Now you will not surprise anyone with a digital camera - it is probably in every family. Shoots on camera both old and young; the quality of the photographs leaves much to be desired: many pictures seem to be shrouded in some kind of fog; the bright blue sky looks gray on them, the sunset is not at all as amazing as you thought when shooting; Objects that are quite distinguishable in the process of photographing appear in the resulting images in a deep shadow, and so on. Of course, I don’t want to show such photos to friends and acquaintances, as well as print them. If the pictures reflect the moments of life that are really important for you, then you can try to improve them with the help of one or another software toolkit. However, not all users have the necessary experience for this, and it takes a lot of time to correct photos.

A more than urgent task arises: as quickly as possible and with minimal preparation (or in the absence of it at all) to improve the moments recorded on the camera. Of course, we are not talking about obtaining masterpieces of photographic art from the point of view of professional photographers, but simply about improving the brightness, contrast and saturation of pictures, adjusting the color gamut on them, pulling out shadows, etc. If the appropriate corrective operations are carried out correctly, then you can get natural and attractive photos from seemingly irretrievably lost low-quality images.

The question is what software solutions are able to provide such transformations automatically and with the least effort for the user. There are options here ... Theoretically, the minimum possibilities for basic auto-photo correction are now provided even in ordinary graphics viewers, such as XnView, IrfanView, etc. it is wiser to turn to more suitable products - specialized programs for improving images or complex solutions for image processing (photo editors and photo organizers). Some of these programs will be discussed in this article. But first, let's clarify a number of rules that should be followed for successful auto-correction.

Rules to remember

1. Auto-correction of pictures that have already been subjected to some kind of artistic processing (for example, effects and frames have been added to the photo) is likely to be unsuccessful. Any "decorations" of images are made only at the final stage, after all the required correction operations: noise elimination, color correction, sharpness adjustment, etc.
2. You should not try to correct photos with different software tools in turn, because in the course of such transformations in some solutions some important information about the image is deleted - as a result, the results of auto-correction in other software products may turn out to be completely unpredictable.
3. If you use filters with the camera that create various effects when taking photos, be prepared for the fact that the effect may be canceled during automatic correction. Therefore, it is possible that in order to improve such images, the images will have to be corrected manually.

Specialized programs for image enhancement

There are few highly specialized software for improving (or, as they say, for optimizing) images on the market; we will focus on the most popular programs among users: Photomizer, PhotoPerfect Express, Ashampoo Photo Optimizer and SuperEasy Photo Booster. They in no way claim to replace full-fledged editors for image processing, but nevertheless they allow you to correct digital photos, and without the slightest difficulty (literally with a couple of mouse clicks). In addition, these solutions do not require the user to have any global knowledge of correction (you will not need to study voluminous manuals either), so dealing with them is not a problem.

To optimize images in any of these programs, it is enough to specify the image to be processed (it is possible to improve tens and hundreds of photos at once in batch mode) and start the conversion process by clicking on the appropriate button, and then save the final image. And that's it - your pictures will become more expressive and more realistic almost in the blink of an eye (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Examples of Image Optimization in Photomizer

Photomizer 2.0

Developer: Engelmann Media GmbH

Distribution size: Photomizer - 18 MB; Photomizer PRO - 30.4 MB

Work under control: Windows XP/Vista/7/8

Distribution method: shareware (3 day demo - ftp://ftp.engelmann.com/photomizer.exe ; ftp://ftp.engelmann.com/photomizer-pro.exe)

Price: Photomizer - 29.99 euros; Photomizer PRO - €49.99

Photomizer is a simple solution for quickly improving your photos, including in batch mode. The program can automatically correct color and exposure errors, improve insufficiently clear images and improve the level of illumination in areas of light and shadow. It can also be used to remove noise and artifacts resulting from JPEG image compression. In practice, this solution shows impressive results when processing images with irregular or muted colors (the latter often occurs when shooting underwater), blurry or foggy landscapes, photos taken under adverse weather conditions or in low light, old scanned photos, etc. To save time, the program comes preloaded with input profiles configured to optimize digital camera shots, slides, negatives, webcam photos, scans, and mobile phone shots (you can create custom profiles). The program is presented in two editions: basic Photomizer and extended Photomizer PRO; the latter is equipped with a more solid set of built-in input profiles and additionally includes tools for removing distortion, as well as applying simple effects and frames.

Any transformations in Photomizer can be performed, in fact, in a few steps - just load the image, select the input profile and check the boxes of the operations of interest (Fig. 2), although if you wish, you can intervene in the conversion process by changing the degree of impact of a particular operation on image. Processed photos are saved in JPG or BMP formats. It is possible to optimize hundreds of images at once in batch mode.

