Beginner Photoshop Tutorial: Basic Color Correction

[DigitalEnhancements]

Hey guys
Thought I'd post this tutorial. It shows you how to color correct your photos to improve the image of them. Color Correction is very important when it come to photography, so i thought it'd be important to post a tutorial on the subject.
This is also my first post, so I'd like to introduce myself. My name is David. I'm an independent filmmaker as well as doing photography as a hobby.
I hope you enjoy this tutorial


Thanks!

David

 

[fokker]

David, thanks for taking the time to post your tutorial - though I'm not sure if it really qualifies as colour correction - you basically just did a curves adjustment and boosted the saturation. I'm not sure either if it's a good idea to recommend absolute numbers for brightness/contrast etc, the actual values and whether they are a positive or negative adjustment will surely change from photo to photo.

Also, 'dramastically' is not a word. I think you mean either drastically or dramatically.

 

[oldmacman]

A good first effort. I agree with Fokker on most points and would add for future tutorials, identify what is lacking in the image before processing. I would also suggest finding a source image that will show your technique as a dramatic improvement rather than tweaking to personal taste.

@Fokker - remember that old Oreo cookie commercial where the child says "ginormous" (gigantic and enormous). For some reason, words like that catch and I know people who actually say ginormous. "Dramstically" reminded me of "ginormous". And as I am typing this, ginormous doesn't get flagged in the spell check. Seems it has insidiously worked its way into the language.

 

[DigitalEnhancements]

I removed the video and took out the dramastically
the video will be back up shortly

 

[KmH]

Because your corrections are arbitrary/subjective.

For an image shot in Raw, color correction starts by setting the white balance in ACR. Then after ACR and for JPEG's, one can use the Levels function to set the white/black points, and the neutral gray point, if a scene has any neutral gray available in it.

Then, subjective color adjustments can be made using any number of other tools.

The current release level of Adobe® Elements is elements 9. It looked like you were using Elements 5 in your tutorial.

 

[white]

This video helped improve my photos dramastically.

 

[DigitalEnhancements]

This video helped improve my photos dramastically.

don't be a dick


I removed the video and took out the dramastically
the video will be back up shortly

 

[smlblk396]

I think you video was good. People should take it for what I thought it was for BASIC that is all and I don't mess with PS so I say Good Job!!!

 

[DigitalEnhancements]

I think you video was good. People should take it for what I thought it was for BASIC that is all and I don't mess with PS so I say Good Job!!!

Thanks man. And yes, it's a very basic tutorial, thats why it says basic in the title. I think they're giving me crap because I'm "the new guy" or whatever, but I don't care about that crap.
Anyways, thanks

 

[mrpink]

I think you video was good. People should take it for what I thought it was for BASIC that is all and I don't mess with PS so I say Good Job!!!

Thanks man. And yes, it's a very basic tutorial, thats why it says basic in the title. I think they're giving me crap because I'm "the new guy" or whatever, but I don't care about that crap.
Anyways, thanks

They are giving you "crap" because you showed how YOU would color correct YOUR photo and passing it off as THE way to color correct ALL photos. You give no reasons as to why you are choosing the values you are, or examples of your color correction process on other photos.

The only bit of useful advice given was to duplicate your original and work off the reprint.









p!nK

 

[OrionsByte]

I think you video was good. People should take it for what I thought it was for BASIC that is all and I don't mess with PS so I say Good Job!!!

Thanks man. And yes, it's a very basic tutorial, thats why it says basic in the title. I think they're giving me crap because I'm "the new guy" or whatever, but I don't care about that crap.
Anyways, thanks

No one's giving you crap, they're giving opinions. Opinions around here smell like crap sometimes, and look like crap sometimes, but it's still up to you to decide whether you'll just decide it's crap and ignore it, or see what you can learn from it. Even the snarky comments usually have an element of truth. Getting defensive will get you nowhere though, really.

My advice: rename the video to "Basic Photo Editing" or something like that, because as others have pointed out, you're not really doing any color correcting. In fact, the only thing you're doing to color at all is cranking up the saturation "until it looks good." If someone has a white balance problem, which your video does not address, increasing the contrast and saturation as you suggest is going to make the color problem worse, not better.

As a matter of fact, as I watched the video, I actually thought that's where you were heading on purpose. Sometimes when I'm trying to nail down my white balance, I'll boost the saturation so I can more easily see where the color's off (but of course, that only works if you're using a non-destructive editing program).

I applaud your effort, though. And yeah, "dramastically" really doesn't sound professional. It's a nitpick, to be sure, but people tend to remember the beginning and the end more accurately than they remember the content, so when something sticks out like that right at the end of the video, that's what people will remember.

 

[white]

I think they're giving me crap because I'm "the new guy" or whatever, but I don't care about that crap.

Nah. I was just bored and having fun.

Now come here and give me a big kiss.

 

[DigitalEnhancements]

mrpink- alright, I get your point. Originally i had showed the same process to 3 different photos, but it was around 4 minutes, which i thought was too long, so i just did the first photo. I also didn't mean to make it seem like THE way to color correct ALL photos. I also ment to say in the tutorial that your settings will vary from picture to picture.

OrionsByte- thanks for the advice. I'll be sure to change title (Basic Photo Enhancement), and then make a new tutorial going over white balance and such.

White- haha


however the final image does look better (in my opinion) and I think it's a good way to enhance the photo really quickly without spending a lot of time on it.

thanks for all the advice guys, and I'll be sure to make the next tutorial better!

 

[IgsEMT]

Or you could just send to a real lab, not CVS and they'll print color corrected for you