Paulo Calafate
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# Posted: 6 Mar 10 02:39
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For those that work with Photoshop.
Here you are a quick and precise technique to correct colors in your images... This is the white balance that I use in all my photos, mainly when they are taken with compact cameras.
DSLR delivery best white balance... but, even with my Pentax K20D, I use this procedures to obtain better colors.
Step 1.
In fig.1 you can see my original photo (taken with my compact Panasonic TZ3) opened on Photoshop CS4. It's very perceptible the blue color cast.
fig.1
Create a Threshold Adjustment: this is a layer used to find the lightest and darkest points of our image.
It doesn't affect it. Later it will be erased.
After to create the adjustment layer your image will be as depicted in fig.2.
fig. 2
Step 2.
Now, in order to find the darkest point of your image, you must shift the slide, marked with a red circle in the fig.3, to the left.
All the image gets white, and you must stop when you can see a last black point... this is the darkest point of your photo.
Often, you can obtain accurate result making a zoom on your image. In my example, I made a 500% zoom, as I indicate with the blue arrow just in the left bottom corner of the fig.3.
fig. 3
Selecting the Color Sampler Tool (on the vertical Tool Bar at the left side) you must click with it on that black point and, a mark with the number 1,will be placed there.
Step 3.
In order to find the lightest point of your photo you must do the same of the step 1., but in this case you must shift the slide to the right (red circle) turning black the image and stopping when you can see a small white point... see fig.4.
fig. 4
Step 4.
Now that we put the marks (1 for the darkest and 2 for the lightest) we can erase the Threshold layer and create a Curve Adjustment, as we can see in the fig.5.
Selecting the white Eyedropper (pointed with the red arrow) we must click on the mark 2 (the lightest one)
fig.5
Selecting the black Eyedropper (pointed with the red arrow) we must click on the mark 1 (the darkest one)... fig.6. You can always zoom the image for accuracy.
fig.6
In this stage, the image is already with another colors, but needs the use of the Gray Eyedropper to complete the white balance work.
Step 5.
Create a background copy as depicted in fig.7.
fig.7
And aply an Average Blur Filter as you can see on the picture below
fig.8
Your screen show the dominant color on your photo, as shown on the picture below (here you can see better the marks 1 and 2).
fig.9
Now, selecting the Curve Adjustment Layer, it´s time to use the gray Eyedropper (on the middle and pointed with a red arrow) and to click in any place of the image. It turns gray.
fig.10
Finally, you can delete the background copy and your screen will be like this on the picture below.
fig.11
Step 6.
I play with the curve to enhance contrast as you can see on the black points of the histogram in the picture below.
fig.12
Step 7.
Finally, I create a background layer and I use the Multiply Blend option to dark a little the image. For that we must play with the opacity slide (picture below)
fig.13
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The final result (with some sharpness enhancement):
and the original:
And best of all, if I find the final result out of natural, I open the original one within Photoshop and make a layer with the final one.
Then, I play with the opacity slide in order to obtain the image that I like. 
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