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How to remove color tints from photos in Photoshop, gel removal.

Colin Smith

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This tutorial shows you how to fix the color of a photo when all the original color is lost, it works well on an extreme case like our example. If you are just dealing with a common color cast, here are 4 ways to fix it in Photoshop. This example image (from Adobe Stock) is a perfect example. This image has 2 different colored gels, which creates a nice cyberpunk look.

If you want to restore the original colors this used to be very difficult. but not any more. If you have done any work as a designer or retoucher, you are going to be asked to do this at some point in your career.

1. The instant result

I will show you the single click method here, but read on and watch the video for a better results as well as how to control the new colors as well as use different colors for the background and things.

Quick fix? Choose Filter>Neural Filter>Colorize

Boom done!  Read on for a better result though.

2. The better result

Start with the original image.

Press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+U to desaturate the colors.

Removing the color, allows you to see the tones clearly. They are muddy.

Press Ctrl/Cmd+L for levels (Don’t use an adjustment layer – you won’t hear me say that often).

Move the white slider (triangle) to the left to clean the highlights, it should be where the pixels start on the histogram as pictured.

Nudge the gray mid-tone slider a little to get the contrast you desire.

Click OK

Choose Filter>Neural Filter>Colorize

This time we get a more pleasing and controlled result.

If you want to change the background color click on the background in the thumbnail

choose a new color

and it will change.

here is a different result with a deeper blue.

This stuff is pretty amazing right?

Check out all the new features in this latest Photoshop version including colorize.

The neural filters are powered by Adobe Sensei, Adobe’s AI engine.


PS Don’t forget to follow us on Social Media for more tips.. (I've been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)
You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop Goodies here photoshop goodies for free

16 thoughts on “How to remove color tints from photos in Photoshop, gel removal.

  1. Daniel Martin
    June 23, 2021 at 5:54 pm

    Incredible feature…♫♥ Thank you for the info.

  2. June 23, 2021 at 8:17 pm

    If one doesn’t have the latest version of ps, is there another workaround. Great feature.

  3. Fred Lang
    June 23, 2021 at 8:38 pm

    I tried this on a perfect tonal B&W portrait, and it blew me away! However, it didn’t work well on every image that I tried. Still, it’s an incredible time saver, and I’m glad Adobe is providing these Neural filters; they are certainly fun!

  4. Richard Bourdeau
    June 24, 2021 at 5:03 am

    I have found colourize to be a fantastic tool. I have a box of family black and whites and am having a great time being wowed by the speed of the colouring. It is not a perfect tool, but, is a super tool. There are some instances where there is colour leaching, but, overall a great addition to Photoshop

  5. Bob Y
    June 24, 2021 at 7:50 am

    Holy Cow!
    I do a fair amount of small venue concert photography in the area. It takes so much time to remove the effects of stage lights in the blue range, I don’t even bother any more. I don’t have time. I just toss them.
    My first test of this neural filter was outstanding. My keeper rate for those shoots just went up by a factor of 3x to 4x
    Thanks for the clue!

    1. Colin Smith
      June 25, 2021 at 11:51 am

      I got the idea from my concert photos too 🙂

  6. Alex Double
    June 24, 2021 at 12:55 pm

    Yes tanks for the tips. The neural filters are great but I was a bit disappointed to find that some of the original style transfer options were missing!

  7. Susan Kim Pratt
    June 24, 2021 at 1:24 pm

    This is really neat, I will have to try this out. Thank you for the video.

  8. Robert Wennerberg
    June 25, 2021 at 9:18 pm

    Love this effect, and thanks for the tip on how to use it to save a photo whit much colorcast.

  9. June 30, 2021 at 6:38 am

    Thanks again Colin, as usual very informative and helpful! These neural filters will really help me with color issues I run into in restoring old photos.

  10. William Brose
    June 30, 2021 at 10:43 am

    Simple and very fun to use.

  11. Jim
    June 30, 2021 at 5:14 pm

    great info – I just received a couple of pictures of my Mom & Dad – colorize does work well with photo – do you have a tutorial on ways to manually colorize my black and whites

  12. Jean McMillan
    July 22, 2021 at 4:12 am

    WOW! what a tip, not tried this but have loads of images that will be dramatically improved.

  13. August 13, 2021 at 10:30 am

    My CS6, v.13.0 doesn’t have “Filter>Neutral Filter” Any other options?
    Thanks

    1. Colin Smith
      August 17, 2021 at 4:34 pm

      Its not in CS6, this is a new feature

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