Rice. 2. Fast auto-correction of photos in Photomizer

PhotoPerfect Express 1.0

Developer: Arcadia Software

Distribution size: 40.9 MB

Work under control: Windows XP/Vista/7

Distribution method: freeware (http://www.photoperfect.com/download.html)

Price: free, but a number of features (some algorithms and batch processing) require the purchase of license keys: i?e Standard algorithm - $24.99; i?e Professional algorithm - $94.99; Perfectly Clear $49.99, Batch and More $15, etc.

PhotoPerfect Express is a simple and convenient program for quickly improving pictures. It implements five image optimization algorithms: RGBMax, YMax, Xe847, i2e and Perfectly Clear - the first three can be used for free; the other two are offered on a commercial basis (when using commercial algorithms without payment, a watermark is placed on the images). Each of the algorithms in its own way improves the image by adjusting color, brightness, contrast, sharpness and a number of other parameters, while the result, as a rule, turns out to be noticeably better than the original (this statement also applies to free algorithms, so purchase keys to many users do not need commercial means). Although it certainly depends on the original image, for example, to improve faded and faded photos, as well as images with deep shadows, it is better to use the Perfectly Clear algorithm, when processing landscapes or images taken in daylight, the Xe847 algorithm shows excellent results, using which manages to bring a digital image to the form that the photographer saw at the time of shooting, etc. When using the i2e and Perfectly Clear algorithms, red-eye and noise can also be minimized in auto image correction. It is worth noting that in the case of using the last three algorithms, it is possible to fine-tune a number of optimization parameters manually, taking into account the individual characteristics of the processed photo, which makes it possible to achieve even more impressive results.

It's easy to perform automatic image correction in PhotoPerfect Express - just open the folder with photos, specify the image (if necessary, you can rotate it) and select the optimization algorithm, the processing result of which turned out to be the best (Fig. 3). Of course, you first need to view the results for each of the algorithms, which can be done simply by clicking on the buttons with the names of the algorithms and watching the photo change, or by calling the image comparison window (Image Optimization ® All at once), in which the image will be presented in six versions: original and five converted. The resulting images are saved in JPG, BMP, TIF or PNG formats and can be printed in popular formats (9x13, 10x15, 13x18, 20x25, etc.).

Rice. 3. Photo optimization by Xe847 algorithm in PhotoPerfect Express

It is theoretically possible to optimize images in batch mode in PhotoPerfect Express, however, in practice, only commercial users will be able to use the corresponding tools, since the purchase of the Batch and More batch processing module is required, which not only allows you to optimize hundreds of photos at the same time, but also provides access to cropping functions photo and resizing it.

Ashampoo Photo Optimizer 5.5

Developer: Ashampoo GmbH & Co. KG

Distribution size: 51.2 MB

Work under control: Windows XP/Vista/7/8

Distribution method: https://www.ashampoo.com/ru/rub/fdl)

Price: RUB 299.99

Ashampoo Photo Optimizer is a handy program for quickly correcting bad shots in batch mode or one at a time. It automatically analyzes the image and makes the necessary adjustments for color, brightness and contrast, as well as "pulls" shadows and sharpens images. As a rule, as a result of such transformations, images become visually much more attractive, they turn out to be brighter, more contrasting and expressive; this is especially noticeable in darkened and faded photographs, photographs taken under poor lighting, etc. However, there are exceptions, in our case, for example, the program sometimes failed to properly adjust the balance of colors. Ashampoo Photo Optimizer also includes tools for manual image processing - you can rotate and flip images, crop them, straighten the horizon, remove red-eye and perform color correction. In addition, it is possible to apply simple effects to photos (sepia, aging, blur, etc.) and introduce watermarks into them.

Automatic improvement of images in the program requires a minimum of effort from the user - you just need to open the folder with images and click on the "Optimize" button (Fig. 4). In the case of manual color adjustment, the brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and color gamut values ​​are adjusted by the sliders. Processed photos are saved in JPEG, BMP, PNG, TGA or TIFF formats; you can send photos by e-mail, publish them in Facebook and Picasa web albums, set them as desktop wallpaper and print. One-click optimization in Ashampoo Photo Optimizer allows you to optimize not only one photo, but all images in a folder at the same time.

