# Redness correction



## SuperSpark (Apr 17, 2010)

I was taking photos at a concert using my school's camera. For some reason a lot of the photos came out quite red. 

Why is this happening and how can I fix this in photoshop?


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## cfusionpm (Apr 17, 2010)

Probably an issue with white ballance.  Check the camera's white ballance settings.  As for fixing it, use either RGB curves, selective color, or color ballance to kill the red and give it a more neutral tone.


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## KmH (Apr 17, 2010)

I agree it's likely a white balance issue.

You can fix all the images at the same time in ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) which is the RAW converter that comes with Photoshop.

If the school has a CS version of Photoshop ACR will be in Bridge.


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## Dwig (Apr 18, 2010)

SuperSpark said:


> I was taking photos at a concert using my school's camera. For some reason a lot of the photos came out quite red.
> 
> Why is this happening and how can I fix this in photoshop?



It depends on what attribute of the lighting caused the excessive tint.

If the tint is a reddish amber the cause is mostly a white balance issue. The easiest fix in PS is to reopen the images via ACR, even if they are JPEGs (access ACR via Bridge), and usings its WB adjustment slider. If you can't or don't want to use ACR then try using a Photo Filer Adjustment Layer selecting the "Wratten 80" filter as your filer color. You can also use a Color Balance or Levels Adjustment Layer to make the correction, but using these generally requires more skill and knowledge.

If the tint is more of a true red its likely caused by heavy colored gels on the stage lighting. WB adjustments won't cure this "evil". This is hard to fix as the lighting spectrum is severely altered by the gels and portions are missing, thus preventing you from achieving any true balance. You can lessing this flaw by reducing the color saturation in the red channel. Add a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer (or with the more recent PS a Vibrance Layer) and use the drop down to select the red channel only. Then simply reduce the Saturation slider, and if using Vibrance the Vibrance slider, until the red is less severe.

In many cases, you'll find that the color error is a mix of the two issues, above. Fix the WB error as best you can first. Then attack the excessive red.


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