How to fix white balance in JPEG

[Baaaark]

Okay, so my shot is WAY too warm, like almost all reds and yellows. So, I tried to do things with the color balance, but nothing seems to work. I can only get tinges of other colors, and not anything that's really pure white.

So, how would someone attempt to adjust a white balance on a JPEG? I'm really patient, so it doesn't matter if it takes a few steps, or takes a lot of trial and error. I was trying the color balance one number at a time!

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[rufus5150]

This method will work in many cases:
Adobe Photoshop Tutorial | Color Correction Using Curves Adjustment Layer | Layers Magazine

[PhotoXopher]

Start shooting RAW, makes it a one click process

/End RAW Pimpage

[Bitter Jeweler]

Start shooting RAW, makes it a one click process

/End RAW Pimpage

He may not be able too, and never answered what kind of camera he had, in one of the various threads on the same subject he's posted.

[Samanax]

Okay, so my shot is WAY too warm, like almost all reds and yellows. So, I tried to do things with the color balance, but nothing seems to work. I can only get tinges of other colors, and not anything that's really pure white.

So, how would someone attempt to adjust a white balance on a JPEG? I'm really patient, so it doesn't matter if it takes a few steps, or takes a lot of trial and error. I was trying the color balance one number at a time!

Better to try and get the white balance correct in camera instead of through the PP process. See if your camera allows you to do custom white balance.

[Sw1tchFX]

Long story short, you can't. This is why shooting RAW is a good thing, because you can fix things like this later without destroying the image. Jpegs are way too compressed to have enough information left in them to make major changes like that. You might be able to get kind of close, but that's about it.

[manaheim]

Literally, that's EXACTLY the scenario that made me start shooting RAW. I was taking some pictures of tombstones at night that were bathed in incadescants... MASSIVE yellow... no way to fix it.. not really. It's been RAW ever since. Take it as a lesson and start going RAW.

[KmH]

IIRC he has a p&s and RAW is not an option.

[Bitter Jeweler]

But if he would tell us what kind, maybe RAW is an option. Canon has additional "firmware" that adds RAW export to most of it's P&S's.

[Tiberius47]

Open a curves adjustment layer in Photoshop. There will be three eyedroppers there, a black, a grey and a white one.

Select the b;lack eyedropper and click on a dropped-out shadow. Then click on the white eyedropper and click on a blown highlight. Click on the grey eye dropper and click on a midtone grey. That should do a pretty reasonable job.

You can get special cards that have black, grey and white on them to use for this purpose. Just put the card in the first picture, make the above adjustment, and then you can simply copy the adjustment layer to other shots taken in the same light but without the card.

[a.rilley]

You're not going to find anything that will perfectly remove the warm colouring. However, (I know you've tried the colour balance) you can move the dial to the cyan side since, cyan is in this case, the opposite of red. You could also try changing the photo filters, that may work.