In the past few weeks during our “What makes a well-designed brochure” series, we’ve looked at Hierarchy and C.R.A.P. (Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity), now we’re going to take a closer look at how to maximize the quality of your images through color correction.
There’s a scene in the classic 1992 comedy, My Cousin Vinny, where Joe Pesci’s street-wise lawyer character, Vinny, is cross-examining a seemingly solid witness. The witness has apparently, definitively, identified Ralph Macchio and his friend as the murderers, however, Vinny demolishes his testimony by pointing out the array of impediments to his view (dirty windows, crusty screens, trees with leaves, and seven bushes). In case you need to refresh your memory, click here to view a clip of that courtroom scene.
The connection to the color correction of photos may not be immediately clear, so bear with me a moment. The same way that the yard full of obstructions interfered with the witnesses view, there can be a lot of obstructions to a clear beautiful photo. Much like a dirty window, “cleaning off” a photograph can result in a dramatically better view.
We’re going to take a quick look at what color correction actually is, why it’s important to color correct your images, and then walk through the process I use to color correct photos, which takes much of the guess work out of the process.
Why Does Color Correction Sound Like a Punishment?
So, when we’re looking at image color correction, what are we actually talking about? For the purpose of this post, color correction is the optimization of an image in order to reflect the widest range and most accurate color in an image. Now, that said, there are certainly times that your color correction can be for the purpose of stylizing a photo instead of an accurate representation, but for this post we’ll be covering an accurate representation.
How Do I Know What I’m Looking At?
When color correcting Adobe Photoshop, there are many ways of doing adjustments, but the primary one that I use is the Curves adjustment. The Curves dialog box provides a visual representation of the color channel information in an image, as well as methods to adjust those levels.
Within the Curves dialog box is the histogram information for the image. To the right is a screen grab of the Curves dialog box. As the labels indicate, the section to the left is the Shadows, then moving right, the Darks, Lights, and Highlights. The area within the graph indicates how many pixels there are at each of the 256 brightness levels. As you can see, the histograph for the image we’re looking at has the largest number at about the 77% brightness point (which would be primarily the sky/clouds area).
How Do I Make Adjustments?
Let me offer a disclaimer right upfront. This is by no means an exhaustive look at the Curves tool or the Histogram. The purpose of this post is solely to let you know what I’ve found to be the best way to color correct images in Photoshop.
When optimizing your photo, the most useful tools to here are your Black Point, White Point, and Gray Point eyedroppers. We will go through what each one is and a brief explanation about what it is actually doing.
The Black Point eyedropper is used to set the black point (darkest area of the image). In most images, unless they are underexposed, the darkest area is not truly black. When you are settings your black point in your image, you are changing the values in the darkest point in your image to true black (and adjusting the values for the remainder of the image by that same increment). For example, if the darkest area of your image has the following RGB (Red, Green, Blue) values, R=6, G=6, B=6, clicking on that point will change the values all to zero (Black).
The White Point eyedropper serves the same function as the Black Point eyedropper, but sets the brightest areas in your image to true white. For example, if the brightest area in your image has RGB values of R=252, G=254, B=235, clicking on that point with the White Point eyedropper will change all the values to 255 (White). Similar to the Black Point, all values in the image will be adjusted to reflect that change.
So what, I’m sure you’re asking, does the Gray Point eyedropper do? It takes an area that should be neutral gray in the image and sets the RGB values for that point to neutral gray (R=128, G=128, B=128).
By making those three adjustments, most color casts in the original image should be reduced, if not eliminated, as well as the dark/bright range of your image being optimized.
Why Should I Care?
Now stay with me here a minute while I build my case.
You should color correct because it will make your images look MUCH better!
It gives you an image with the full range of color, making the image look more dynamic, it’s a truer representation of the image, the colors will pop more, and because it just plain looks a lot better. This is the difference you’re looking at.
To quote My Cousin Vinny, “I’m through with this guy.”
What Is the Best Method to Color Correct?
While there are many different tools and methods that designers use in color correcting images, this is what I’ve found to be the most effective one since it eliminates a lot of the guesswork.
Although there seems to be a little debate about what color mode you should use when color correcting, the vast majority agree that you should color correct in RGB mode rather than CMYK since it has a larger color environment.
