Adjusting Color Cast in Multiple Photos

[sand1968]

Hello,

I have run into this situation many times, and have not yet come up with a suitable solution, so I was hoping someone might have some advice.

I have a series of about 25 pics that were shot in incandescent light. I would like to be able to change the white balance (color cast) of all the pictures using a setting that I choose from one of the pictures. I'd also like to perform this operation in batch, so I don't have to do it 25 times manually.

I know elements has the "process multiple files" option, which allows for auto color cast, but in my experience, auto color too frequently returns the wrong result.

Does anyone have any ideas how I might accomplish this? I could also use Photoshop CS, if that would provide any better options. I'm using Elements 4.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

[Daviskw]

Hi Eric

If they are in raw format you can do exactly what you want. If not you can still speed things up a little.

You can most likely be able to set an adjustment layer in one picture then just drag it to all your pictures with similar tonal problems.

Butch

[sand1968]

Thanks for your idea, Butch. Unfortunately PSE doesn't seem to have an adjustment layer for color cast - only levels, hue/saturation, etc. :confused:

Am I missing something, or maybe is there a way to use one of these adjustment layer types to change the color cast?

Thanks,

Eric

[Daviskw]

Hi Eric

Yes levels and or Hue/saturation are the tools of choice to remove color casts. They give much better control then the auto feature.

If you need help on how to do this let us know.

Or you can post a picture and we can see if we can help color correct it.

Butch

[Daviskw]

Eric

Wendy has made a tutorial on using levels for color casts... I have included a link scroll down until you see the link.

Butch

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3641

[Daviskw]

Once you have your adjustment layer or layers set to correct the color in your photo, then just open all your photos you want to correct in the photo bin. Click on your adjustment layer and drag it down to each file in the bin. The file will open with the adjust men layer inserted with the same adjustment as the first. You can save and close and move to the next.

Butch

[sand1968]

This approach works, and thanks for the help. The only problem is that, for example, if I have 20 pictures the open-drag-close-save as jpg-specify quality-wait... takes a long time. Plus, the memory it consumes is pretty significant, even though I have 1GB RAM.

Do you know if there any way to save the adjustment layer as an independent "thing", and apply it over and over using "process multiple files"? Or may some kind of script in Photoshop?

Thanks again,

Eric

[Daviskw]

Eric

I don't believe there is anyway to do that in Elements. However there are lots of utility programs that will batch convert files from say tif to jpg. So you could just drag and save you do not need to do the save for web. Then a free utility such as IrfanView will allow you to batch convert and crop.

Butch