Understanding Printers/Adjusting the color balance and contrast | Index | Home |
The image was ruined when I tried to soften a color |
Photo with a red cast |
There are two ways to soften a color; one is to directly weaken the tone of that particular color, another is to strengthen the tone of the other colors. |
For example, when you soften the red of an RGB image, the quality of the overall image will be lost. If you soften the tone too much, an unsatisfactory image will result. To correct this, try strengthening green and blue. In this case, the effect of the red tones will be relatively weakened, so you will in effect soften the red, but the color balance of the overall image will still be maintained. |
Photo after subtracting only the red |
Photo in which the red is subtracted and green and blue are added |
For example, here's what can be done with Photoshop. |
Choose Adjust from the Image menu and click "Levels." Select the opposite colors in the Channel list box of the Levels window, and strengthen the tones of each. For example, to strengthen the green tones, select Green from the Channel list box, and drag the gray triangle at the lower right side of the graph slightly to the left. |
Compare:Understanding Color/The color wheel and complementary colors |