Rice. 4. Image enhancement with Ashampoo Photo Optimizer

SuperEasy Photo Booster 1.1

Developer: SuperEasy GmbH & Co. KG

Distribution size: 8.31 MB

Work under control: Windows XP(SP1)/Vista/7/8

Distribution method: shareware (7 day demo - https://www.supereasy.net/en/usd/dld/0008/SuperEasy-Photo-Booster/)

Price:$19.95

SuperEasy Photo Booster is a very simple utility to automatically improve the quality of photos. The program recognizes those areas of the photo that may look better and optimizes them automatically, adjusting the brightness, saturation and contrast of the image, setting the correct white balance, adjusting the brightness in light and dark areas. The result is approximately the same as in the case of image processing in PhotoPerfect Express using the RGBMax optimization algorithm.

To correct one image, it is enough to open it and, if necessary, change the optimization level (Fig. 5); in the case of batch processing, a folder is specified instead of a file, in addition, you need to configure the conversion settings and then start the process. The resulting images are saved in JPG and BMP formats.

Rice. 5. Auto-correct photo in SuperEasy Photo Booster

Complete solutions for image processing

There are a lot of photo editing solutions on the market, including various kinds of photo editors and photo organizers. The functionality of such programs, as well as the complexity of their development, can be very different. It makes sense for advanced amateur photographers to pay attention to fairly serious photo editors Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel PaintShop Pro, for beginners it is wiser to choose easier-to-use tools, for example, the Home Photo Studio program or the Picasa photo organizer.

Any of these solutions provides a traditional set of features for easy management of photo collections and image editing. In terms of editing, not only basic operations are available (resizing photos, rotating, cropping, etc.), but also more complex actions with a wide range of technical tools (changing the angle, eliminating optical and perspective distortions, correcting incorrect exposure settings) , image sharpening, poor color correction, etc.) and artistic retouching (applying effects, overlaying frames, etc.). Also, these solutions provide one or another toolkit for automatic photo correction. It is not difficult to optimize images with it, although in any case you will have to take some time to familiarize yourself with the selected application (especially Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel PaintShop Pro). However, the results of auto-correction in such solutions, with the possible exception of the only product from Adobe, are not as impressive as when using specialized programs for improving images.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 12

Developer: Adobe Systems Inc.

Distribution size: 1.08 GB

Work under control: Windows XP(SP3)/Vista(SP2)/7/8; there is a version for Macintosh

Distribution method: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/)

Price:$99.99 (Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 in the Allsoft.ru online store from 2121.52 rubles)

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a comprehensive tool for organizing and editing digital photos. The application includes two modules: an organizer and a graphic editor, the latter is a simplified version of the eminent professional graphic editor Adobe Photoshop, aimed at amateur photographers. The built-in organizer allows you to import, manage, view and search your photos and videos (you can organize your photos by people, location, and events), as well as provide easy ways to share (create photo albums, gift wall calendars, postcards, etc.) and share photos online . The graphics editor includes a traditional set of tools for such solutions (brush, pencil, gradient, etc.), can work with selected areas and masks, supports layers (including adjustment layers and fill layers) and includes an extensive library of effects.

The graphic editor is designed for detailed photo correction and can work in one of three modes: Quick, Guided (with recommendations that simplify the application of operations) and Expert mode. The tools of interest for this article for quick automatic correction are available in quick mode. First of all, this is the so-called “smart correction” Auto Smart Fix, with which you can correct the color balance and improve the display of shadows and light areas, and hence the overall appearance of the image as a whole, with one click of the mouse. The result of such a correction is usually quite impressive (Fig. 6). In this mode, tools are also available for auto-correcting levels Auto Levels (adjusts the overall contrast of the image and can affect its color), Auto Contrast contrast (adjusts the overall contrast of the image without affecting its color), Auto Color (provides saturation and color tint adjustment - Fig. 7) and Auto Sharpen (provides increased detail). In addition, in the "quick" mode, there are tools for removing red-eye, whitening teeth and removing stains, although these operations are already performed manually.

Rice. 6. "Smart Adjust" in Adobe Photoshop Elements

Rice. 7. Automatic Saturation Adjustment in Adobe Photoshop Elements

As for the batch mode, Adobe Photoshop Elements provides the ability to process multiple files (File ® Process Multiple Files), during which images can be improved (the Quick Fix panel is responsible for the corresponding operations - Fig. 8) and, if necessary, supplemented with watermarks. Also, when batch processing, it is possible to automatically rename files, reduce their size and convert.

