Editing digital photograph question

[estevek]

Hi,

I just got back from a vacation trip and I've been reviewing some of my photographs. Some of the photographs of my relatives taken indoors at a restaurant were underexposed. I've been using HP image Zone to edit them. Using the adaptive lighting tool helps a lot to lighten the picture, but skin highlights turned a bright yellow. This is probably due to the ambient restaurant lighting. Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Should I give up on HP image zone and get a better tool such as photoshop elements?

Thanks in advance

E Steve K

[Kov-Ice]

I have no experience with the HP program, but Elements is a pretty slick program for the price. It has a lot of the main functionalities of Photoshop, and Adobe's one of the leaders in imaging.

[XenaWP]

Elements is a great program for the price.

You can also try GimpShop for free.

You basically need to correct the "white balance" setting. If that's not an option, "color correction" should give you some sliders that will allow you to adjust C, M, Y, R, G, B (some combination of those colors) individually.

[tigstah]

another nod for elements. it has a lot of features for a small price.

[TwoRails]

Elements is nice and I won't knock it, but Photo Shop Pro is also a very good choice. It's pretty much in between Photo Shop and Elements:

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1155872554948

[Kov-Ice]

ahh, Paint Shop Pro...

I haven't used Corel stuff in quite some time, but I was always pleased with their stuff for the most part. The vector graphics stuff was a bit buggy in some areas, but otherwise it was OK.

[TwoRails]

It's pretty good. I still have a hard time calling it a Corel product, though, as I've been using it since about version 4 thru 9 when it was a Jasc product. I believe Corel took it over on version 10 and the first thing I notice was how much faster it became. It's also become more user friendly making the learning curve a lot easier.

[thefultonhow]

Color correction is quite easy in Photoshop. There is a function called Curves that is difficult to use manually, but easy to use automatically. Go into it, double-click on the middle eyedropper at the bottom right of the dialog, click on an area of the photo that is supposed to be a neutral gray, move the point that shows up on the color picker halfway between its current position and the left side of the color picker, click OK, and click on the same area as before with the eyedropper. If it becomes too biased towards the complementary color, go back into the color picker and move the dot rightward, then click on the same area as before. If it just has less of the same color cast as before, go back in and move it leftward.

I have used this method on hundreds if not thousands of photos, and my experience has been that it performs around 90% of the color correction for you.

[TwoRails]

Color correction, and a lot of other editing features, are also quite easy in Paint Shop Pro. Since Corel took over from Jasc, they have made good effort to simplify the program to attract more people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edit: I realized I haven't messed much with color correction since I've upgraded to version 11 of PSP. So, for giggles, I justed edited a recent photo of one of my "girls." She was walking in the shade so her coat naturally looked bluish. I used the Color Balance tool to quickly change her coat to the right color. In the screen shot of the Color Balance Tool, you'll notice two thumbnails. The box can be expanded to suit your needs, or as I usually do, I preview the change results in the original photo (done by the little check box in the upper right corner).

You'll notice a little "target" in the left thumb nail. You simply put that on a white, grey, or black spot and the program auto corrects. Or you can check the Advanced box for manual control. I used auto for this shot and the color came out very nice. I put the "target" on the spot where I know the color of her coat is white.

Under "Settings" there are presets for common color corrections, and you can build and save your own if you'd like.

However... after reading the original post again, correcting underexposed shots is a lot harder to do as usually there is a lot less data to work with. Some shots can be underexposed so bad there there is nothing you can really do. It all "depends."

HTH