color correcting help

realredpanda

Senior member
May 25, 2004
205
0
71
i work at a local supermarket chain and about a month and a half ago i got the opportunity to work in the photolab,which i really enjoy.i have the worst time with color correcting though, for 35mm film theres a CMYK color editor and i tent to end up on the yellow or green side offen.

does anyone have any advice or links to improving in this area,other then wasting lots of paper printing the same things over and over again till they're right.i tried google for help or some kind of rgb chart that might help but came up empty.
 

Ornery

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
20,022
17
81
Stay the hell away from "correcting" specific colors, and work strictly with white balance. Next issue would be setting levels, but I'd be surprised if you're even expected to mess with that. Matter of fact, who turned you loose on this equipment with no instructions? :confused:
 

myusername

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2003
5,046
0
0
Assuming that you have adequate lighting to view the prints, and assuming the viewing monitor is calibrated, you're probably colorblind ...
It may help you to use a reference print for skintone, or possibly even a graycard to lay next to the print you are viewing.
If you are looking at a print, your brain will automatically "white balance" it for you, so you may not realize that it has a color cast to it until you hold a graycard next to it.
Personally when working on a screen I find that it is easier to move a color channel to both sides of normal and then dial it in by going back and forth. IOW, I can't look at an image and see that something needs 2 points of red, but I can slide the red channel up 10 and down 10 and then bounce between them until I think I see where it should be.
Beyond that and practice, it's pretty much up to gender.