Gray Balance

The prepress department at Advanced Color Graphics frequently gets images to print that have an obvious color cast. In many cases better results are just a few clicks away.

To demonstrate how easy it can be to remove a color cast, download and open two images on our website - GrayHorse.jpg and BlueHorse.jpg. "GrayHorse" is a nicely balanced image, but "BlueHorse is a horse of a different color!

Open both images in Adobe Photoshop. With "BlueHorse" active, go to "Levels..." and select the center eyedropper, then click on an area in the image that you think is a neutral gray with "preview" selected  - Presto! Much better looking image! Click around different areas to see other variations.

This works best as one of the first adjustments to make on an RGB image, and it's a very under-used but easy adjustment!

You can use eyedroppers in both "levels" and "curves." To learn more about using this tool in Photoshop, check Adobe's online help files, "Correcting Color with the Eyedroppers," or call us for assistance. As always, we are happy to lend a hand turning your files into great printing!

download file: bluehorse.jpg

download file: grayhorse.jpg