Calibrating Image for Gray Scale question??

[Not4wood]

I've seen talk in some other Forums about using the Eye Droppers for setting White Balance, the Blacks and then the 50% Grays but there for the CS2 and CS3.

I've tried using the Eye Droppers in the Curves Dialog but cant seem to be able to set this correctly. I've also seen that they include a Threshold Dialog in this conversation as well and I dont know of another way to do this.
=>Smart Curves Link Here: (for Elements) http://free.pages.at/easyfilter/curves.html

Is this conversation for purely CS versions and/or is there a way for us to use Elements in this way to getting a better Gray Scale/Color Scale rendition in our images?

This conversation comes from a very good book about Color Correcting Skin Tones called "Skin" by Lee Varis. The topic comes from trying to emulate the Zone System by shooting some color targets to zero in your colors and then using the Eye Droppers to actually set the White, Black and then the Gray Scales for each image.

Any discussion on this would be appreciated. I am just about at this point in trying to get a better handle in quality and color in my images and would appreciate all the knowledge I can comprehend. I am trying to digest this information but to me it seems like heavy Densitometry from wet film days and my eyes are rolling, I can read this over and over again till I'm blue in the face and I cant remember one word after I pick my eyes off the page.

Thanks in advance.

[lexcell]

Hi Mark,
You can do this in Elements...it's called color cast removal. Follow these steps to get to Threshold...
The Threshold filter converts grayscale or color images into high-contrast, black-and-white images. You can specify a certain level as a threshold. All pixels lighter than the threshold are converted to white; and all pixels darker are converted to black. The Threshold command is useful for determining the lightest and darkest areas of an image.

1. In the Editor, select an image, layer, or area.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Choose Filter > Adjustments > Threshold.
   • From the Layers palette or Layer menu, create a new Threshold adjustment layer, or open an existing Threshold adjustment layer.
     The Threshold dialog box displays a histogram of the luminance levels of the pixels in the current selection.
3. Select Preview and do any of the following:
   • To change the image to black and white, drag the slider below the histogram until the threshold level you want appears at the top of the dialog box, and click OK. As you drag, the image changes to reflect the new threshold setting.
   • To identify a representative highlight, drag the slider to the right until the image is pure black. Then drag the slider back until some solid white areas appear in the image.
   • To identify a representative shadow, drag the slider to the left until the image is pure white. Then drag the slider back until some solid black areas appear in the image.
4. (Optional) To return to default settings, hold down Alt and click Reset.
5. Drag the left slider until you begin to see black, use the black eyedropper to set a point.
6. Drag the right slider to the left until you begin to see white, use the white eyedropper to set a point
7. (Optional) Click Cancel to close the Threshold dialog box without applying changes to the image.
8. Then go to curves and using the black and white eyedropper from the Threshold settings, set a black and/or white point.
9. I rarely use the grey eyedropper myself.

[Not4wood]

Thanks Laurie.

About the Grey Dropper, if your setting the Whites and Blacks for the extreme edges of the scale I would think that the Grey would be for setting the Mid Tones and making it an equal equal situation. This way you can get a forced tone scale in between both of the extremes that were set by the other two.

Sorry for taking so long to post about this, but I was having a hard time trying to organize my thoughts on what I wanted to say. For some reason being as stretched as I am these days I couldn't put together the thoughts for the above question. LOL

On top of everything else, we are departing for out trip on Wednesday and getting everything ready to be packed. I am taking 18 Gigs of Memory and I am still not decided on whether I should take my Tripod. I guess I can put it inside my suit case next to my Umbrella. The UK is in a heavy Wind/Rain Storm and we have to dress accordingly. We are leaving a heat wave in New York and going from the high 90's down to supposedly 30's we are going to freeze.

[Jeff Perry]

This is another similar way of doing it using the Blur>Average on a Levels adjustment. I find it a goo first step, but frequently need to do slight adjustments using the Enhance>Adjust Color>Remove Color Cast... dialog in Elements. Try this...

1. Open an image with a color cast
2. Duplicate the Background Layer (Ctrl J)
3. With Layer 1 selected, go to Filters>Blur>Average (it will turn a solid ugly color)
4. Type Ctrl L to display the Levels dialog.
5. Click the middle (gray point) eyedropper and touch anywhere in the ugly color layer. It will all turn gray, and more importantly it is setting a gray point in the level adjustment that we will use in moment.
6. Click OK to close the Levels dialog.
7. Delete the Layer 1 by dragging it tot he trash can. It has served it's purpose.
8. Now watch the the image, and type Ctrl Alt L to re-display and apply the previously set levels gray point setting to your image and the image will be adjusted for you automatically.

At this time before you click OK you can make any other Levels adjustment with the sliders if you like. this is not an adjustment Layer, so you may want to just click OK and add an adjustment layer to make any such adjustments your image may need.

I find it a good first step to make a massive correction to an otherwise dismal image, but frequently after the massive adjustment you need to do slight adjustments using the Enhance>Adjust Color>Remove Color Cast... dialog in Elements.

Jeff

[JohnnyN]

I've had good luck correcting photos using the eyedroppers in the levels dialogue. Scott Kelby's book on Photoshop Elements 6 gives good directions on how to do this in chapter 4.