Event Photography

[leightonjames]

Hi everyone,

Just wondering, is it possible to edit a photograph to bring back channels of colour, despite the image being covered in red light from a spot light?

Many Thanks,

Leighton

[Simpo Two]

You could try selecting an area and twiddling about with the hue in PS (Ctrl-U) but I'd be surprised if the results were any good. Sounds like you used ambient light so you recorded the scene faithfully. The only other option I can think of is to use flash which will counteract out all or most of the colour.

[_dobbo_]

Might be worth trying white balance adjustment and tint adjustment. You'd be surprised how easy it can be to pull back natural colours from an image with a very strong colour cast.

Ignoring the fact it's a terrible, terrible photo - this had a brutal orange colour cast from the sodium lights, a tweak on the white balance and...

[Ledaig]

If you are trying to remove a colour cast, then as above. However if the red lighting was too intense then looking to the white balance or hue will not be bring back what you have. Not so long ago I did a wedding shoot where the room was lit by the disco and a string of high intensity heaters along both side walls which threw out a strong red light. The effect of this was to push so much red onto the scene that I was forced into using flash with a slow shutter speed just to bring some natural colour back into the images.

If you can't rescue the images, something you could try would be going monochrome. The contrast provided by a strong red light could work in your favour!