Fluorescent Lighting

[Jim]

I'n trying to adjust fluorescent lighting in my digital photos. Does anyone know an easy way to fix this. On this or any other software. One button press would be great.

Thanks

[tk]

The easiest (and BEST) way to solve this problem is to take care of it at the time you're taking the picture. You would just use probably a 20 or 30 Magenta gel filter, depending on how much/many fluorescent lights there are.

Since you obviously already have the picture taken, try adding magenta to the image. In light, magenta is the opposite of green, which is the color fluorescents look like on film without any color correction. You add magenta to cancel the greenish hue.

In PDN, on the menu go to Layers/Adjustments/Levels... Then, remove the check for G (which is green) at the bottom center of the popup window. Now, on the Output, grab the pointers in the middle of the gradient (that is directly below the word Output), and slide it up until the known pure whites in your picture are white. (Whites are the easiest to use for reference, since --as long as your exposure was correct-- should always be just that, white. Other colors, e.g. someone's skin, are much harder to use for reference when correcting color.

I find sometimes the best thing to do in this situation, is to play around with how much you add, save multiple copies, then step away from them for a short while (to get your eyes 'reset'), and then go back and compare the different versions to pick which one has the whitest whites.

Hope this is helpful and easy to follow. 8)

tk