Fun Photo Tips

1. Removing the Yellow (Color Cast) from Your Pictures
2. Fun with a Wide Angle Lens
3. Fast Fix for Old Color Photos

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Removing the Yellow (Color Cast) from Your Pictures

Photoshop Elements has a quick easy way to remove yellow from interior shots.

Below is a picture of the interior of the historic Wawona Hotel in Yosemite around the holidays.

As you can see I used my camera flash only and got the distinctive yellowing that occurs with interior shots.

So for a simple way to remove the color cast in Photoshop Elements do the following steps:

1. Go to ENCHANCE > ADJUST COLOR > REMOVE COLOR CAST
2. It will prompt you to click on a portion on the picture that should either be gray, white or black. I chose the stockings on the fireplace. Simply click on it and it will give you a preview of what it will look like with the color cast removed

Sometimes the preview isn't what you were hoping it would be. All you have to do is keep clicking on different parts of the image. The color cast removal will adjust to what you have clicked on.

Fun With A Wide Angles Lens

Okay I know this is not a "Photoshop" tip but I have been having the greatest time playing with my wide angle lens. So if you have a wide angle lens and a cooperative subject look at the fun pics you can make!

June is my very "cooperative" subject. She is a strikingly beautiful Siberian Husky. Below please see her natural beauty...

Now, because Husky's are naturally curious she really is easy to play with. What you need to do is have the wide angle set on a wide setting. My wide angle is a 10-20 and I use it on the 10 setting. Then have your subject centered in the middle as much as possible. Then, start shooting!

If you shoot looking down you can get a big nose and little feet like this one:

I have edited some of these images in Photoshop Elements to make fun cards such as these:

Horses and cats work great too:

You can play around with different angles like here with Max. He is a little shyer then June but still fun to shoot.

Now I have not tried this with people, as I stated, you need "cooperative" models. Fortunately June is always ready for a shoot!

Fast Fix for Old Color Photos

Do you have some old photos that are losing their color? Here is a fast fix that works pretty well! I scanned in a couple of old pics that were shot around the '70s. Remember to always work on a copy so if you don't like how it turns out it's just the copy that you worked on or just don't save the new version. Always remember EDIT>UNDO too! Anyway, here is my old pic of Disneyland.

As you can tell the colors are faded and muted. To start go to

• ENHANCE (on the top where it says File, Edit, image then ENHANCE)
• Right underneath ENHANCE in the dropdown menu it will say AUTO SMART FIX. Click on that.

As you can tell the color is better, not great but better. Now go back to

• ENHANCE - AUTO LEVELS (from the dropdown menu)

Now we are getting better! But it's not done yet. Go to

• ENHANCE - AUTO CONTRAST
• Then ENHANCE - AUTO COLOR CORRECTION
• Then ENHANCE - AUTO SHARPEN

If you don't like how one of these look use your EDIT>UNDO to undo the last step or the last few steps. It you want more control over the process you can go to ENHANCE.

Then in the drop down menu go to the ADJUST-SMART FIX, ADJUST LIGHTING & ADJUST COLOR. You can then adjust each separately with the sliders to gain more control of the adjustments.

Before:

After:

Thanks for checking out the "Tricks and Tips" page! Please check back as I will be posting more all the time. But for more in-depth techniques, please see my ebook.