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M
masplin
Known Participant
June 9, 2019
Answered

Is there a colour temp slider in Photoshop like there is in Lightroom?

  • June 9, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 8473 views

I'm an experience LR user who is only just starting to use PS.  In LR there is a simple to use colour temp/tint sliders so you can just type in the temp you want or short cuts to daylight/cloudy etc.  My wife and i shoot different Nikon cameras and WB, but after the event we combine into a book so important for WB to be the same . i usually fix this in LR before exporting to PS for more advance editing. Sometimes i forget, but don't see anyway to be able type in the colour temp/tint in PS. Reading around seems the WB tools in PS are far more complex. Juat want to check I'm not looking in the wrong place?

Thanks for any advice

Mike

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer D Fosse

    The closest equivalent in Photoshop is Color Balance, which basically does the same thing.

    The concept of color temperature, measured in degrees Kelvin, doesn't apply for RGB files. You'll notice even in Lightroom, when working on an RGB file, that the scale changes into a numerical one centered on 0.

    Degrees Kelvin is a measure of the spectral distribution of light. It has no particular relevance to a finished image. Note how in Lightroom the image gets more yellow as the K value goes up. That's the opposite of what you'd expect, right?  High K is blue light. But it shows what the temp slider does: it compensates for the quality of the light.

    What you can do in RGB is to neutralize so that R=G=B. There are eyedropper tools in the Levels and Curves dialogs to do that. If you really want to get a neutral gray along the whole tone curve, you can include a colorchecker in a test shot (or along the edge and crop it out later):

    3 replies

    Stephen Marsh
    Community Expert
    Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 9, 2019

    You have two choices if looking for the equivalent of LR controls, Adobe Camera Raw for raw/dng/jpg/tiff files – or use the Camera Raw Filter in Photoshop for any open image file type. Keep in mind that WB adjustments don't behave exactly the same on rendered data as they do on raw sensor data.

      M
      masplinAuthor
      Known Participant
      June 9, 2019

      Seems that Camera RAW only shows the numerical adjustment as D Fosse said on a TIFF file. Presumably if I had brought the RAW file directly into PS I might have seen temp sliders.

      Just better not forget to sort it out before i sent to PS!!!!!

      D Fosse
      Community Expert
      D FosseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 9, 2019

      There is full consistency between ACR and Lightroom. All controls are absolutely identical.

      However, the ACR filter in Photoshop is not the same thing as the "proper" ACR raw processor, which is not a filter but a full plugin application. Some people mix up those two, which can lead to a lot of confusion.

      The ACR filter just uses the ACR engine as an RGB filter in Photoshop, and RGB rules apply.

        gener7
        Community Expert
        gener7Community Expert
        Community Expert
        June 9, 2019

        There's Filter > Camera Raw Filter that will allow this and of course you can open the image in Adobe Camera Raw directly using Bridge if it's a Nikon Raw, Jpeg or Tiff file.

          D Fosse
          Community Expert
          D FosseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
          Community Expert
          June 9, 2019

          The closest equivalent in Photoshop is Color Balance, which basically does the same thing.

          The concept of color temperature, measured in degrees Kelvin, doesn't apply for RGB files. You'll notice even in Lightroom, when working on an RGB file, that the scale changes into a numerical one centered on 0.

          Degrees Kelvin is a measure of the spectral distribution of light. It has no particular relevance to a finished image. Note how in Lightroom the image gets more yellow as the K value goes up. That's the opposite of what you'd expect, right?  High K is blue light. But it shows what the temp slider does: it compensates for the quality of the light.

          What you can do in RGB is to neutralize so that R=G=B. There are eyedropper tools in the Levels and Curves dialogs to do that. If you really want to get a neutral gray along the whole tone curve, you can include a colorchecker in a test shot (or along the edge and crop it out later):

            M
            masplinAuthor
            Known Participant
            June 9, 2019

            I did always wonder why you see a temp for NEF files but only a number for JPG. We shoot only RAW. So my issue is it seems different Nikon cameras interpret say Cloudy WB slightly differently or depends on exactly the composition. So my wife's image is  6300 and mine is 6100. Making them the same temp/tint makes them look consistent. Sounds like you are saying once I do Edit in PS and it converts to a TIFF there is no way to do this other than trial and error.

            Actually wondering why LR has a temp slider if such a think doesn't even exist in Camera Raw?

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