Rice. 8. Batch Image Adjustment in Adobe Photoshop Elements

Corel PaintShop Pro X6

Developer: Corel Corporation

Distribution size: 237.5 MB

Work under control: Windows XP/Vista/7/8

Distribution method: shareware (30 day demo - http://www.corel.com/corel/category.jsp?cat=cat4130131&rootCat=cat3520071)

Price:$ 99.99 (in Allsoft.ru version of Corel PaintShop Pro X5 from 3165.94 rubles)

Corel PaintShop Pro is a comprehensive picture organizing and processing solution for the general public. This solution includes an integrated organizer as well as a graphics editor. The organizer provides organization and management of a photo collection (face recognition technology is supported and linking images to a map manually or based on GPS data), as well as the creation of stylish photo projects (photo albums, collages, postcards, calendars, slideshows, etc.) with the ability to publish them on YouTube , on Facebook or on Flickr. In turn, the graphic editor supports layers, masks and alpha channels and comes with a large set of gradients, masks, fill patterns, textures, frames, tubes, shapes and brushes. It brings together a wide range of image enhancement tools, as well as many framing options, an impressive range of built-in effects and filters, and naturalistic Art Media Tools.

Corel PaintShop Pro has three workspaces: Manage, Adjust, and Edit. In the first, you can view, organize and search for photos, the Adjust and Edit workspaces provide the ability to edit images using the built-in graphic editor - both, among other things, also provide tools for automatic correction. These are One Step Photo Fix (photo correction in one step) and Smart Photo Fix (intelligent photo correction) functions. The One Step Photo Fix function is responsible for adjusting the exposure and white balance, and using the Smart Photo Fix function, automatically or with the connection of sliders, the level of brightness, shadows, highlights and saturation is adjusted. The results of such a correction can be different - sometimes the photos visually look noticeably better than the original ones, although, in our opinion, they often turn out to be too bright (Fig. 9). In other cases, especially when processing pictures taken in bright sunlight and having too pronounced areas of light and shadow, the resulting images are not at all pleasing to the eye. So it all depends on the source material. As for batch processing, the functionality provided in this plan only allows you to rename and convert images.

Rice. 9. "Smart" auto-photo correction in Corel PaintShop Pro

"Home photo studio"

Developer: AMS Software

Distribution size: 57.35 MB

Work under control: Windows XP/Vista/7/8

Distribution method: shareware (10-day demo - http://amspark.ru/HomeStudio.exe)

Price: from 690 rub.

"Home Photo Studio" - a simple editor for processing pictures. The program includes a minimal set of tools for working with photos and is aimed at beginner amateur photographers. With its help, you can crop pictures and align the horizon on them, change the brightness and contrast, adjust the color balance, etc. In addition, you can apply frames and masks to images, add a shadow and a three-dimensional outline, create postcards and calendars based on pictures.

The automatic correction tools built into the program (menu Image® Upgrade Catalog or the use of appropriate scenarios) allow you to eliminate the most typical defects - improve too dark or, conversely, too light photos, make pictures with faded and nondescript colors brighter, etc. As a result of auto-correction, images often look really better (Fig. 10). Batch processing of files is supported, and when it is carried out, along with renaming and converting files, it is possible to apply scripts from the Photo Enhancement group to them.

Rice. 10. Automatic shadow correction in the program "Home Photo Studio"

Picasa 3.9

Developer: Google

Distribution size: 14.3 MB

Work under control: Windows XP/Vista/7

Distribution method: freeware (http://dl.google.com/picasa/picasa39-setup.exe)

Price: is free

Picasa is a popular photo organizer integrated with Picasa web albums. The program combines tools for cataloging pictures (based on albums and collections of "People") and their publication (creating photo collages, burning photos to CD, publishing in Blogger, etc.), viewing and simple photo editing. Built-in editing tools allow you to resize images, rotate them, crop them, and perform a number of image correction operations (removing red-eye, adjusting brightness, contrast, etc.). It is possible to apply filters and effects.

The simplest auto-correction in the program is implemented, however, to a minimum. These are the "I'm Feeling Lucky!" features. (provides color and contrast correction), Auto Contrast, and Auto Color. The results of automatic image optimization can be quite satisfactory (Fig. 11), but more often than not, they are not pleasing to the eye, although some positive changes in images usually take place. As for batch processing, in Picasa in batch mode, you can only export images to a folder with their renaming and resizing.

Rice. 11. Successful use of the "I'm Feeling Lucky!" in picasa

Conclusion

If you are not eager to delve into all the details of image correction technology and are limited in time, then you cannot do without software tools for automatically optimizing images (after all, you still want photos to look more attractive). By connecting one of the solutions with similar functionality to the case, you can noticeably improve the quality of your photos without any problems. And for the minimum time even with a large number of images in the case of their batch processing. Another situation is also possible (albeit, subject to the appropriate training of the user) - mass processing of ordinary photos (vacation photos, from a party, etc.) with auto-correction tools, along with finishing individual, outstanding, in the user's opinion, photos manually.

