sharpen or do anything else then do so, save image and load it up in Photoshop.

Once in photoshop I always try Image>Adjustments>Curves and hit Auto while watching image for results, sometimes it will not make any difference but most times it will. Look at the Histogram and the color channels, if any color appears to have been moved a lot at the top right of the channel/s then some color adjustment most probably will be required on the channel/s that has been shifted to the left back towards the right.

Finally Image>Adjustments>Auto Color will often help fix some color issues.

There are also some pretty good Plugins for color management, PhotoKit Color by Pixel Genius is one, which can help. There is also one called CurveMiester (I think it is spelt that way) which has some enhancements over the Photoshop Curves.

Paintshop Pro, Picasa, and other cheap or free packages also have tools that try to get the best tonal and color adjustments for you.

And finally, if you do an image conversion and you are not sure, post it for critique.

[Mr Guy]

Originally Posted by KFriede451

I'll do a picture and post the original, a color correction based on a tutorial, and what I think looks good. My biggest problem with corrections is in faces. One time I apparently made someone's face orange? Of course I was younger and just new to photo editing.....

Hey, I just wanted to bump this and encourage you, or the others who responded, to do the triple post you described. I'd love to see it, as I've got a friend with a very similar problem and we've basically argued the entire time I've known him about what color things are, particularly with greys, browns, and light greens and blues. I'd love to see something adjusted from your perspective.

That said, sometimes people HAVE orange faces and they just don't like to admit it when they see their photographs. Takes some tricky editing to de-fake tan someone....

[KFriede451]

LOL. Ok i'll post a triple pic when i have time.

[RoyL]

Originally Posted by Mr Guy

....... I'd love to see something adjusted from your perspective.

That said, sometimes people HAVE orange faces and they just don't like to admit it when they see their photographs. Takes some tricky editing to de-fake tan someone....

There are plenty of free photoshop plugins, and most editing software now can use photoshop plugins, which will produce images that allow you to see what color blind and color deficient people see. Haven't tried them because I am lucky and my eyes are reasonable.

[monkeyfinger]

Originally Posted by erniehatt

I hate to say this, there is very little difference in shooting in jpeg or raw, you are using CS3, so you can open jpegs in raw and use all the features. I have experimented with this by taking a combination of raw + jpeg, for me there is no difference.

I think I should point out that this is not true. There is a large difference in shooting in RAW and Jpeg.