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Xavier Carreras Comellas
Participant
January 25, 2016
Question

Neutral backgrounds: how to remove a slight cast without masking?

  • January 25, 2016
  • 3 replies
  • 842 views

Hello all

Is there a way to remove a slight cast in a "near to neutral" background (such as 245-246-248) without having to mask the object?

I'm thinking in something similar or smart enough to the vibrance tool, where the tool (or an action or a script) knows which colors are near to neutral in an image an the tools lets you apply a "desaturate" effect.

This would be perfect for ecommerce workflows where the images needs to be in a neutral background.

I've tried to create "vibrance mask" mask following this steps suggested by Koosla in Vibrance Masks: Retouching Forum: Digital Photography Review, but it doesn't work to my needs.

Thanks

Xavi Carreras

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 1, 2016

Xavier, I have knocked together an action set – if there is any interest I can post a download link… It contains 4 actions – the first two actions target only near neutrals without selecting pure neutrals, while the others include neutrals and near neutrals with an option to adjust the “fuzziness” to extend the range of near neutrals over the recorded +/- values. In all cases the selection works across the entire L* range.

Set: Select Near Neutrals.atn

  Action: Select Near Neutrals - Fine (+/- 5 a* b*)

  Color Range

  Fuzziness: 0

  Minimum: Lab color

  Luminance: 0

  A: -5

  B: -5

  Maximum: Lab color

  Luminance: 100

  A: 5

  B: 5

  0

  Make

  New: channel

  Name:  “Near Neutrals Temp”

  Color Indicates: masked areas

  Color: RGB color

  Red: 255

  Green: 0

  Blue: 0

  Opacity: 50

  Using: Selection

  Color Range

  Fuzziness: 0

  Minimum: Lab color

  Luminance: 0

  A: 0

  B: 0

  Maximum: Lab color

  Luminance: 100

  A: 0

  B: 0

  0

  Select channel “Near Neutrals Temp”

  Reset Swatches

  Exchange Swatches

  Fill

  Using: foreground color

  Opacity: 100%

  Mode: normal

  Set Selection

  To: none

  Set Selection

  To: current channel

  Delete current channel

  Action: Select Near Neutrals - Coarse (+/- 10 a* b*)

  Color Range

  Fuzziness: 0

  Minimum: Lab color

  Luminance: 0

  A: -10

  B: -10

  Maximum: Lab color

  Luminance: 100

  A: 10

  B: 10

  0

  Make

  New: channel

  Name:  “Near Neutrals Temp”

  Color Indicates: masked areas

  Color: RGB color

  Red: 255

  Green: 0

  Blue: 0

  Opacity: 50

  Using: Selection

  Color Range

  Fuzziness: 0

  Minimum: Lab color

  Luminance: 0

  A: 0

  B: 0

  Maximum: Lab color

  Luminance: 100

  A: 0

  B: 0

  0

  Select channel “Near Neutrals Temp”

  Reset Swatches

  Exchange Swatches

  Fill

  Using: foreground color

  Opacity: 100%

  Mode: normal

  Set Selection

  To: none

  Set Selection

  To: current channel

  Delete current channel

  Action: Select Neutrals - Fine (+/- 5 a* b*)

  Color Range

  Fuzziness: 0

  Minimum: Lab color

  Luminance: 0

  A: -5

  B: -5

  Maximum: Lab color

  Luminance: 100

  A: 5

  B: 5

  0

  Action: Select Neutrals - Coarse (+/- 10 a* b*)

  Color Range

  Fuzziness: 0

  Minimum: Lab color

  Luminance: 0

  A: -10

  B: -10

  Maximum: Lab color

  Luminance: 100

  A: 10

  B: 10

  0

  Action: Info

  Stop

  Message:  “Select Near Neutrals  Version 1.0

  ©2016 Stephen Marsh

  http://prepression.blogspot.com.au”

tssee
tssee
Inspiring
February 1, 2016

You Possible to have these set actions.

Stephen Marsh
Community Expert
Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
Community Expert
February 1, 2016

Download link:

Dropbox - Select Near Neutrals.atn.zip

The first two actions target only near neutrals without selecting pure neutrals, while the others include neutrals and near neutrals with an option to adjust the “fuzziness” to extend the range of near neutrals over the recorded +/- values. In all cases the selection works across the entire L* range.

All the various actions do is create a selection, what you do with the selection is up to you. In an RGB workflow, one would probably insert into the action additional steps such as adding a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer set to Color blend mode with Saturation -100.

Hope this helps.

    Stephen Marsh
    Community Expert
    Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 31, 2016

    I too have used Lab mode and layer blend if sliders, however that was because I was in Lab colour mode. If you don’t wish to have a mode conversion in the original file, one can switch to Lab mode to create a mask from the blend if transparency and then place the mask into the original image so that the original image does not go to Lab mode.

    If I was in RGB or CMYK and I did not wish to change modes, then I would probably use the Select/Colour Range command (which records Lab values, even when in RGB/CMYK mode).

    Then you could use a desaturate command from say 50-80% (sometimes one may not wish to truly neutralise to true gray)

    I would also set the colour adjustment to Colour blend mode.

    There may be no need for scripting, an action could probably accomplish this task (or record script listener to capture the script code).

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 1, 2016
    If I was in RGB or CMYK and I did not wish to change modes

    Valid point, it’s best to keep conversions to the necessary minimum. Their detrimental effect/s may not be immediately noticeable but still …

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 25, 2016

    You could work in Lab and use the Blend If settings for the a- and b-Channels.

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