As for solutions to quickly improve the images taken, in our opinion, it is preferable to use highly specialized programs that provide a higher quality of optimization and are more convenient for solving this particular problem than complex software products for image processing.

Color correction is an integral part of the process of processing digitized images. Especially often the need for it arises during the prepress preparation of photographs: film negatives tend to fade over time, shifting the overall image gamut towards blue or red colors. Digital cameras also do not guarantee flawless quality due to uncontrolled manual balance adjustment errors. Of course, modern graphic editors have the necessary tools to correct color errors manually, but this is not very effective when processing documents in stream. Fortunately, there are a number of low-cost third-party solutions that allow you to automate the process of color grading images as much as possible.

AutoEye 2.0 (AutoFX Software)

AutoEye 2.0 is a new version of the popular software designed to improve the quality of digital images by restoring color detail and sharpening. As before, AutoEye 2.0 is available either as a standalone program for Windows and Macintosh platforms, or as a plug-in for the most common graphic editors: Adobe Photoshop CS, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, as well as Corel Photo Paint and CorelDRAW 9.0. Although all these programs have built-in image correction tools, AutoEye 2.0 compares favorably with them due to the use of unique proprietary Intelligent Visual Imaging Technologies (for example, the plug-in does not rely on traditional curves and a histogram in its work), allowing you to solve the same tasks in a simpler way. way, as well as automate as much as possible and, therefore, speed up their implementation.

Thanks to the use of "intelligent" tools, the developers managed to simplify the user interface of the program to the maximum. All controls are grouped into three sets: Enhancement (image error correction), Color (color adjustment) and Creative (artistic processing), and a single panel is enough to control all the changes made to the image, which is undoubtedly much more effective than traveling through numerous dialog boxes and branched menus.

The Color Controls mode, in turn, is responsible for adjusting the color of the image. Through the use of advanced blending algorithms and correction tables, the program is not only able to restore faded colors when shooting or scanning the original, but also allows its user to change their original gamut - again, with just two or three mouse clicks.

To save preliminary results of work without making changes to the original file, AutoEye 2.0 allows you to save the current settings in separately stored profiles. The program accepts files in .psd, .tiff, .bmp, .jpg, .gif, and .png formats as source documents. If the Adobe Photoshop .psd format is selected for processing, information about the layers is saved.

AutoEye 2.0 is priced at $129. A demo version can be downloaded from the developer's website http://www.autofx.com/demo_center.asp .

AliveColors 1.1 (AliveColors)

AliveColors 1.1 is a convenient and easy-to-use entry-level utility that has extensive capabilities for color correction and retouching of digitized images with a single button. Efficiency is achieved through the cumulative use of a number of procedures hidden from the user by a simple visual interface.

The AliveColors 1.1 arsenal includes eight built-in color correction functions, as well as a set of traditional tools for "mechanical" image editing, including tools for selecting, cropping, reversing and inverting the active layer. Although the user has access to almost all procedural parameters for more fine-tuning, in most cases the program manages to restore image quality automatically (Automatic correction by Channels and Automatic correction by Brightness functions).

Along with document-wide automatic color correction, AliveColors 1.1 allows for more subtle editing, such as sharpening, creating a blur effect, or selectively replacing colors in a selected area of ​​an image. It is noteworthy that the results of all operations performed are displayed in real time in the preview window, and the history saving function allows you to go back a few steps.

AliveColors 1.1 supports the TWAIN protocol, so images can be loaded into the program directly from a scanner or from a digital video camera connected to a computer. The only drawback could be an overly limited set of raster file formats known to the program (there are only four of them - .bmp. .tiff, .jpg and .png), but this limitation applies only to the stand-alone version of the utility, while AliveColors 1.1 is also available as a plugin for Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo Paint and Jasc Paint Shop Pro. Along with the full version, the developers offer its free version with reduced functionality (the automatic color correction mode is turned off in it).

The price of AliveColors 1.1 is 27 euros. A demo version can be found on the developer's website at http://www.alivecolors.com.

Color Mechanic Pro (Digital Light & Color)

Color Mechanic Pro is a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements developed by Digital Light & Color, which includes a fairly powerful and convenient mechanism for correcting and editing the color of an image. Unlike most programs of its class, Color Mechanic Pro operates with the HSL color space, and its operation is based on algorithms for separate channel editing with their subsequent connection. Selective analysis and approximation calculations are performed in a fully automatic mode. In fact, the role of the user comes down to choosing an object for correction (color control is carried out using HSL hexagons and fine-tuning sliders); at the same time, the plug-in supports selection areas created by standard Photoshop tools.

