Colour Blindness in Photoshop

If you are interested in exploring this subject further, I suggest you locate a copy of Dan Margulis’ book “Photoshop LAB Color” (the 2006 edition). Dan devotes a section (pp 52-58) to working within the confines of your specific type of color anomaly and presents images, examples and practical color adjustment suggestions.  If you are interested in Lab Color mode and working with Curves I think this entire manual and subsequent editions are essential.  Good luck.

Hi Max-

I like D Fosse's post about using something such as the Xrite ColorChecker.

Another option is to use a simple photographic gray card in the first image of a series, and also learn to read RGB values. The gray card because it is neutral should have all three RGB values equal when captured under normal daylight. You'll learn to understand that if the values are slightly low on the blue then the scene is a tad warm (yellow) and so on.

Also, with the card in the scene, you can use White Balance Selector in programs such as Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw to neutralize color shifts.

I hope this helps.

You need to use a color checker or similar, and always work with good icc profiles. This way you always have a numerical reference you can go back to.

Each patch has standardized Lab values. Normally you won't be able to match the color patches exactly, and that is never the goal anyway. But it will tell you if you're in the right neighborhood.

The six gray patches are more useful. Not only can they be used to set a basic contrast curve and brightness, but also check neutral color balance from highlights to shadows.

Digital cameras will normally get you there just by setting the white balance, and the colors will basically be right. Film and scanners are much more uncertain. If you shoot film, include a colorchecker in a test shot, and above all, get a good scanner profile.

Much can be said for film, but in terms of predictable and accurate color, digital beats it hands down.