NoBs Digital Dogbowl

Why Easy Buttons Drive Me Crazy

Give me a minute to drag out my soapbox for this rant. For those of you who put up with it, there will be a quick and easy button Photoshop tip for white balance correction hidden in this article.

If there is one question that comes up a lot in my classes, it is “What is the easy way to do this?”. This can be for color balance, layer correction, selections, or really anything to do with Photoshop. So many people today are used to a one button fix that they no longer want to understand the how only the results. It would be great if these “Easy Buttons” worked all the time, but they don’t. Plus, it will be the times when they don’t work that it is most critical in terms of time or money.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a number of plug ins and actions for special effects, but I still like to get under the hood and see what Photoshop is doing for these effects or even see if I can do it without the plug in. It is understanding the process and not the results that spark creativity. Plus, for those times when the easy button doesn’t work, you can do a work around because you do understand what is going on.

For example, there is a great photographer out there by the name of Dave Green. His images have a hard edge gritty look to them that everyone now wants. However, he doesn’t tell how he does this outside of an admission of “some Photoshop work” which is very smart on his part. By not revealing his secrets, everyone claims to know how he does it but very few can even come close. And by everyone concentrating on how he does his Photoshop magic, few are even looking at his lighting which is about 80% of his look.

So as I climb down from my soap box just keep in mind that while you are working in Photoshop, or even better, taking lessons from those who really know their stuff, be sure to ask why this effect is happening and not just trying to copy. You will find that at that point your training stops and your education really begins.

Ok, now for the easy button white balance trick. We all know about using the eyedroppers for finding the white balance when there is a white object or even a neutral gray object. But did you know that there is an Auto White Balance for images hidden in Photoshop?

It is found in the most unlikely place, Image>Adjustments>Match Color. But Bill, you say, that is only for taking a bunch of images and trying to adjust the color for them. Well, yes, but if you only have one image open and go to this menu there is a little box on this called Neutralize which is the same as Auto White Balance. Check it and if there is white or gray in the image you will have an Auto White Balance done in one click. You can even use the sliders there. Luminance works like a fill light adjustment or exposure slider and Color Intensity is the same as fill color adjustment. The Fade slider is just that, it works on the opacity of your effects on the image.

So friends good luck and have fun.

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