How to Know the Auto Adjustments Made by Photoshop?

[RedSun]

In Photoshop, if you make any auto color, or other auto adjustments, how do you know the actual changes made by it?

I have a photo that I can't get color balance right. Just wonder if the auto adjustment may help me to know the color adjustments to be made.

[Kirk Gittings]

If you are in ACR you can then look down at how the sliders are set.

[bob carnie]

If you are using PS you can use the info pallette before and after to see how much and where the colours changed.

[Preston]

"I have a photo that I can't get color balance right"

Here's trick that will get you close...

1. Create a copy of the Background Layer (Layer>Layer via Copy)
2. Create a Curves, or Levels layer above the copied background layer
3. Filter>Blur>Average (your image will change to a solid color; don't worry.)
4. Select the Curves or Levels Layer and click on the Grey Point dropper
5. Select the blurred layer
6. Place the eyedropper anywhere on the blurred image and click. (the image will turn to some shade of grey)
7. Turn off layer visibility of the blurred layer (you can also safely delete this layer)
8. View the resulting image. The color balance should be very close. If it needs tweaking, you can adjust any of the RGB channels individually to fine tune.

Note: If the original image has a heavy color cast, the setting of the grey point may induce a cast of the opposite color. If that's the case, you can tweak the curves or levels. If this doesn't work, you will have to resort to other methods. In any event, you should always use adjustment layers, so that if you don't like what you did, you can delete the offending layer and try again.

--P

[Peter Mounier]

If you want to see what auto color, contrast, and tone does, add a "levels" or "curve" adjustment layer to the image. Then click on the "auto" tab in the adjustment panel. After the auto adjustment has been made, inspect the individual color channels in the adjustment panel to see what was done automatically.

Peter

[RedSun]

If you are in ACR you can then look down at how the sliders are set.

Sorry, but what is ACR?

[Lenny Eiger]

In Photoshop, if you make any auto color, or other auto adjustments, how do you know the actual changes made by it?

I have a photo that I can't get color balance right. Just wonder if the auto adjustment may help me to know the color adjustments to be made.

I understand the "can't get it quite right" all too well. I think all of us do. That said, I wouldn't use PhotoShop's Auto to do anything. It has never made a pleasing result when I have tried... I would also not use Levels, which is a sledgehammer-level tool vs something to carefully control things.

This is an opportunity to learn your curves... if you haven't already. Hue/Saturation is also a useful tool. Of course, there is masking so if making one side a little more blue is turning the other yellow you can control it. You can create a curve adjustment layer that has a mask that is a copy of any of the channels and modify only the curve on the blue channel, for example. There are so many tools....

If we know more about the problem, we could help you design the solution.... you would likely get many different ideas to get to the same result...

Lenny

[RedSun]

Well, I mainly do analog and have not used Photoshop much even though I have the full set of tools. In this case I was testing a new color paper that I was concerned about its quality. But with the Photoshop auto tools, I know that the paper is in perfect condition, it is the filter color balance that is not right. I try to decide what colors to adjust. At this point, I'm not using Photoshop to print colors. But it is a tool that can help me.

[bob carnie]

As Lenny says you may need to learn curves to satisfy yourself. Auto anything in PS is not so great.
Learning curves though is not as easy as 1,2,3.

Kelby training may be of great help right now.

[Nathan Everett]

I remember attending a Guy Gowan retouching seminar on this; his approach is to have the 'auto' adjustments produce reliable and repeatable results and to avoid using sliders etc as 'wang' bars. For example if you create a levels layer and click on the drop-down menu on the top right of the adjustment box you can select 'auto options'. Here you can set the auto options to be adjusted by the individual or monochromatic channels (the latter is recommended as enhancing by individual channels can distort the histogram and cause colour shift), and the amount of clipping of shadows and highlights (0.01% is recommended to retain detail). He also shows a good way of adding contrast in definable amounts (ie. 5%, 10% etc) and in ways that avoid colour shift, plus a way of colour balancing that does not require the user to judge what is correct and avoids user error due to uncalibrated monitors etc.

As the previous post mentions using auto anything in Photoshop is undesirable, but if you must or are needing to batch process a large number of images then at least make sure they're set to produce reliable and repeatable results.

Hope this helps!

[Adamphotoman]

Curves are a better choice. If you use adjustment layers then nothing is really destructive, meaning you can undo any change later. Also you can save the curve and reapply to another image, and with actions you can make short work of a batch.
BTW I sometimes do use auto to see what happens. If you choose to fade the auto as the very next step (under edit) you do get a lot more control over the auto command.

[Mark Stahlke]

I have a photo that I can't get color balance right. Just wonder if the auto adjustment may help me to know the color adjustments to be made.
In situations like this I use "Variations". I use it to give me some insight into what direction I need to go to get the color balance right. I never use "Variations" to make any actual adjustments.

[Emil Ems]

"Variations" is nice, but it works only in 8bits.