PHOTOSHOP TIPS FOR AVIATION PHOTOGRAPHERS - REMOVING A COLOUR CAST

The vast majority of aviation images will tend to have a slight blue colour cast. This can easily be removed using a Curves adjustment layer as follows:

(1) Create a separate Curves adjustment layer.

(2) Select the Blue channel.

(3) Move the cursor over the aircraft and press Ctrl+click. A circle will appear on the graph.

(4) Now drag this point downwards to remove the blue cast from the aircraft. Be careful not to overdo it as the image will start to become yellow. This is because the opposite colour of blue is yellow therefore removing too much blue is the same as adding too much yellow (see understanding colour).

(5) Alternatively, rather than subtracting the offending blue colour we can add equal amounts of the colours that make up the opposite of blue, namely red and green (yellow). So starting with our original image we first add some Red.

(6) Then the same amount of Green.