Color fixing refers to the process of adjusting or correcting the colors in a photograph, digital image, or other visual media. It involves manipulating the hue, saturation, and brightness of an image to achieve a desired stylistic effect or to compensate for issues in the original image. Color fixing can be done both during and after image capture and is an important part of photography, filmmaking, graphic design, and other visual arts.
Reasons for Color Fixing
There are several reasons why color fixing is done on images:
- To compensate for errors or limitations of image sensors and recording media – Camera sensors and film capture a limited range of colors and tones, so adjustments are needed to get colors to look natural.
- To create a specific mood or style – Boosting saturation makes images more vibrant, while desaturating washes color out for a muted, vintage look.
- To make the image more aesthetically pleasing – Subtle changes like warming up skin tones, enhancing greens in landscapes, or balancing different color casts.
- To ensure color consistency across multiple images – Getting all images in a set to have coordinated, matching color.
- To salvage images with exposure or white balance issues – Correcting overly yellow, blue, red, or green casts from poor camera settings.
- To adapt an image for different output formats – Print output requires different color handling than web/digital display.
Color Fixing Terminology
Here are some key terms used when discussing color manipulation and correction:
- White balance – Adjusting color casts so whites are neutral. Compensates for different color temperatures of light sources.
- Color balance – Balancing the distribution of hues across an entire image.
- Hue – The pure color (red, yellow, green, etc) irrespective of saturation and brightness.
- Saturation – The intensity or purity of a color. Higher saturation means a more vivid, intense color.
- Luminance – The brightness of a color, from light to dark.
- Channels – Images have individual color channels for red, green and blue. Adjusting channels impacts specific hues.
- Color space – The gamut of colors used to represent an image, like sRGB or AdobeRGB. Defines the range of colors.
- Color profile – Defines how to interpret the color values in an image for consistent rendering across devices.
Color Fixing Tools and Techniques
There are a variety of tools and techniques used by photographers and graphic artists to perform color correction and manipulation:
Manual Color Adjustments
- Sliders for hue, saturation, luminance (HSL)
- Channels palette for adjusting red, green, blue individually
- Levels and curves adjustments for tonal range
- Temperature and tint controls for white balance
- Targeted selections and layer masks to selectively adjust specific areas
Automatic Adjustments
- Auto white balance
- Auto color enhancement
- Auto tone adjustment
- Black and white point correction
- Automatic channel mixing
Color Management Settings
- Assigning color profiles to images and output devices
- Converting between color spaces like sRGB and Adobe RGB
- Calibrating monitors and printers for consistent color
Specialized Color Fixing Plugins and Filters
- Noise reduction to minimize color artifacts and banding
- HDR tone mapping for expanding dynamic range
- Dehazing to reduce atmospheric fog and haze
- Sharpening, blurring, and texture filters to enhance colors
- Third-party color correction tools like Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, etc.
Key Color Adjustments
Here are some of the most common and useful color adjustments photographers and designers make:
| Adjustment | What it Does |
|---|---|
| White Balance | Neutralizes color casts and adjusts for different color temperatures of light |
| Saturation | Controls vibrancy and intensity of colors |
| Luminance | Lightens or darkens colors |
| Hue | Changes the actual color – greens become blues, reds become purples, etc. |
| Color Temperature | Makes image warmer (more yellow) or cooler (more blue) |
| Tint | Balances green and magenta tones |
| Shadows/Highlights | Lightens shadows or darkens highlights |
| Curves | Fine tunes tonal range and contrast |
Most Common Color Issues and Fixes
Here are some typical color problems photographers encounter and how to fix them:
| Issue | Description | How to Fix |
|---|---|---|
| White Balance | Overall color cast, often orange, blue, yellow | Use white balance eyedropper, adjust temperature and tint |
| Mixed Lighting | Different color temps in one photo leads to off hues | Adjust white balance selectively, use gels, manually correct color |
| Clipping | Loss of detail in very bright or dark areas | Recover highlights/shadows, adjust curves, HDR tone mapping |
| Saturation | Colors are dull, muted, oversaturated | Adjust vibrance/saturation, selective channel saturation |
| Skin Tone | Skin looks too red, pale, orange | Selectively adjust hue on skin, desaturate red channel |
| Noise | Colored specks and graininess | Apply noise reduction, adjust color smoothing |
| Color Fringing | Color artifacts around edges and contrasts | Defringe tool, desaturate locally |
Specialized Color Fixing Scenarios
In addition to general color adjustments, there are some specialized scenarios that require a targeted color fixing approach:
Product Photography
Getting accurate, consistent color on packaged goods is vital for e-commerce. This requires standardizing lighting, shooting RAW, color balancing every image, and creating color swatches for reference.
Food Photography
Making food look appetizing depends heavily on color. Adjustments like boosting saturation, warming tones, and accentuating complementary hues helps make dishes vibrant and mouthwatering.
Landscape Photography
Pleasant outdoor lighting depends greatly on the time of day and weather. Cooler white balance is used to properly render morning/evening light. Greens and blues are enhanced to make foliage and skies pop.
Underwater Photography
Water filters out color unevenly, so custom white balance with gray cards is a must. Blues need to be accentuated without overwhelming the image. And bokeh helps isolate subjects in the frame.
Night Photography
Mixed lighting from street lights, neon signs, and other sources creates intense color casts. Dealing with noise is also critical when boosting exposure. Achieving rich but accurate colors is the goal.
Old Photo Restoration
Age, sun damage, and film deterioration alter color over decades. Restoring color as close to the original requires digitizing at high resolution and meticulously fixing color channels individually.
Tips for Effective Color Fixing
Follow these tips for best results when correcting and enhancing colors:
- Always start with the raw camera image for maximum flexibility.
- Perform major adjustments first (white balance, exposure, tones), then refine color.
- Look for a true white, gray, and black point to neutralize color casts.
- Watch out for clipping and blown-out areas with loss of detail.
- Use layer masks and selections to apply adjustments only where needed.
- Work in 16 bits per channel color mode for precision editing.
- Don’t oversaturate colors to the point they don’t look realistic.
Achieving Creative Color Effects
In addition to technical color correction, creative color effects are popular stylistic choices in photography:
- Black and white conversion – Desaturating to create dramatic monochrome images.
- Selective color – Leaving a single color while converting the rest of the image to black and white.
- Cross processing – Swapping color channels or using the wrong film to produce unnatural colors.
- Infrared effect – Using infrared sensors and film to create signature hues.
- Split toning – Tinting highlights and shadows complimentary colors like orange and blue.
Creative color allows photographers to develop their own visual styles. But it still requires an understanding of color theory and how to manipulate channels and tones for the desired effect.
Should You Outsource Color Fixing?
For photographers without expertise in color correction, outsourcing color fixing may be a good option. Dedicated colorists and retouchers can provide:
- Technical skill fixing any color issues
- Artistic talent applying creative color grading
- Efficiency from years of color correcting experience
- Specialized tools and software for color manipulation
- Expert color management for accurate print output
The cost of high-end outsourced color fixing can range from $50-150 per image depending on the amount of work needed. For important professional projects or large batches of photos, the cost may be warranted to get ideal color.
Conclusion
Mastering color fixing takes both technical knowledge and artistic sensibility. But it is a crucial skill for photography in the digital age. Taking the time to properly correct and enhance colors can elevate images from satisfactory to spectacular. While color manipulation can get complex, a basic grasp of hue, saturation, luminance, white balance, and channels puts you well on your way to color fixing mastery.