Challenge: Incorrect Custom White Balance

[Scottes]

I shot some panos last week and left the camera in Custom White Balance for an entire day of shooting shorebirds and the city of Boston.

Not to worry, as I shoot in RAW and it was an easy fix.

But it got me to wondering - what if I shot in JPG? What the heck would I do then?

So here's your challenge - fix this shot.

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Boston_61715.jpg

A full-sized JPG (3.4MB) can be found here if you wish to work on it instead of the small version:
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/IMG_61715.jpg

Let's see what you can do!


Since I have the RAW it's an easy fix for me, but I plan on trying this myself in the next couple days. But then I'll process the RAW and see how everyone compares...

[peacock]

Hey there
I only have paint shot pro 8 , but even running it through the one shot fix amends & corrects the colour balance , or manually in colour balance I removed the colour cast and warmed the temperature:) .
I'm not that good at pp so how does it look.

[boomer1959]

I used Photoshop Elements 3 and smart fix to do this:D

[infeeneetee]

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/3928/boston617150mv.jpg

[yb98]

http://bellik.free.fr/1.jpg

Yacine.

[maderito]

Very tough one - late day sun (?) but buildings and water largely under clouds.

[zacker]

ill be back on this tonight, i re did the shot and couldnt find this thread when i was done so i went to bed. i love these challenges, it gives alot of different versions of a single photo...no loosers just winners!
-zacker-

[partridge9]

Here's mine.

[neil_r]

http://www.neil-rice.com/gallery/pics/Boston_61715a_1.jpg

[CyberPet]

not my best work... but I thought it was fun to try get some detail in the skyline and still keep the dramatic sky.

http://the-halls.se/edited/IMG_61715_fix.jpg

[subtle_spectre]

I am at work and bored, so here is a try:

[neil_r]

I am at work and bored, so here is a try:

From a previous post I guess you are a lawyer..... That makes this one hell of an expensive edit :D

But I guess it is winning so far.

N

[Scottes]

Wow! Folks seem to be interested in this one...

Now I have to try. Back in a few...

[Scottes]

OK, here's my attempt:

http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Boston_61715-fix.jpg

[zacker]

heres mine i did last night, I re did the sky to bring out the drama and colored the water too! hope ya like it! I think the buildings are still a tad dark but hey, it looks like sun set or dawn..take your pick!
-zacker-

[Scottes]

Well I was going to post the corrected RAW image... but all of these look better.
:-)

[stoneylonesome]

OK! here is my 5 minute feeble attempt using PSP10, still learning this one, sometimes I think I should have stayed with PSP9. but whatever, had I spent a little more time I might have been able to brighten the city.

http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/data/500/574IMG_61715a.jpg?7259

[George Chew]

Greetings,
I adjusted the curve and saturation. Enjoy...

[boomer1959]

Well I was going to post the corrected RAW image... but all of these look better.
:-)

Please do Scottes I would like to compare.:D

[gpimp]

Here's a stab at it. Played with the curves for the overall tone...played with the red channel curves separately bumping up the reds in the buildings. Added a Soft Light layer with some blue for the sky and some additional red for the buildings. Very slight +4 contrast (Photoshop CS).

http://www.grantpimpler.com/Photography/WB_Correction.jpg

That's about it for a 10 minute quickie on this one.

Grant Pimpler
______________________
Canon Rebel XT
Kit Lens
Dreaming of new lenses

[AjP]

here my 2c

http://st.a-j-p.net/pic/IMG_61715.jpg

[Scottes]

Please do Scottes I would like to compare.:D
I will absolutely do my best to remember when I get home.

I thought this shot was going to be boring and tough. But I've seen a LOT of GREAT fixes here. Pretty cool to see how everyone's turned out.

[Scottes]

Here's the RAW, with some sharpening.
http://www.itsanadventure.com/postimages/Boston_61715raw.jpg

[Curtis N]

But it got me to wondering - what if I shot in JPG?Then several of your fellow POTN members would slap you upside the head and ask you what the heck you were thinking!;)

This sort of thing is beyond my skill level, but it sure is interesting to see everyone's version. I'm impressed by everyone's work. And it proves there is no single "right" way to do it.

What I'm wondering is, when you do convert the RAW file, what color temp will you use, and how will you decide what is "correct"?

[Johnny Thunder]

Heres my Try at it, Used Levels to fix the color, Shadow/Highlight to bring out the detail in the clouds, and some USM.