In addition to the "full" version of the plugin, the user is offered its lightweight version of Color Mechanic Standard. The main difference between the two is that the full version can edit both RGB and CMYK images at 16 bits per channel, while the simplified version is only available for CMYK. In addition, the full version interface has several auxiliary tools, as well as an unlimited command stack to return to the previous state.

The price of Color Mechanic Pro is $50. A demo version (it does not allow you to save the correction results) can be downloaded from the developer's website at http://www.colormechanic.com.

Digital ROC Professional (Eastman Kodak Company)

The DIGITAL ROC Professional plug-in is sold under the trademark of Kodak, one of the veterans of digital photography, but the range of potential users of this program is by no means limited to owners of digital cameras. On the contrary, this tool is useful to anyone who, on duty or in his spare time, has to face the need to quickly and efficiently color correct a problematic image. The plugin provides for the possibility of both automatic document recovery and subsequent manual adjustment of the color balance to achieve the optimal result.

DIGITAL ROC Professional's algorithms analyze the color gradients of the uploaded image to detect aliasing or general hue imbalance caused by poor original quality or a hardware calibration error. Based on the results of this analysis, the program generates compensating hue curves in each of the color channels (while supporting 16-bit processing). More fine-tuning of brightness, contrast and color gamut can be subsequently carried out manually - for this purpose, a preview window is provided in the plugin's dialog panel, which is updated in real time.

DIGITAL ROC Professional works with files from a variety of sources, including digital cameras, flatbeds and slide scanners. In the latter case, the plug-in has additional built-in tools to improve image quality by suppressing traces of film grain.

The plugin is compatible with all versions of Adobe Photoshop starting from 5.0, Jasc Paint Shop Pro 7.0 and older, as well as other applications that support the Adobe plugin model. The price of DIGITAL ROC Professional is $50, and you can find a demo version of the program on the developer's website at http://www.asf.com.

iCorrect EditLab (Pictographics International Corporation)

iCorrect EditLab is a powerful professional tool for automatic color correction of images, available as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and a number of other most popular graphic editors. The program mechanism is focused on full color correction on the scale of the entire document, based on automatic analysis of the color information contained in the file, recognition of predefined sets of shades (for example, the color of the sky, foliage, human skin, etc.), as well as user-specified parameters and current Photoshop (or other parent application) color management settings.

iCorrect EditLab provides a fully automatic mode of operation, however, at each of the color correction steps, the user has the opportunity to agree with the option proposed by the computer or make his own edits to it. The entire editing operation consists of four successive stages. At the first stage, the program balances by a neutral hue, determining those areas of the image that should be painted in medium-intensity gray, thereby eliminating the effect of the so-called color cast. The second step is to find the limit points for white and black. Next, iCorrect EditLab adjusts the saturation of the hues, as well as the contrast and lightness of the image. The fourth, final stage is the most difficult - on it the program restores the natural color of individual shades.

iCorrect EditLab costs $100. You can find a demo version of the plugin on the developer's website at

As I said, you do not need to know how these tools work, but you need to know something else - in which cases, for better results, one or another tool should be preferred.

To make it a little easier for us to deal with this issue, let's slightly repeat the theory. As you know, the whole variety of colors displayed on a computer monitor is generated by shifting the three primary colors - red, green and blue.

White is obtained by mixing red, green and blue in equal proportion and full intensity. Black is the complete absence of all three primary colors. Yellow, for example, is made by mixing red and green. Mix red and blue and you get magenta, while green and blue together make turquoise. Apply red, green, and blue shifts in varying proportions and their hues in every possible hue, and you end up with millions and even billions of colors.

Photoshop blends these three primary colors using color channels. One channel for red, another for green, and a third for blue. We can find these color channels in the Channels panel, which, by default, is nested in the same stack as the Layers panel. Click on its tab at the top of the panel group to open it:

Open the channel panel by clicking on the appropriate tab.

In the panel we see red, green and blue channels, plus a fourth RGB channel located at the top of the panel. Don't let the RGB channel fool you, it's not really a channel at all. RGB stands for "red, green and blue" and is simply a combination, a composition of the red, green and blue channels working together to give us a full color image.

If you look at the preview thumbnails of the red, green, and blue channels, you'll notice something that might seem a bit surprising - those color channels aren't actually in color at all! Instead, each one is a halftone image. In fact, if we take a closer look at them, we can see that the black and white image of each channel is different from the other. To preview how each channel looks in the document, simply click on it. For example, I'll click on the Red channel to select it:

Red channel selection.

