Back in the day when I first started working in the photography industry, we used colour enlargers and large colour printers with harsh smelling chemicals to create beautiful colour enlargements.  The manipulation of the Magenta and Yellow filters within the enlarger gave you correct colour balance (some people touch that Cyan filter, which in darkroom printing, only causes nightmares and isn’t necessary).  It took months and months to become an expert colour printer.  I loved the hours in the darkroom at West Camera, Toronto.  It gave you time to chat with other photographers and feel part of the industry.  Now a days, the post production is mainly completed on computers.

Here are some simple steps to begin learning how to achieve correct colour balance using Adobe Photoshop CS4:

1. Open a photo to manipulate.

2. Select Image, Adjustments, Colour Balance (apple + “B”)

3. Slide the scales to adjust the colour.  If you see Cyan in the photograph, then move the slider towards the Red, until the image is slightly red.  Then move it back towards the Cyan until there is no Red or Cyan in the image.  Do the same for the all the other Additive Colours (RGB) and Subtractive Colours (CMYK…”K” being black).  It takes a trained eye to see the difference between slight Green and slight Yellow or Magenta versus Red.