-Johnny

[johnchapel]

My attempt using blended exposure method in Photoshop.

29464

[Scottes]

Then several of your fellow POTN members would slap you upside the head and ask you what the heck you were thinking!;)
Oh, I've done worse, believe me. Like forgetting my spare CF cards and - in 11 minutes - blowing my only Gig card on a heron eating a catfish. And then bringing the wrong lens the very next day. Or another day when I brought a single Gig card and filled it within an hour, walking only a hundreds yards through a wildlife refuge. (That single hour yielded 17 keepers, so I can only imagine what I missed the rest of the day.) Or shooting 4 gigs with an incorrect Custom White Balance. Or the time I...

...but it sure is interesting to see everyone's version. I'm impressed by everyone's work. And it proves there is no single "right" way to do it.
I agree wholeheartedly on all 3 points.

What I'm wondering is, when you do convert the RAW file, what color temp will you use, and how will you decide what is "correct"?
I generally use Auto White Balance and almost always keep what the camera chose. (I'm terrible at remembering colors - they have to be fairly incorrect for me to notice hours later.)

To fix an incorrect WB the method would be to find a point in the photo that should be neutral - equal amounts of red, green, and blue. You then set grab the RAW editor's White Balance eyedropper (or whatever) and click this spot. The RAW editor will then change the WB to make the color in this spot actually neutral, and this of course will change the look of the entire image. It's basically the same exact process of removing a color cast using the grey eyedropper in Photoshop's Curves.

However, I kinda cheated on this. Shortly after taking this picture I realized my White Balance mistake and switched to AWB. I checked the images taken after this one, chose one, and applied the WB setting from that picture to this one. Since it was only a few minutes later I trusted that picture's AWB setting.

[storeman]

Just to add another attempt.

layer 1 - colour balance
select the sky & sea / inverse
new levels layer using selection as mask
adjust levels

[Dart]

Done in the Gimp and Linux...

Created a duplicate layer, cranked up contrast, cranked down brightness, and removed all that was black. 35% transparency for the layer, then merge them together. Another small bright/contrast tweak, and a color tweak, then flatten image and save.

[Benmok7]

Have you found how to use the custom white balance in jpg mode yet?
If you have let me know :)

btw how do you upload an image without having to out it on an url?

[zacker]

go to "go advanced" and when the box pops up scroll down to "manage attachments" then find the pic on your harddrive and hit ok then go back to the upload box and hit up load... the image needs to be JPEG and under 100KB.
-zacker-

[tiziano]

mine....

5 minutes of playing with everything came in handy...during a really boring phone conference... :)

[tiziano]

Maybe this exercise could be even more interesting, deciding for what time of the day we have to tune the picture. Let's say three different times: 8 AM, 3 PM and 7 PM...

[redbutt]

It's a little tough without knowing what the scene is supposed to look like, but the challenge is fairly simple in theory. You just need to find a neutral gray point and set that in levels. Then you can adjust exposure and saturation a bit if you want.

My attempt...

[Ray Marrero]

Here is my version.

[sdmaker]

My feeble atempt, lol.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v166/sdmaker/Boston_61715.jpg

[Kara]

Im new to the forum, but I thought I would give it a go:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/Karalee/Untitled-4.jpg

[Poco]

Just for fun I thought I would try the "I'm feeling lucky" button in Picasa and this is what I got. The darker one is just a single click fix and the other is after I increased the fill light so that I could make out the details in the buildings before clicking "I'm Feeling Lucky".

It isn't as good as most of the other attempts, but it is interesting to see how a fully automated process compares.

[Scottes]

Wow. 24 versions and still going 5 weeks later...

[gplracer]

I thought there was problems with certain areas needing more light and or adjustment than others so I used the selection tool and did diferent sections independently of each other.

[ssim]

Ok, here's my attempt

[Mike T.M.]

Here's mine:) New at posting a correction.

[ladybelle2k]

Well I'll toss in my 2 cents worth...this is fun!

[GoFar]

I'm also a new member. This is my first attempt with Photoshop.
And my first attempt to upload a photo

:rolleyes:

[vavo]

my 2 cents

[BillsBayou]

my 2 cents

Is that all a bump costs these days? ;)

[neil_r]

Lazarus is alive !

[Don1]

Modified with Photoshop Elements 5.0