I had to drive to Atlanta yesterday to deal with an emergency passport situation (the post office lost my passport) because I need it for my upcoming photo tour to China in a week. My wife, Dia, came along as did our two dogs. We stayed in a pet-friendly hotel -- Drury's Inn -- and Dia and I shared one of the queen beds while our cocker spaniel, Teddy, had the other one to himself. Princey, our great Pyrenees, preferred the floor. I didn't bring my camera, so I shot this adorable picture of Teddy with my iPhone. The problem was the lighting. Most hotels are now using those horrible energy saving lights that emit the most unattractive, visually annoying, and downright ugly type of light. I hate them as you can tell. Auto white balance doesn't even come close to being able to capture interiors with the correct color balance, nor does tungsten (or incandescent) or daylight WB. The only thing you can do is remove the bizarre yellowish, reddish, and magenta-ish color casts in Photoshop. There are many ways to eliminate unwanted colors; in this instance I used the hue/saturation dialog box. First I desaturated the yellow in the entire frame, and then I made a rough selection of the white linens, feathered the edge of that selection by 20 pixels, and desaturated the red and magenta casts in the white fabric. Using the submenu within the dialog box (Image > adjustments > hue/saturation), you can select individual colors and then desaturate them to minimize or completely eliminate the color biases you don't want. I will write about this in more detail in my next issue of my free monthly eMagazine, Photo Insights (you can subscribe to this with a link at the bottom of my home page: www.jimzuckerman.com).
7 Comments
Sep 10, 2016, 9:36:17 AM
Jim - What in the heck was I thinking, Dan? I promise. It won't happen again . . .
Sep 9, 2016, 1:12:31 AM
Daniel Reynaud - What do you mean you didn't bring your camera with you ?????????? You know we took people to the guillotine for a whole lot less than that, hihi!!!!!!!!!!!
Sep 7, 2016, 7:09:28 PM
Jim - Thanks, Ray and Barbara. Yes, most people hate those bulbs. It's like they were shoved down our throats.
Sep 7, 2016, 4:46:09 PM
Barbara Vickers - I love Teddy, hate those bulbs too.
Sep 7, 2016, 11:44:29 AM
Ray Chilton - You really don't like those bulbs do you? You've got lots of company!
Sep 7, 2016, 8:19:31 AM
Jim - Thanks, Rohinton. iPhones are great because you always have a camera with you -- albeit not very hi res.
Sep 7, 2016, 1:48:19 AM
Rohinton Mehta - What a lovely picture of Teddy.