One-Click Warming and Cooling

One-Click Warming and Cooling

In previous issues we've talked about easy ways to sharpen an image, give it some contrast, and lighten it. This month we'll talk about warming and cooling the image's exposure.

(Of course, SONOPP photographers always expose their images perfectly. They start by selecting the camera's color setting with great care, then covering their lens with a little white opaque disk, and finally taking a closeup of a black, white, and gray checkerboard. Every once in a while, though, an image is not quite color-perfect ... but always on purpose.)

For small adjustments, cooling and warming an image's color involves shifting the red-cyan and yellow-blue values. Trial and error led me to the following methods.

In Photoshop, open an existing image and begin to record an action: name it "Cooling Method 1" and attach it to function key Shift-F2 (or whatever you like). From the Image menu do "Adjustments » Color Balance..." (or press Ctrl-B). Set the Color Levels to -11, 0, and +11 and click OK. Now stop the recording.

Next, create another action named "Warming Method 1" attached to function key Shift-F3. Proceed as before except set the Color Levels to +11, 0, and -11. One action is essentially the inverse of the other.

The illustration shows 3 successive applications of either action. The captions at the top show the warming effect; the captions at the bottom show the cooling effect. You can see that a single change is fairly subtle, and can be quickly reversed by clicking Ctrl-Z or the using the other function key. And Edit-Fade can also be applied for a partial reversal.

With these function key actions in your toolkit, the final adjustments to any photo just before printing are (1) a slight change of warmth if needed, and (2) the very last sharpening --- all accomplished nearly instantly with the click of a key.