Tutorial: Correcting White Balance / Levels in Photoshop

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Tutorial: Correcting White Balance / Levels in Adobe Photoshop® by Brad Petersen

Introduction

Clicking away at the family birthday or a ball game inside a gymnasium, then it hits you – you forgot to adjust the white balance to compensate for the lighting.

All is not lost, & with just a few clicks, you can restore the white balance as seen below:

Correcting White Balance and Levels in Photoshop - Before and After

Correcting White Balance and Levels in Photoshop - Before and After

Note: Though this was written using Photoshop many graphics editors will provide the same functionality!

Step 1

Open the image, and go to Image, Adjustments, Levels (PC: Ctrl-L):

Correcting White Balance and Levels in Photoshop: Step 1 - Levels Menu

Step 2

A histogram will pop-up on screen with 3 eyedroppers under the chart.
Black, Neutral and White. Click on the White eyedropper on the right as shown:

Correcting White Balance and Levels in Photoshop: Step 2 - White Point Eyedropper

Step 3

Take the eyedropper and go click on a known, white spot/area in the image. You may want to even zoom in on the image (Ctrl +) and even look at your monitor at an extreme angle to really see the white areas. This will basically set the white point in the image:

Correcting White Balance and Levels in Photoshop: Step 3 - Setting White Point

Step 4

With the white point known and set, do the same for the black point, by now selecting the left eyedropper, and click on a known black point in the image:

Correcting White Balance and Levels in Photoshop: Step 4 - Setting Black Point

Step 5

With your image now getting closer to proper white balance, now set the Neutral point by selecting the center eyedropper and again, go in the image, zoom if needed, to find a neutral gray area, similar to the background in the workspace as shown below:

Correcting White Balance and Levels in Photoshop: Step 5 - Setting Gray Point

Step 6

An alternate method of setting the neutral (gray) point as shown above, would be to select the small pointer under the histogram, and slide it left or right and adjust levels manually as shown below. This globally adjusts the image's basic levels/brightness too:

Correcting White Balance and Levels in Photoshop: Step 6 - Alternate Gray Point Setting

Step 7

With your image now looking more like what you remember and having the basic levels and white balance adjusted, further editing can be done per your normal workflow:

Correcting White Balance and Levels in Photoshop: Step 7 - Finalizing

Levels adjustments are not a "one-size fits all". Don't be afraid to experiment to get a feel of what works and what doesn't. This method is often far more accurate than a one-click Auto-Levels adjustment, and as always, proper monitor calibration is very important.

(c) Copyright 2006, Brad Petersen & EyeFetch.com. All rights reserved.

Contributed content used with permission. All digital photo and art copyrights belong to the original creator and may not be used without permission.