With the red channel selected, the full color version of my image in the document is temporarily replaced with a grayscale version. So what does a black and white image mean when the red channel is active? This is how Photoshop shows the intensity of the red in the picture - the brighter the area, the more red is added to the full color version, while the darker areas have less saturated red. Areas of pure white in a black and white image have red at its full intensity, while areas of black have no red at all:

Red channel preview. Bright areas contain more red than dark areas.

To see what the green channel looks like in the document, I'll click on it in the channels panel.

This action will temporarily turn off the display of the red and blue channels, showing me only the green channel in the document. Here we see another grayscale image, but it is slightly different from what we saw with the red channel. This is because the intensity of green in different areas of the photo is naturally different from the intensity of red. Again, the brighter the area, the more intense the green in it, while the darker areas have less saturated green. Any areas of pure white have green at full intensity, while areas of pure black have no green at all:

Green channel preview. Lighter areas = more intense green, darker areas = less green.

If we now look at the black and white image of the blue channel, then it will also be different from the others and work in exactly the same way. My photo contains a lot of blue (or any other color that uses blue as its main ingredient), so the blue channel looks darker overall than the red and green channels:

Blue channel preview. The lighter the area, the more blue is involved in the color blend in the full color version.

So we've learned that Photoshop mixes the red, green, and blue color channels to reproduce all the colors we see in the image. Now, based on this, let's try to figure out which of the three tools under consideration is better to use when. Each of the three automatic commands manipulates the color channels differently, producing different results. In the following, I will briefly describe how each works, before we look at them in action.

The Auto Contrast tool is the most basic and straightforward of the three discussed in this tutorial. When we select it, Photoshop analyzes the composite of all three color channels (in other words, it treats all three as if they were one black and white image) and simply converts the dark pixels to pure black, brightens the light pixels to pure white, and redistributes all other tonal values ​​in between. The result is an image with improved overall contrast. It's important to note that because it treats all three color channels as one composite image, Auto Contrast doesn't change the colors in the image. It just boosts overall contrast, making it a good choice for images that don't suffer from any color issues.

Auto Tone is similar to Auto Contrast in that it also darkens dark pixels to pure black, brightens light pixels to pure white, and redistributes all other tonal values ​​between them, but it has one major difference. He does this not on the basis of three channels mixed into one, but on the basis of each channel separately, which means that the red, green and blue channels will be adjusted individually as well. We know that Photoshop uses the lightness values ​​in each individual color channel to determine how much of each color to mix in the full color version, so by changing the color channels independently, we will change the colors in the full color photo because brightness values ​​in channels changed. This means that, unlike Auto Contrast, which does nothing more than increase the overall contrast, Auto Tone changes the colors in the image at the same time as increasing the contrast. If an image has an unwanted color cast, Auto Tone may be able to fix it.

Auto Color is similar to Auto Tone. It also darkens dark pixels to black and lightens bright pixels to white on a per-channel basis, so that the red, green, and blue channels will be adjusted separately and independently. But Auto Color goes one step further. Instead of just redistributing all the tonal values ​​between them, it attempts to correct any unwanted color cast by neutralizing the midtones in the image. This usually (but not always) makes Auto Color the best choice for automatically correcting contrast and resolving color issues at the same time.

In the next article, I will tell you how to properly and effectively use the automatic image adjustment tools.

Auto Adjust Photo is a lightweight and simple tool for automatic color correction of photos. It can be useful for those users who find it difficult to use complex graphics programs for color correction of images, or who simply do not have time to spend a lot of time manually working with images.

Incorrect colors in photographs are one of the most common problems for digital cameras and cameras built into mobile phones.

Accordingly, color correction of photographs is often one of the most necessary operations with photographs taken at a party, on a hike, etc. There are powerful graphic programs, where there are many tools for such correction. However, for many users, such programs can either be difficult to learn, or there is no time to deal with them for the sake of a few family photos.

This is a small program with a command line interface designed for automatic tonal correction of photos. The program performs this operation by analyzing the original image and setting the most optimal parameters for contrast, gamma, color balance and saturation.

Aaphoto is a cross platform application. Versions are available for Windows, Mac OS X. It is available in the repositories of many popular Linux distributions. The size of the program is several hundred kilobytes. The current version is 0.41. The program belongs to the category, and in other words, it is free.

The program can be used in command line mode or integrated into the system context menu. For example, after installation on a Windows system, the right-click context menu of image files will display the "Auto Adjust Photo" option.

After selecting this option on a file or group of image files, the program will automatically analyze the original image and then set the most optimal contrast, gamma and color balance values ​​for it. The new version of the image will be saved as a separate file with the line "new" appended to its name.

Aaphoto handles the following image formats: MIF, PNM, PGM, PPM, BMP, RAS, JP2, JPC, JPG, PNG.

