How can a tile help your photographs?

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If you're reading this, it may be because you met me at Photoshop World, and I handed you a card that looks like what you see at the bottom of this article.  I assure you there is no commercial intent attached to the tile.  Well, other than getting you interested in participating in the flow of ideas here in the Curvemeister forum, and perhaps indirectly generating some business as a result.

Here's where we're going with the tile.  Every few days, I'll be adding more discussion, and another example of using the tile to improve the appearance of an image.  This will be an exploration and sharing of ideas involving the use of a known white object to improve colors in your image.  I say we, because you are each encouraged to join the forum, and contribute to the discussion in words and images.

The tile is a very pure white color.  It's also very practical, being small, inexpensive, and nearly indestructible.  You can use it to establish a very accurate neutral gray color in your images, and the rest of the colors will follow suit.  The image below, for example, was taken in the light of my hotel room, here at the Mandalay, with no special preparation.  The light was orange, and the camera was set to daylight color.

[img]http://curvemeister.com/gallery/data/518/medium/2009-09-30_231228.JPG[/img]
Original image

Predictably, it started life with a hefty orange color cast.  Using curves (what else?), the color value of the tile was set so that the red, green, and blue color values, as shown in Photoshop's info palette, were approximately equal.

In the coming days, I'll be showing more ways to use the tile, using various images taken in the general neighborhood of Photoshop World.

BTW - those of you who did not get a tile, and wish to participate, can send a self addressed, stamped envelope to my address:

Mike Russell (tile)
1968 Hopkins Street
Berkeley, CA 94707

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Here's an example of using the tile with Camera Raw.

The raw image starts out with a yellow cast

Select the white balance tool from the upper toolbar of Camera Raw.

Click on the tile as shown below.

Here is the color corrected image.