Another ACR 4.1 question

[dj_paige]

I began my career in photography working with film. There were three colors you had to learn how to manipulate. If you were working with positives, the colors were red, green and blue. If you were working with negatives, the colors were cyan, magenta and yellow. I understand that yellow is anti-blue, and so forth.

So, now I have a RAW file, I want to edit it in ACR 4.1, and my judgment of what needs to be done is to bump up the green a little bit, and bump up the red a little bit. But there is NO red slider in ACR 4.1. Bumping up the magenta doesn't help, because I also want a little more green. Something that is trivially easy editing a JPG in the PSE5 editor is not obviously doable in ACR 4.1.

How would you edit this photo in ACR 4.1 to enhance both green and red?

[Chuck S.]

Paige, that's a really good question. The sliders available in ACR for color temperature and tint don't quite give you that three-color approach, and that's a bit of a disappointment in my view.

I might take the approach of doing the other adjustments in ACR, then opening in Elements and adding a Levels Adjustment Layer. That provides you with a dropdown box for individual adjustments of the red, green, and blue components.

[NickLewis]

I'm afraid you can't make that type of direct adjustment to the primary colours in ACR4.1 - at least, not as it is implemented in Elements. You'd have to do it in Editor.

Since bumping up green and red is equivalent to reducing blue, try increasing the colour temperature, which will have the effect of reducing the blue. Then you'll need to adjust exposure a little, probably.

Alternatively, have you tried using ACR's eye dropper on a neutral grey area to set a custom white balance, which may achieve what you want by manipulating both temperature and tint together?

Nick

[Chuck S.]

I'm afraid you can't make that type of direct adjustment to the primary colours in ACR4.1 - at least, not as it is implemented in Elements. You'd have to do it in Editor.



Nick, you piqued my curiosity with your comment about the Elements implementation of ACR vs. that in CS3. Sure enough, there's a fairly extensive set of sliders for hue, saturation, and luminance in CS3 that would address the OP's needs. Just another one of those differences that begin to bridge the cost gap/chasm....

:)

[NickLewis]

Chuck - Thanks - I thought there were, but I couldn't put my hand on a description of the CS3 version at short notice.

I knew there were in the Lightroom implementation. Although my trial's run out now, and I still haven't made up my mind to purchase. :( I'm more likely to go to LR than CS3, I think.

Nick

[Chuck S.]

:( I'm more likely to go to LR than CS3, I think.

Nick

For image processing only, I think LR is the way to go. It's only when you need to pull out all the stops on the creative side (filters, etc.) that CS3 looks appealing. And Elements can be used so well in this regard, as the wonderful artist of this forum so ably demonstrate!:)

[NickLewis]

That's my thinking - use LR and PSE as it's editor.

The thing that's holding me back isthat I think LR's still at an early stage, and I might buy it now, only to find there's a major new release before I've even settled in!

Nick

[dj_paige]

Since bumping up green and red is equivalent to reducing blue, try increasing the colour temperature, which will have the effect of reducing the blue. Then you'll need to adjust exposure a little, probably.

If you examine the histograms as you reduce blue (at least on this one photo), the position of the red, green and blue histograms all move. You cannot independently reduce blue and see green and red increase. Besides, I don't want any less blue in the photo.

[genevh]

LR allows you to adjust colors independently in the hue, saturation, and luminance ranges quite easily. I use LR along with PSE5 and it works quite well for me at this point. I am not artistically inclined like a lot of the folks on the forum here are, but after doing my basic processing in LR, PSE5 allows me to do my finishing touches as needed. And satisfies the occasional creative urge. :)

[NickLewis]

You cannot independently reduce blue and see green and red increase. Besides, I don't want any less blue in the photo.No, I know you can't adjust the channels completely independently. My suggestion was simply the nearest you can do within ACR.

But reducing blue + adjusting exposure is equivalent to increasing green & red.

But if it doesn't do what you want, then Editor's your only option, I'm afraid.

Nick

[dj_paige]

No, I know you can't adjust the channels completely independently. My suggestion was simply the nearest you can do within ACR.

But reducing blue + adjusting exposure is equivalent to increasing green & red.

Sorry, I have to disagree. When I reduce blue, all three color histograms move relative to one another. Adjusting the exposure keeps the three color histograms in the same position relative to one another. But what I want is the blue histogram to remain pretty much where it is and the red and green channels to be slightly enhanced. Besides, the exposure on my photo is relatively good, I don't really want to change that either.

[Chuck S.]

But if it doesn't do what you want, then Editor's your only option, I'm afraid.

Nick

And it's not a bad choice at all! Levels adjustment layer or perhaps Hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment layer will do the trick.

[NickLewis]

Reducing the relative level of blue and then increasing exposure is mathematically the same as increasing the relative levels of red and green. (providing you don't blow out highlights etc in the process.)

However, as I said at the beginning, this precise option isn't available to you in ACR. Increasing the colour temperature isn't exactly the same as simply reducing the blue channel, despite the blue/yellow slider underneath. It assumes, and compensates for, a shift in the entire distribution of colours in the light with which the scene was illuminated, in accordance with a black-body spectrum of a different temperature. Which is why you're seeing relative movement in all the histograms.

For anyone who is trying to correct colour shifts caused by illuminations of different colour temperatures, this is actually a more sophisticated route than juggling primary colour filters used to be. And I'd still recommend trying the eye dropper if you have a neutral grey in the image.

But I wasn't suggesting that shifting the colour temperature would produce exactly the same effect as reducing blue - just that it might get you where you want to be. PSE's version of ACR doesn't provide the tools to adjust red, green and blue levels independently.

If you want to adjust them independently, then, as Chuck and I have been saying, you need to be in Editor. It'll do it fine.

Sorry, but that's the toolset Adobe have provided.

Nick