You will be given two corrected photos as guides, each of which is accompanied by an altered version that looks much worse and will require color or tonal correction. Viewing each of the original images, get the color and tonal values to match the color and tone of the originals.

The purpose of this project is to train your eye to see subtle differences in tone and color, and to match a certain tone or color with Photoshop. Such a skill is absolutely vital for anyone venturing into the commercial art area. So if you find yourself in a production setting, you will be able to handle such work comfortably.

This project is also intended to get you accustomed to using some of Photoshop's Adjustment tools.

Before you start: you will have a pair of images which are titled "color1good" or "color1fixed", and "color1bad". Do NOT adjust the image titled "color1good" or "tone1good" ! That's the one that is correct to begin with; that's why I called it "good" or "fixed".

Remember to place the original image and the one that needs to corrected, adjacent to each other on the screen, so that you can continously compare the two to see if your adjustments are working.

You will use the Adjustment tools you've learned so far ( Levels, Curves ) to correct a color cast or to fix over- or under-exposure. I suggest you use Levels or Curves, and stay away from Brightness/Contrast and Color Balance because these latter tools are not as precise or sensitive as the former two, and do not allow you as much precision to make the subtle kinds of adjustments required in this project.

Also, you should definitely NOT rely on any of the "Auto" adjustments - Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, or Auto Color - these are "quick-fix" tools that are very limited. They have only one setting, and that is a preset for extremely dramatic adjustments - you will not be able to do much that's very useful with them for this assignment.

A suggestion: sometimes it's a good idea to correct the sky or background separately from the other areas. This entails selecting that one portion of your image. If you have a relatively flat sky or background, you might be able to select it using the Magic Wand tool.

If your sky or background is more complex, you might try using the Color Range tool from the Select Menu. This tool is very useful for selecting one color or several related colors in non-contiguous areas. Go ahead and open the Color Range tool.

Click in the preview window to select the area you wish. You can choose either "Selection" or "Image". I personally like to use "Selection" - I position the Color Range window to the side so I can see the original image, then click in the Color Range window in the general area that I want selected. Now I can adjust the Fuzziness.

"Fuzziness" is similar to the "Tolerance" control in the Magic Wand. It allows you to select a color, then expand or contract the color range. This is why I prefer to use "Selection" - even though initially the window may be almost totally black, as you increase Fuzziness with the slider, you see more of the picture. More importantly, the portion you see is exactly what will be selected.

Actually, if you choose "Selection" and the entire preview window is black, or too dark to see anything, you can get the image to appear by increasing the Fuzziness. At that point, you'll be able to see enough, to make the selection.

When finished, save this project as "yourname_correction1" and "yourname_correction2", where yourname = your last name.

A large part of this assignment, just as for any assignment for any class, is following the instructions given. On occasion, some students will go beyond matching the two images, to do their own "correction". Their reasoning is that the original "corrected" image didn't look good enough for them.

They may be right, in that the "corrected" image could probably still use some additional compensation. But that is not the purpose of this exercise - it is to see whether you can create a tone / color to match another that is directly before you. Compensate the colors and tones until you get an exact match with the corrected image, nothing else.

If you're having difficulty with this project, check this page for tips and suggestions.