Help...the Snow is Blue

[evader]

I read about changing the exposure to make sure the snow appears white when shooting in the snow...but of course I completely forgot when I was at my sisters place taking some pictures on the weekend.

I'm not sure if my problem is that I didn't change the exposure or if it was just because the sun was starting to go down and it was getting a bit dark outside.

Either way, I'm hoping someone can help me "fix" the colour of the snow and maybe I can save some of these shots...

The problem I'm having when I try to do it is it's blowing out the colour of the sky too much and I'm not sure how to avoid doing that.

Below is one of the images...the original and then the one I've tried to adjust.



ISO: 800
Shutter: 1/1250
Exposure: f/4
Focal Length: 55mm
Flash Used: No



Can anyone help me out?

[Samanax]

What white balance setting were you using?

Were these shot in JPEG or RAW?

Which photo editing program are you using?

[evader]

White balance was set to auto

pictures shot in JPG (still a little intimidated to try shooting in raw)

Using Photoshop CS2

[teaking]

You can duplicate the image and on the duplicated image make a layer mask so only the snow part of the picture is affected. And then correct the colour in the snow the easiest way may be the hue and saturation slider in this case. Though you can use which ever method you prefer. This should then show the sky from the original and the snow from the colour corrected version. Well in theory

[Samanax]

Originally Posted by evader

pictures shot in JPG (still a little intimidated to try shooting in raw)

Make a copy of the original JPEG and then put the original someplace safe. Do your edits to the copy. JPEGs don't have a lot of latitude when it comes to editing so don't make too many drastic changes to the file or the image will degrade.

Originally Posted by evader

Using Photoshop CS2

I've never used CS2 but you should be able to remove the blue color cast from the snow.

I found this video tutorial after doing a quick search. You might be able to find something more appropriate if you searched YouTube.

How to Use The Color Replacement Tool

[evader]

Thanks.
I played with it a bit more...does this look any better?

[edbayani]

you can select the portion from the bottom of the frame to before the sky with a rectangular marquee tool feathered 3 pixels and press ctrl J to copy it and put it in another layer above.
use levels and with the white eyedropper, click on the snow and it will correct it a bit but not completely remove the blue. go to hue and saturation and adjust to remove the cast and desaturate a bit. if satisfied, flatten and save.

[evader]

Thanks for the tips everyone.

I really like how that one turned out edbayani.