First, we’re going to set up our file with the layers to identify the darkest point, brightest point and neutral gray.
- At the bottom of your Layers palette, click on the Create New Layer Button. With that layer still selected, go to the Menu bar and click on Edit/Fill…. Change the Contents field to 50% Gray and click OK.
- With that Layer still selected, change the Mode to Difference. (see image below). Turn off that layer by clicking on the eye icon in the front of the layer; we will return to it later.
- At the bottom of your Layers palette, click on the Create New Adjustment Layer Button and select Threshold (see image below).
- Click on the Create New Adjustment Layer Button again, but select Curves this time.
- Turn on the Threshold layer by clicking on the eye icon in front of it and select that layer by clicking on it. Your image will now just be black and white.
- In the Properties window, you can adjust the levels by either using the Slider or the Threshold Indicator (see below). I’d suggest for now to use the Slider. Click on the slider and move it all the way to the left until the black areas in the image disappear. Then, slowly move it to the right until areas of black reappear. When you have a large enough area to click on, then stop.
Using the Color Sampler Tool, click on the black area and it will leave a marker that you will use later. To get the Color Sampler tool, press the I key. It will either be the Eyedropper tool or the Color Sampler. If it’s the Eyedropper tool, click and hold the icon in the toolbar until it expands, then select the Color Sampler tool.- Back in the Properties window, drag the slider all the way to the right until the image is entirely black. Move the slider to the left until white starts to appear. Stop once there is a large enough area, select the Color Sampler tool and click in the white area.
- Now is the time to identify the neutral gray. Sometimes there are just areas that you know are pretty close to neutral gray, but this method is usually a good starting point. Remember the 50% Gray layer that you created earlier? It’s now time to turn it back on by clicking the box to the left to make it visible. After that, make sure the Threshold layer is still selected and drag the slider all the way to the left again until the image is completely white. Slowly drag the slider to the right until areas of black start to appear. Once you have a large enough area, then click on it using the Color Sampler tool from earlier. In the case of the Gray Point, I sometimes use the Color Sampler to identify a second point in the image as a backup option.
- At this point, you can delete the Threshold layer and the 50% Gray Layer. You no longer need them.
We are now at the point of actually adjusting the image! Click on the Curves layer that you created earlier. Click the box in front of it to turn it on.- In the Properties window (see image to the right) select the Black Point eyedropper and click on the marker that you placed in the darkest area of the image (step 7). This will set that area as the darkest of the image.
- Now select the White Point eyedropper and click on the marker that you placed in the brightest area of the image.
- Finally, select the Gray Point eyedropper and click on the 3rd marker you placed. If you aren’t satisfied with the way the image looks, then you can try clicking on the backup Gray point that you placed. Another potential option is to find an area in the image that you think should be a mid-tone gray and click on that point. Whichever one works the best is fine.
- Sometimes I will tweak the level of the image by clicking on the white line in the Properties window and adjust it up or down a little bit to improve the midtones. This part is a little more subjective.
And that’s it. There are always some subjective factors when you are color correcting an image, but this takes a little of the guesswork out of the process and streamlines it a little bit. It sometimes helps to create an action to automate the placing of the three adjustment layers in steps 1-4, but that depends on your comfort level in that area.
There are still a couple of additional things that you can do to improve the image further, such as using Smart Sharpen to… well, sharpen the details of the image a little. Or adding a Contrast layer or Vibrance layer to help the details and colors pop just a bit more.
Ultimately, this will result in a higher quality, more eye-catching brochure.
Have fun playing with this process and let us know how it works for you, or if there are any questions you have about the process. As always, we love to hear from you.
Now I’m sure that you’ve staved off your desire to start in on My Cousin Vinny, so get to it… those “yutes” aren’t going to free themselves! But please, at least clean off your screen first.
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Original Image |
 Corrected Image |
Useful Links about Color and Color Theory:
Adobe Color Modes — Covering all the different color modes from a very general level – Link
6 Color Settings in Photoshop That You Need to Know — Different RGB Color Profiles and how to assign them – Link
How to Read and Use Histograms — More in-depth information about histograms. It’s all there in the title – Link
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