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Eyedropper Tool & the Info Palette |
You'll need to measure the color of a photograph, especially when correcting skin tones.
1) Select the Eyedropper tool.
Set to sample size to 5 by 5 Average.
Now, rather than measuring the color of a single pixel, you're measuring an area 5 pixels by 5 pixels, or 25 pixels total.
2) In the palette bin, click the Info palette.
3) Move the Eyedropper cursor around the photograph.
To determine the color of a color cast:
• Find an area on the photograph that should be gray, that is, without any color.
If there's a color cast, this should-be gray area will be tinted with the color cast.
The should-be gray area must be located in the same light as the subject of the photograph.
You can also:
• Find an area that's white with detail.
Detail means the white area isn't an overexposed part of the photograph, such
For example, let's say you have a photograph taken in a loft.
The foreground, where a friend is sitting on a sofa, is too orange from the track lighting.
Your friend is orange because you forgot to switch your white balance to the tungsten setting (light bulb icon).
You have too choices of areas to measure the color:
1) He's wearing a white shirt.
The shirt is overexposed on the shoulders, but has some texture in front.
2) In the dimly lighted background, there's a gray chair.
Don't measure the color on the gray chair.
It's not in the same light as your friend.
Don't measure the color on the overexposed portions of your friend's white shirt.
Do measure the color on the front of the shirt, where there's derail.
For a skin tone correction, place the Eyedropper cursor on a representative location on the subject's face, often on the forehead.
Make sure the area is:
• Without glare.
• Not in a shadow.
• An unblemished area.
• Without makeup other than a foundation, such as rouge on a cheek.
• Not being illuminated by light bouncing off of a colored hat or colorful clothing.
4) As you move the Eyedropper cursor around, the values for red (R), green (G), and blue (B) change in the Info palette.
Don't inadvertently click the mouse when using the Eyedropper tool.
The foreground color will change if you do so.
In the above photograph, the subject's forehead has the following color values:
R: 225
G: 186
B: 163
Find them in the Info palette below.
Color Measured on Forehead
The RGB values are meaningless.
At first, it's hard to look at a skin tone, and be able to judge the color.
If you place the Eyedropper cursor on a neutral area in the photograph, the color cast will be evident.
There's no optimum gray or white area in this photograph.
In the above photograph, the color in the lower-left corner was measured:
R: 212
G: 215
B: 225
Find them in the Info palette below.
Color Measured on Lower-left Corner
The value for blue is ten to thirteen point higher than the values for the other two colors.
If the photograph had a neutral color balance, no color cast, then the values for the colors would be similar.
But, the blue value is high.
A high blue means the yellow is low.
Yellow needs to be added.
If you're going to photograph someone, you could have the person hold up a gray card, for the first photograph.
Then, when need to measure the color to see if there's a color cast, you have a guaranteed should-be gray area in the one of the photographs.
Make sure the card is in the same light as the subject, and if the lighting changes, photograph the gray card again.
Purchase a durable gray card, not some flimsy house brand.
If you're photographing extensively at the same location, you may want to include a GretagMacBeth ColorChecker card in one of the photographs.
The card has a range of tones from white to black, and a range of colors.
Later, when you're at your computer, you can use the photograph with the card to set the black, gray, and white, points.
You won't have to figure out where to click a photograph.
Just click three times on the appropriate squares on the card.
When photographing the card, make sure it's in the same light as the subject, and if the lighting changes, photograph the card again.
Don't confuse the GretagMacBeth ColorChecker with the GretagMacBeth ColorChecker SG, which is $280.
Photoshop has some additional color measurement features.
With the Eyedropper tool, you can click multiple locations on a photograph, and the values of each sample appear and remain on the Info palette.
You can adjust yellow, magenta, and cyan, by percentage increases and decreases.
By changing the colors by a percentage, you can more easily apply the same correction to other photographs.
Go to Image > Adjust > Selective Color.
• For more about choosing colors, go to Color Picking.
• The Curvemeister program has a distinctive way of depicting color called the Hue Clock.
The position of the clock hand, and length of the hand, shows the color.
