Fixing photos with wrongly set white balance in photoshop

[Chopkinsca]

I went out for a walk today and took a bunch of pictures. When I got home I forgot to change the white balance when I was experimenting with it last night in my kitchen. Obviously the white balance of my kitchen isn't the same as outside on an overcast day. I was wondering what settings in photoshop I should play with to fix this, if it's even possible. Or do I just have to go back and take the shots again with proper white balance?

Here's one of the photos I took (thumbnail):

[SusanH1970]

If you shot in RAW, you can adjust your WB in ACR.

[Chopkinsca]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

If you shot in RAW, you can adjust your WB in ACR.

Sadly, my camera doesn't seem to be able to shoot raw (fujifilm finepix S1500).

Thanks to both of you for quick answers. I'm very new to photography. I've only just started using manual mode two days ago. Mistakes like this make for great learning.

[sk66]

I was able to largely correct it using color balance adjustment and levels, but it still wasn't *great*. If they were shot in RAW it would be a non issue. As is, I think you'll be better of retaking the pics if possible.

[Doug Sundseth]

All of what follows assumes that you have Adobe Bridge, which ships with Photoshop currently.

You can open jpg images in Adobe Camera Raw and do color balance adjustments:

1) Open Bridge.

2) Select the image(s) you want to edit.

3) Press Ctrl-R (PC, Mac is probably Cmd-R).

4) Make your color temp adjustments.

5) Click "Open Image" to open in PS or click "Done" to return to Bridge.

Since you're working with .jpg images, you're more likely to get strange artifacting when adjusting color, but it's not certain (and it's unavoidable anyway).

HTH

[Tzetsin]

your best bet with that shot is to do something "artsy" with it. No amount of correcting will save it.

The artsy route lets you do something creative and still make a pretty good image out of it.

This is an example of a shot I did. I was practicing with my camera one day so i had my cam set to .jpg (i always shoot raw) I also was using manual white balance wich was set for night shooting. I was working nights at the time, but drove 8 hours after work to get to the camera shop and pick up my new macro lense. I was extremely tired at the time, but the weather was absolutely amazing and I took alot of "great" shots. unfortunately i forgot to reset the raw setting, and also didnt check the white balance. Like you, I had a bunch of great shots... all with a horrible unrepairable color cast.

My camera hasn't been in .jpg mode since that day. And I ALWAYS check the white balance now. lol at least you can use this experience as a learning experience.

[OsmosisStudios]

In this case? Throw it into black and white, increase the contrast.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

In this case? Throw it into black and white, increase the contrast.

Ya know, Adam? Once in a while you have some words of wisdom.

GREAT idea. This would be a great BW.

To the OP: Just don't increase the contrast so much it's full of blown highlights and clipped blacks. Watch the histogram in your post-processing program.

[Chopkinsca]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

In this case? Throw it into black and white, increase the contrast.

Thanks for the tip, that works great. It's now my current desktop (I like setting my desktop to my own photos for inspiration). The linked image was an interesting shot as I had to climb down some rocks to get that angle.

[ravncat]

Sometimes, you can do pretty good color correction via the curves and threshold tools.

You're goal is to set the white point on the highlights that should be neutral and almost bright white white, and the blackpoint on the shadows that should be neutral and almost black -

You can use the threshold to find places to do this - or use the white and black clipping modes - unfortunately this method is for fine tuning.

You're also going to have to go into the color balance to shift the hues to get it closer to where you want - just work on the magenta-red - blue-yellow channels. This far out it may be very difficult to bring back to "normal" - You'd probably have better luck bringing it into lab color space and using those tools for correction. LAB space requires alot of explanation that i can't give you'll have to check the web or purchase books.

I agree with the above statements about black and white - far less work...