By Eugene Struthers
Continuing on from an article I did a few months back on How to correct the Colour balance in an image. I thought it only fitting to do an article on how to colour correct an image the "Old School way". Where as in the previous article we were trying to balance the existing colours. In this article we will be trying to pull back the contrast and colour tones in a fading image. And before I continue. Yes I know their are more simplier ways to do this. Here at Glamour-Photography, we want to give you the old method of doing colour correction. So that you may grasp the concept and apply it in a more modern way. Basically it's always better to have more information than less.As you can see from the image below, which I opened in Photoshop CS5. Their seems to be a yellowish tint/haze covering the whole image. The reason for this may be due to age, the white balance or incorrect camera setting at the time of capturing the image. It's a great image and worth the extra effort to pull back the detail in tone and contrast in the colours. Although it is flat in appearance we can still weave our magic using Photoshop to rescue it. The best method to correct the colour in an image is to use the curves. Which is found by scrolling to the Image menu, down the sub menu to adjustments and then across to curves. PC users: (Ctrl + M). A Curves box will appear as illustrated below. The Curves adjustment option is one of the best for correcting colour in an image. As it allows for a greater level of control than if you were to use the "Levels".
Before we do any corrections we need to input data for Photoshop to base a set of preferences on. As illustrated by the red arrow in the Curves box below. We first need to set the "Shadow areas". To do this we need to double click on the first half filled eyedropper (left to right) in the curves dialog box. You will notice that this will bring up a "Select target shadow colour box". And Photoshop is basically asking you to input data for it to base it's Shadow colour selection on. At this point we need to manually input the Red, Green, Blue numbers that will assist Photoshop to remove the colour cast in the shadow areas introduced by our camera.
Red:- 7
We now need to input the Highlight data from which Photoshop will base it's preferences from. Similiar to the last steps we followed. Double click onto the third white eyedropper in the curves dialog box. A Curves dialog box will appear called select target highlight colour. This will allow you to input the data required to set the highlight preference colour. Input the following data.
Red:- 245
Now we need to input and set the preferences for the midtones. And yes; before we continue. I know my method for finding and correcting the midtones is far more precise. 
Once you have completed the task of setting your preferences. You will notice that Photoshop will ask you if you would like to save these settings for future use as your defaults. This will allow you the opportunity of missing the joy of inputting these setting each time. As these settings are input into Photoshop for a purpose. We will now use them to colour correct our image.
1) By clicking on the first eyedropper. We will now be required to find some thing black within our image to convert to our target shadow area.
2) By clicking on the second eyedropper. We will now be required to find some thing grey within our image to convert to our target midtone area.
3) By clicking on the third eyedropper. We will now be required to find some thing white within our image to convert to our target Highlight area.
This is where your keen eye for detail, will come into call. As you will need to ascertain which area within your image is the shadow area. To assist us we need the Curves dialog box back up on our screen. As it is some times hard to be really certain that an area within our image is in fact black or dark. You will notice two sliders along the bottom of the dialog box. These will assist you to find the darkest and brightest areas within your image. To do this you will first need to turn on the Show Clipping Checkbox. Your whole image should turn totally white. As illustrated above, I slowly clicked onto and held the left slider, dragging it right until the image slowly revealed itself again. As I did this, you will notice that the darkest parts "area" started to appear, piercing out through the onscreen image. Once you see a drak area appear. Stop and note its exact location. Photoshop is indicating this as the shadow area for you to click and correct. In the image above. It is the top of models head, her hair. That are showing up as being the first indication of shadows within the image.
In order to full appreciate the vitues of Photoshops ability. Pull back the slider to its orginal location on the left side and turn off the show clipping. Click onto the shadow eyedropper, and find the area on the models head - hair. That showed up as having the shadow areas. Click onto her head with the eyedropper. This will convert your shadow area to a neutral shadow colour. You may want to untick, the Channels Overlays button. As these may cause distraction and confusion at this point. As is evident in the image above.
Now we need to find some thing white within our image to set the Highlight point. You could guess and roughly estimate a given area as being white. Or you could allow Photoshop to show us where the highlights of your image are. To do this, we first need to tick "Show clipping" box to turn it back on. But this time, we will drag the right slider to the left. The opposite to what we did previously. The image will turn completely black. But as we slowly drag the slider to the left, specs of white and colour will be revealed. Showing an area of highlights for you to concentrate on. In the above example. It is light piercing in through a broken window. Indicated by the two red arrows.
Photoshop has given us a point of reference in which to base our Highlight preference. Once you have dragged the slider back to the right, turn off the Show Clippings check box. Click onto the third eyedropper and click onto the areas which where verified by Photoshop as being the white highlight areas. In my case, I did not have too many chooses. In other circumstances I would have searched for an area with a bit more detail, as this highlight appearing from the sun piercing through the window. May be a blown out "bleached" white highlight. You will notice that the image has been drastically transformed by clicking onto this highlight area. This made the highlight area neutral and removed any colour cast in the highlights.
Finding the neutral grey area within your image can be very tricky. As there are loads of different shades of grey. As is evident in the image above. This is were my method "How to correct the mid tones in an image." really comes into play. It's precise and well its 100% fool proof. I've even demonstrated it to professionals who say it is worth its weight in gold. But for ease of understanding, click on an area which you feel is approximately the midtone grey. In this image the grey wall underneath the wallpaper, seemed a suitable match. Click on the middle eyedropper and then click onto the area (indicated by the red arrow above). This will neutralise the colour cast in the midtones and it will also remove that blue colour cast that was left over when we tried to neutralise the highlights and shadows.
We're not quite finished. Before we click okay and apply our colour correction. You may want to correct the contrast within the image as well. After all why go into some thing if you aren't going to explore all its capibilities. Professionals who use Photoshop every day, tell me this is the best way to increase contrast. As indicated by the image above. Click onto the centre of the grid line to add a point of reference. Then click above and to the right one square. To finish, click below and one square to the left.
In the Curves dialog box, click onto the bottom left point of reference. Press the arrow key down on your keyboard nine times to move the straight line into a downward curve. This will increase the contrast in the shadow areas. Then click onto the top right reference point, but this time press the arrow key upwards on your keyboard twelve times to increase the contrast in the highlights. It should form what looks like a S in the Curves dialogs box. A simple and usefull tip to save you time.
Then click Okay to save these contrast settings for your Shadow & Highlights in Photoshop.
One point which a lot of text books fail to mention. In certain circumstances you may introduce noise into your image if your contrast settings are not correct.
An article with full illustrations on how to get rid of noise from within an image, will follow shortly. Getting it right articles.
Final result
Colourcorrection©Glamour Photo OnLine 2012