PSP7 & PSP8 Auto Color Balance

(For those hunting for the sample image in this tutorial, there isn't one. Why? Because this tutorial teaches you to use your own judgment on photos you provide. No way can I provide a sample for every use. Check the Sources area for photo options if you need some.) This tutorial idea started by request from a Prestigious Pearl saying that she hadn't found many PSP tutorials exploring the various photo tools. The Automatic Color Balance window can be a bit intimidating until you understand that it controls the color of the light in your image measured in degrees Kelvin. For example, a photo taken in household candle light will have a more orange tone than one using lamp light, outside on a cloudy day will be more blue toned than an image taken on a sunny day, etc. The color of the light in this PSP control can range from 2500K (orange household lamps) to 9300K (very blue sunny day). You can also control the strength of the effect and even remove your photo's natural color cast, if you like. I find this very handy when I forget to turn off the default flash on my camera and get very blue images or when the developer lab messes up the colors. My husband has been quite impressed with some tweaking I did on his digital images. (Some had a slight orange tint we hadn't noticed until after I had played.) You can also use this tool to intensify the colors in a sunrise or other image.

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Sources

PSP8 users *will* be creating and saving presets.
PSP7 folks have no way to save presets on this tool.
For those who need photos to use, check the Jasc/Program folder and in your version's PSP folder look for a folder named "samples" or "images". Jasc provides several images to experiment on.

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  1. Open the photo, and make a Shift-D copy. Never ever work on an original photo! Murphy's Law will be in full force.
  2. Close your original photo.
  3. Bring up the Automatic Color Balance window. PSP7 folks will find the Auto Color Adjust under EFFECTS->Enhance Photo->Automatic Color Balance. Those of you with PSP8, will need to find it under ADJUST->Color Balance->Automatic Color Balance.
  4. Now, using the list below, enter 30 for strength, check the "Remove Color Cast" box, and choose a temperature. PSP8 folks can save the various numbers as presets.
    • 2500K Most Household lamps
    • 3000K Sunrise/set
    • 3500K Morning/evening Sunlight
    • 4000K Fluorescent Tube
    • 4500K Afternoon Sunlight
    • 5500K Camera flash/noon sun
    • 6000K Cloudy Day
    • 6500K Picture from deep shade on sunny day
    • 7000K Shade on cloudy day
    • 7500K Shade on sunny day
    • 9300K Not a cloud anywhere
  5. Keeping the strength at 30% looks good to me, but feel free to experiment. I have noticed some photos do better without removing the color cast. That is a judgment call on any image.
  6. As you practice on different photos, you'll get more comfortable correcting different kinds of light.
  7. I really like this particular tool when I know exactly what kind of light was really in the photo. Makes it easy to correct the dumb mistakes made by the folks developing my film and creating the photo CD.
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