Depending on the image, in some cases the enhancements produced by Aaphoto will be barely visible to the eye. In other cases, the image improvement will be quite noticeable.

In conclusion, we can add that with the help of Aaphoto you can not only correct photos. In command line mode, the program can convert files from one format to another, as well as resize and perform different types of image rotation. To get acquainted with all the features of Aaphoto, you need to run the program in the terminal with the "-h" parameter.

Mikhail ASTAPCHIK

I belong to the category of Photoshop users who ignore all the features of the program, the names of which contain Magic(Magical) or Auto(Auto), however, since Photoshop 7, the tool Auto(Auto) Available in Dialog Boxes Levels(Levels) and Curves(Curves) has changed my attitude towards automation tools. If the dialog box Levels(Levels) or Curves(Curves) click on the button Options(Settings), a dialog box will appear on the screen. (Settings for automatic color correction). This is where you can set the parameters that will be used when applying the command. Auto Color(Automatic color correction).

IN dialog box Auto Color Correction Options(Auto Color Correction Options) There are six options available that allow you to determine the effect on color in images.

Enhance Monochromatic Contrast(Improve monochromatic contrast). This option lets you quickly adjust an image to darken shadows and lighten highlights. Photoshop analyzes all color channels at the same time, applying identical parameter values ​​to them, resulting in darker shadows and lighter highlights. This is exactly the same as using the command Lmage >Adjustments Auto Contrast

(Image => Adjustment => Auto Contrast) or moving the sliders Shadows(Shadows)

And Highlights(Lights) in the dialog box Levels(Levels) to the starting points of the RGB or CYMK composite channel histogram.

Enhance Per Channel Contrast(Improve contrast across channels). This option allows you to quickly increase the contrast and remove the overall tint of the image. Photoshop changes the channel settings independently. This is exactly the same as using the command ImagedAdjustments Auto Levels(Image Correction Auto Tone Correction) or by moving the sliders Shadows(Shadows) and Highlights(Sveta)

in the dialog box Levels(Levels) to the starting points of the histogram for the individual color channels.

Find Dark & ​​Light Colors(Find dark

and light colors). Photoshop uses the lightest and darkest pixels in the image

as values Shadows(Shadows) and Highlights

(Sveta). This is completely similar

application of the command ImagedAdjustments Auto Color(Picture About Correction1 Auto Color Correction) and can sometimes result in an overall tint to the image.

Snap Neutral Midtones(Pin to neutral midtones). When this box is checked, Photoshop finds nearly neutral hues and grays them out. The same principle is used when using the command Imaged Adjustments Auto Color(Image Correction Automatic color correction).

Target Colors & Clipping(target colors

and color loss). The values ​​set here tell Photoshop what percentage of tints to ignore. For example, if you set a value of 0.02% for the parameters Shadows

(Shadows) and Highlights(Lights), then 0.02% of the lights will be discarded before starting the calculations

and shadows. If non-neutral hues are to be used in calculations, clicking on the color swatch will

to display the dialog box color picker(Color Picker), where you can set any target color for highlights, midtones, and shadows.

Save as defaults(Save as default). If you check this box, Photoshop will apply the specified values ​​whenever you click on the button. Auto(Auto) in the dialog box Levels(Levels) or Curves(Curves). If this box is checked, then the specified values ​​of the parameters clipping(Truncation)

will be used when applying commands Auto Levels(Automatic tone correction), Auto Contrast(Auto Contrast)

And Auto Color(Automatic color correction). As a result, applying adjustment layers Levels(Levels)

And Curves(Curves) often produces good results fairly quickly, as shown below.

1. Open the castle image (rice. 6.92) and add an adjustment layer Curves(Curves).

2. Click the button Options(Parameters)

and cycle through the three available options to choose the one that suits you best.

Rice. 6.92.

The original image looks very dull

3. In this case, I chose the radio button Enhance per Channel Contrast(Improve contrast across channels) and checked the box Snap Neutral Midtones(Tie

to neutral midtones), as shown pa rice. 6.93, as it allowed to quickly improve the appearance of the image.

Rice. 6.93.

It often makes sense to start by comparing the different options for automatic correction.

4. Click the button OK, then,

if necessary, adjust the shape of the curve to make the image more expressive. In this case

I applied an S-curve, which increased the contrast

and make the image more expressive (Fig. 6.94).

The ability to perform tonal and color correction is a very important skill, so many books are devoted to this topic, including Real World Adobe Photoshop CS2 Bruce Fraser and David Blatner and Photoshop Color Correction Michael Kieran.

Rice. 6.94.

After applying automatic correction, you can make some changes manually