Remove unwanted tints from an image

You use the Black Tint, Gray Tint, and White Tint controls to selectively remove color casts from the shadows, midtones, and highlights in an image. Color casts are often caused by shooting in mixed lighting and unnatural lighting situations, where the different types of source lights can produce a color variance in a specific tonal range. For example, when you shoot indoors, interior incandescent (tungsten) lighting can often produce a yellow color cast through the white colors in the image. You can use the White Tint controls to isolate the highlights and add blue to the white values, thereby reducing the yellow color cast and returning the whites to neutral white.

There are two methods for selectively adjusting the tint values in an image: using the Black Tint, Gray Tint, and White Tint eyedroppers to automatically adjust the tint to neutral color values, and using the Black Tint, Gray Tint, and White Tint color wheels to manually adjust the tint values. The method you choose depends on the level of precision you require. The eyedroppers provide an accurate means of identifying the color cast within the tonal range of each eyedropper and returning the color values to neutral. However, depending on the subject, you may not want to completely remove the color cast found in a specific tonal range. In that case, you can manually adjust the tint values.

You use the Black Tint eyedropper to remove color casts from the shadows in your images.

Figure. Image before and after a Black Tint adjustment.

You use the Gray Tint eyedropper to remove color casts from the midtones in your images.

Figure. Image before and after a Gray Tint adjustment.

You use the White Tint eyedropper to remove color casts from the highlights in your images.

Figure. Image before and after a White Tint adjustment.

Note: Whereas using the White Balance controls adjusts the tints of all tonal values in the image uniformly, the Black Tint, Gray Tint, and White Tint eyedropper tools allow you to selectively neutralize color casts that affect only the shadows, midtones, or highlights. In some difficult cases, you can use the Black Tint, Gray Tint, and White Tint eyedropper tools in combination with the White Balance controls to first neutralize a tint in a specific tonal range and then uniformly remove the tint from the rest of the image. For more information about adjusting white balance, see White balance an image.

Set the tint of the shadows in an image

  1. Select a photo.

  2. Click the Tint disclosure triangle in the Enhance area of the Adjustments inspector or the Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD to reveal the Tint color wheels, and select the Black Tint eyedropper.

    Figure. Black Tint color wheel and eyedropper tool in the Enhance area of the Adjustments inspector.

    The pointer changes to the Loupe, showing a magnified view of the target area. By default, the Loupe is set to magnify the image to 100 percent (full size). If necessary, you can increase the magnification of the Loupe by pressing Shift–Command–Plus Sign (+). For more information, see Loupe overview.

  3. Position the target area of the Loupe over the darkest pixels in the image, and click.

    Figure. Loupe showing a magnified view of the darkest pixels in the image.

The tint (hue and saturation) of the black values in the image is set to remove the color cast in the shadows.

Important: Make sure that there are no bright pixels in the target area of the Loupe. Bright pixels in the target area can skew the Black Tint calculation, making the image look different than intended. A simple way to avoid errant bright pixels is to increase the magnification of the Loupe by choosing an increased magnification level from the Loupe pop-up menu. For more information, see Loupe overview.

Set the tint of the midtone values in an image

  1. Select a photo.

  2. Click the Tint disclosure triangle in the Enhance area of the Adjustments inspector or the Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD to reveal the Tint color wheels, and select the Gray Tint eyedropper.

    Figure. Gray Tint color wheel and eyedropper tool in the Enhance area of the Adjustments inspector.

    The pointer changes to the Loupe, showing a magnified view of the target area. By default, the Loupe is set to magnify the image to 100 percent (full size). If necessary, you can increase the magnification of the Loupe by choosing an increased magnification level from the Loupe pop-up menu. For more information, see Loupe overview.

  3. Position the target area of the Loupe over a midrange color that is as close as possible to medium gray, and click.

    Figure. Loupe showing a magnified view of midrange color pixels in the image.

The tint (hue and saturation) of the gray values in the image is set to remove the color cast in the midtones.

Set the tint of the highlight values in an image

  1. Select a photo.

  2. Click the Tint disclosure triangle in the Enhance area of the Adjustments inspector or the Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD to reveal the Tint color wheels, and select the White Tint eyedropper.

    Figure. White Tint color wheel and eyedropper tool in the Enhance area of the Adjustments inspector.

    The pointer changes to the Loupe, showing a magnified view of the target area. By default, the Loupe is set to magnify the image to 100 percent (full size). If necessary, you can increase the magnification of the Loupe by choosing an increased magnification level from the Loupe pop-up menu. For more information, see Loupe overview.

  3. Position the target area of the Loupe over the lightest (white) pixels in the image, then click.

    Figure. Loupe showing a magnified view of the lightest pixels in the image.

The tint (hue and saturation) of the white values in the image is set to remove the color cast in the highlights.

Important: Make sure that there are no dark pixels in the target area of the Loupe. Dark pixels in the target area can skew the White Tint calculation, making the image look different than intended. A simple way to avoid errant dark pixels is to increase the magnification of the Loupe by pressing Shift–Command–Plus Sign (+).

Manually adjust the tint of the shadow, midtone, and highlight values in an image

  1. Select a photo.

  2. Click the Tint disclosure triangle in the Enhance area of the Adjustments inspector or the Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD, and specify the following settings:

    • To adjust the tint of the shadows: Drag the Black point in the Black Tint color wheel.

    • To adjust the tint of the midtones: Drag the Gray point in the Gray Tint color wheel.

    • To adjust the tint of the highlights: Drag the White point in the White Tint color wheel.

      Figure. Tint color wheels and eyedropper tools in the Enhance area of the Adjustments inspector.

    You remove a color cast in a tonal range by dragging the point in the color wheel toward the opposite color. For example, to remove a blue cast, you drag the point in the color wheel toward yellow until the color cast is neutralized.

To reset a Tint color wheel without affecting the other parameters in the Enhance area, double-click it.

Figure. Tint color wheels and eyedropper tools in the Enhance area of the Adjustments inspector.