Exercise: Managing colour.

Outline: Find a two or three images that have what you consider to be a significant colour cast. The main purpose of the exercise is to 'correct' it.
With the Jpeg image, use your processing software or the grey dropper feature to correct the image. The RAW image can be corrected using the white balance slider in the raw converter.

My first image was taken on a sunny day in the garden. The camera white balance was set to daylight but the image has an obvious blue colour cast.

original Jpeg version

This is the Jpeg version of the image as shot on the day. There is an overall bluey colouring over the whole image.

original Jpeg version histogram

This shows the histogram of the original jpeg version. The bulk of the values are all bunched in the middle as there are no black areas on the image. To remove the colour cast in Elements, I used the grey dropper, using the concrete slabs as the grey areas. The image was then corrected to remove the 'blue' colouring.

corrected Jpeg version

The image now looks more realistic however I feel now that there is a slight orangey tint but not a huge amount. The histogram has now altered as well.

corrected Jpeg version histogram

The histogram looks now as though it has been squashed down a bit. The values have spread out more along the bottom, more into the darker value than before making it overall flatter than before but with a more defined peak of values in the middle.

The RAW version of this image started darker than the jpeg version but still with the blue colour cast.

original RAW version

I also noticed that the histogram for the original RAW version was different to that of the Jpeg image.

original RAW version histogram

The values along the bottom go right along to the dark (black) on the left and the values in the middle don't read as high as the Jpeg version.
Using the RAW converter I experimented with the white balance feature. Even though the image was shot on a sunny day, the cloudy white balance setting, followed closely by the auto setting produced the best outcome.

processed RAW version

I prefer this version over the processed Jpeg version because I don't feel that this has an orangey tint at all and this is the most natural of all the images. The histogram for this processed version has only altered slightly from the original RAW version.

processed RAW version histogram

As we can now see, the base of the histogram hasn't changed at all, and the only real difference is, where the middle values slightly dipped before, they now have a peak instead.

I found another image taken indoors at night at christmas. The camera white balance was set to shade and therefore the tungsten light has created a slight orange colour cast over the image.

original Jpeg version

Using elements, the 'remove colour cast' feature has three droppers. There is a grey dropper but also a white dropper and a black dropper. For this correction, I used the white dropper on the reflection of the ceiling.

corrected Jpeg version

We can see that the orange tint has definitely been reduced but I think it's still present a little bit. But I am happy that this has been corrected enough.

processed RAW version

This is the RAW version after I have used the white balance feature in RAW converter.  This is the tungsten setting and the auto setting was pretty much the same outcome as this. As we can see, the orangeness has completely gone now, as it did with the white dropper on the Jpeg version but I feel the overall image now looks a bit dull in comparison to the corrected Jpeg version.

Conclusion:
This has been a great exercise to compare the difference between not only the difference between the original versions of Jpeg and RAW and how to correct them, but also to experiment with RAW converter. This and the previous exercise have really opened my eyes to the fact that shooting RAW is great to create an image with just the basic shot and then to 'create' your finished image through processing and also that having the two versions is better as each finished version can be different and  you can have a choice as to which version you would prefer to use.