Photo Color Correction

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

Pure White Background

You'll be lucky if you ever work with a scanned image which has a perfectly white background.

Below is an example of a scanned photo which doesn't have a pure white background:

It may not look really bad, but it is still not clean. If you are not sure what the problems are, you can use the color sampler tool (next to the eyedropper tool).

Four points were chosen:

Click inside the area of each circle with the eyedropper tool, and then click on the foreground color in the Tool Palette to see the exact color problem.

1. Shows the white background has a red tint:

2. Shows the white background has a yellow tint:

3. Shows the white background has a green tint:

4. Shows the white background has a red tint:

If you want to make a pure white background, there are a few ways you can do this. One is to select the white area using the magic wand, and then either delete the area or fill the area in a new layer with white.

There are several problems and complications doing that, not the least of which is jagged edges.

Another way, which doesn't create the jagged-edge problem, is to add an Adjustment Layer (Levels) and make the white brighter.

The first and second Input Levels were left the same. The third Input Level was adjusted (255 to 210). (Eyeball it and/or check with the eyedropper tool to make sure it is 100% white).

Notice how a pure white background opened up the picture so Tia Carrere dominates the web page.

Before and after side by side:

Even her teeth look brighter.

The image is not completely color corrected (too much yellow saturation, etc.), but the background is now perfectly white and clean.

Disclaimer: not all monitors are calibrated, and not all monitors are calibrated the same way. There will be color variations and differences in contrast/brightness.