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After you’ve optimized the overall tonality of your image (discussed in Evaluating Images and Adjusting Photographic Tonal Values), the next step is typically
color adjustments. At the most basic level, these include adjusting the color balance to
remove any undesired color cast or to introduce one that is desired, and adjusting the
saturation of colors within the image to taste.
Color Balance
Color balance adjustments are most often thought of as ways to eliminate an undesirable
color cast within an image. In many cases the goal is to make areas that should be
neutral in the image truly neutral. However, this can be a challenging goal to achieve.
Just because something truly is neutral doesn’t mean it should appear as perfectly neutral
within your image. For example, if you place an 18% gray card in a scene during
sunrise, you can be assured that the gray card won’t appear gray. It will be influenced
by the warm light of sunrise and will appear with a golden hue.
Note: Photoshop Elements does not include a Color Balance adjustment. However, it does include other
color adjustment options. You can use the Color Variations command
(Enhance > Adjust Color > Color Variations) to adjust color balance by clicking the thumbnail at the
bottom of the dialog box that represents the best color, selecting each best option in turn until you produce the best final result.
Instead, I feel the focus of a color balance adjustment should be to eliminate any
color influence you don’t like and to add a color influence you do like. The result needs
to be close to reality to be accepted by those who will view your images, but you do
have a fair amount of latitude. Focus on producing the best aesthetic results, and you’ll
be well on your way to accurate results as well.
The simplest way to make basic color balance adjustments is with the Color
Balance dialog box. This dialog box includes three sliders as the primary controls (shown below). These represent the color axes for each of the three channels that make up
your image. As an additional benefit, the sliders are labeled to remind you of the relationships
between colors. Colors at opposite ends of a given slider are opposites of
each other, and moving the slider in one direction or the other will cause the overall
image to be shifted toward that color value.
The Color Balance dialog box provides sliders for each of the
three axes represented by the color channels that comprise an
image, and allows you to adjust the balance for color along each axis.
It is important to keep in mind that when you make a color balance adjustment
to your image, you are adjusting all pixel values within the image. The key to understand is that just because you are moving a
slider between cyan and red doesn’t mean you will affect only those pixels within the
image that are cyan or red. Rather, all pixels within the image will be shifted toward
the color value you choose with the slider.
As with other adjustments, the first step is to create a Color Balance adjustment
layer; doing so opens the Color Balance dialog box. I strongly recommend starting with
the axis that needs the most significant adjustment. For example, if you have an image
with a magenta cast, such as the one below, start with the Magenta/Green slider.
If you have an image with a magenta cast, the Magenta/Green
slider in the Color Balance dialog box should be the first you adjust.
When adjusting a given slider, especially if you are not yet comfortable with
visualizing the particular adjustment required, I recommend moving the slider through
the extremes of its range. Besides helping you get a better sense of where an appropriate
color balance exists for a particular slider, this process will also help you develop
your skills for understanding how a particular adjustment will affect various color and
tonal values within your images. As you move the slider back and forth, starting with
the extremes, gradually zero in on the range that seems to provide the most appropriate
balance for that channel.
With the slider positioned as accurately as possible with the mouse, you can
then take advantage of keyboard shortcuts to fine-tune the adjustment. After you have
moved a slider, the text box that holds the final value for that slider will be active.
You can then use the up and down arrow keys on your keyboard to adjust the value
one unit at a time.
In the case of the sample image with a magenta color cast, your first step would
be to shift the color balance toward green by using the Magenta/Green slider (see below). This will effectively neutralize the unwanted magenta color cast, producing
an image that is relatively neutral with accurate color.
A magenta color cast can be corrected by moving the Magenta/Green
slider toward Green in the Color Balance dialog box. After you have corrected
the color cast in your image, the result is a relatively neutral image with accurate color.
However, just because you have achieved a neutral image with accurate color
doesn’t mean you are finished with the Color Balance adjustment. In fact, even if you
think the image has been adequately corrected with a single slider adjustment, adjust
the other two sliders to see if you can’t produce a better result. Often you’ll find that
by shifting the other sliders, you’ll produce an image with a more pleasing color balance
than the neutral result you first achieved.
Note: In general, viewers respond more favorably to images with a warm color balance, so you may
want to explore a shift toward warmer values (red, magenta, yellow).
Looking again at our sample image, after producing a neutral result you might
want to explore adding a shift toward warmer values. In this case, I applied a shift
toward yellow to warm up the image and enhance the natural earth tones that were
already present (see below). The result is an image with much greater warmth than
the original adjustment produced.
 
After you’ve made adjustments to produce a neutral result, you can often
produce a better final image by making further adjustments. In particular,
adjustments that warm up the image slightly are often appealing.
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