The Canon Magazine 61
FIX COLOURS WITH AFFINITY
AFFINITY PHOTO
VIDEO ALSO ONLINE
http://bit.ly/photoplus163STEP BY STEP COLOUR CORRECTION SKILLS
Fix white balance and correct unsightly colour shifts with ease in Affinity Photo
01 SET THE WHITE BALANCE
Open the image into Affinity. If it’s a Raw image use
the White Balance controls in the Develop Persona
(see box). For JPEGs like this, head to the Layers panel
in the Photo Persona. Click the Adjustment Layer icon
at the bottom and choose White Balance.03 COLOUR JUDGING TRICK
When adjusting white balance a temporary saturation
boost can help you judge things. Highlight the bottom
layer, then add an HSL Adjustment Layer. Set
Saturation to 100%. Double-click the White Balance
layer and tweak the sliders to remove the colour cast.05 ENHANCE THE REDS
Next, we can use a Selective Colour Adjustment Layer
to boost the reds. After adding the layer, choose Reds
in the colour dropdown then increase Magenta to
boost the reds in the spices. Then target Yellows
and increase Cyan and Yellow as shown.02 CLICK ON A NEUTRAL
Go to the White Balance dialogue and click on ‘Picker’,
then click over an area that should be neutral, like the
edge of the grey spoon. If it isn’t right, keep clicking
over different areas to try to find a neutral spot to
sample from, or try tweaking the sliders manually.04 TWEAK HIGHLIGHT COLOUR
Turn off the HSL layer. The highlights look blue, so let’s
tweak them with a Colour Balance adjustment. Click
the Adjustment Layer icon and pick Colour Balance.
Set Tonal Range: Highlights, then drag Cyan/Red to the
right and Yellow/Blue to the left to warm the highlights.06 SELECTIVE CONTRAST BOOSTS
Add a Curves Adjustment Layer and drag an
S-shaped curve line as shown to boost contrast. Hold
Alt and click the Layer mask icon in the Layers panel
to hide the effect. Grab the Brush tool and paint white
over the green herbs to reveal the change in contrast.NEXT MONTH
HOW TO MASK
DULL SKIESWhen seeking a
neutral point to
click on with the
white balance tool,
look for white or
grey surfaces in
the imageQUICK TIP!
RAW COLOUR
FIXESOne of the big
advantages to shooting
in Raw is the option this
gives you to adjust the
white balance and colour
space after the fact.
This is because Raws
hold far more colour
information than their
JPEG counterparts. So
we are able to tweak the
temperature and tint
sliders in the Affinity
Develop Persona – or
click on a neutral point
in the image with the
White Balance tool – with
exactly the same results
as if we’d set the white
balance in-camera
before taking the photo.
By contrast, attempting
to tweak white balance in
a JPEG after the fact can
often lead to unnatural
colour shifts.VIEW^ TH
E^ VIDEO