- This snapshot is a perfect candidate for a white balance adjustment. It has what I call mixed lighting. You have an open window over here, so you have daylight coming in behind the subject, we have a lamp on over here that has a tungsten bulb in it, so it's very orangish red on her face. Too red for my taste and we're going to correct it with the white balance adjustment. So, here we go. Up to Add, select White Balance.
Now, we have some options in White Balance. This is a fun tool I think. You have Neutral Gray, Skin Tone, and Temp Tint. We'll start out with Neutral Gray and we'll use Auto, and boom, right away, it makes a very nice correction, but we can also use the eyedropper tool if we wish. So, I'll reset this. Click on the eyedropper tool. Go to a gray area, a neutral area. We'll choose her scarf right here and click on that, and I think that's even a bit cleaner.
I like that a lot. Look at how nice these whites and these blacks and these grays are. Very crisp. So, the eyedropper tool, if you have an appropriate tone to click on, can be very powerful. Let's try Skin Tone. So, we'll go to Skin Tone. Use the dropper tool, click on her skin, and that's nice too. Now, it's a little different. You notice that the whites and the blacks aren't quite as clean. It has more emphasis on the skin than on these neutral colors.
So, you get your choice, right? You know, you can play with these. Let's try Temperature Tint. So, we'll go ahead and reset this. We'll go to Temp Tint. Usually when you use the eyedropper tool with Temperature Tint, you also want to click on a neutral area if you can find one. So, here we go, that's pretty nice too. Now, we can open this up. This is the Cool to Warm slider and this is the Green to Magenta slider.
So, if I wanted to, I could take out a little bit of that magenta, if I thought there was a bit too much. I could warm it up a hair. That's after I've done the eyedropper or the Auto tool. You have a lot of control here. So, in the end though, I really was attracted to the Neutral Gray, so I'm going to reset this one more time. Let's go back to Neutral Gray, let's use our eyedropper tool, let's go right here.
I don't know, my eyes just like this. It's so nice and clean. I think her skin tones are fine. You could say they're a tad cool, but in this image, they work for me. This is what I'm sticking with. Now, I think this is such a good tool that I would just add it to my default set. So, I'd go up here to Add, Save as Default, with it open, and there you go. So, that is the White Balance tool. It can be a gem, it is very powerful, it's very well implemented, and it can make your images look quite professional.
Especially those existing light shots that have these mixed lighting conditions.
Author
Released
12/8/2015Note: This course covers the version that accompanies Mac OS X El Capitan, and will be updated as Photos for OS X evolves.
- Connecting Photos to iCloud
- Importing images and movies from a camera
- Deleting and hiding photos
- Creating albums and Smart Albums
- Adding keywords and other metadata to photos
- Rotating, cropping, and straightening
- Adjusting color and light
- Applying sharpening and noise reduction options
- Using the Retouch tool
- Sharing photos
- Backing up a Photos library
- Building print projects from Photos
- Working with video
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
Views
Related Courses
-
Learning Photos for OS X
with Derrick Story2h 22m Beginner -
Photos for OS X: Enhancing Images
with Richard Harrington2h 26m Intermediate
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Introduction
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Welcome58s
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What is Photos for OS X?1m 33s
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Using the exercise files3m 42s
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1. Getting Started with Photos
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Work in the Photos tab1m 49s
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View options for your images2m 19s
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2. Organizing Your Photos
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Use the search box4m 8s
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Work with Faces4m 34s
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Work with geotags5m 12s
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Explore the Albums tab2m 16s
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Duplicate and delete albums2m 28s
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3. Working with Metadata
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Adjust date and time3m 11s
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4. Basic Editing Tools
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Import RAW files2m 30s
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Work with light adjustments3m 31s
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Work with color adjustments2m 18s
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Work with B&W adjustments2m 52s
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Apply filters3m 13s
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Undo edits4m 33s
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5. Advanced Editing Techniques
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Enable and work with Sharpen2m 22s
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Enable and work with Levels4m 59s
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Use the Retouch tool3m 28s
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Using photo extensions6m 17s
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Manage RAW+JPG2m 7s
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Use RAW as original4m 3s
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6. Sharing Your Photos Online
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Add to a shared album2m 59s
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7. Library Management
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Create a reference library6m 16s
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Consolidate images2m 26s
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Back up your libraries3m 35s
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8. Building Projects
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Create a book4m 28s
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Create a card3m 15s
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Create a calendar5m 24s
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Order a print2m 32s
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Make your own print3m 54s
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Export images3m 57s
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9. Working with Video
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Import and view videos2m 15s
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Trim a video clip2m 8s
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Add music to your video4m 3s
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Export a single frame1m 52s
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Export a video1m 56s
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Conclusion
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Next steps2m 6s
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Video: Enable and work with White Balance