How do I get my whites white again?

[chim girl]

...without putting them in the washing machine :p

I've been sent a photograph of a design that was orginially on white card, however the photographers camera must've used AWB, as such the white is now a mucky grey.

Does anyone know the best way to make the background white again please. I have both Photoshop CS and Paint Shop Pro.

Thanks :)

[nighthawk]

You could try using the levels option in CS, there should be some little droppers, one of which is a white point.

sample the brightest part of the image and see what happens.
I'm sure someone with a greater command of CS can explain it a little better

Or, if you can get the raw file, you can reset the colour temp for anything you wish.

[getcarter]

In Paint Shop Pro - the easy way is:

Colours: Adjust: Highligt/Midtone/Shadow

Make highlights about 90 or less... less value = more bleached (white will return). Adding shadow will keep the blacks black. You'll lose detail doing this but it'll work with the whites. Better than DAZ anyway (sorry Daz with the 911)

Steve


>> Edited by getcarter on Saturday 13th August 17:33

[chim girl]

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.

[simpo two]

chim girl said:

however the photographers camera must've used AWB, as such the white is now a mucky grey.

Well the gang has beaten me to it. All I can add is that it's not a WB issue, it's exposure. Point a camera at bright white and it goes 'wurgh, too bright!' and makes it grey as it tries to even out the overall exposure.