This article is an extract from the Fix It In Photoshop book, which is available as an eBook, paperback, and hardback. Please check out my store for more details. Here is how to manually (semi-automatically) correct the white balance in your images using Adobe Photoshop:
We will use the Photoshops Camera RAW app to correct the white balance. If you edit a RAW file, it will automatically open up in the Camera RAW app, and you can jump straight to step 3. If however you are opening a JPG or other compressed format, there are a couple of additional steps to get set up. But once you have done this, you can go back and forth from the Photoshop main panel to Camera RAW whenever you need to.
STEP 1: Make sure you have the image you want to edit inside Camera RAW selected in the Layers Tab of the Panels. Then right-click on the Layer and select ‘Convert To Smart Object’. You can also go via the Application Bar and ‘Layer >Smart Objects > Convert To Smart Object’. This ensures that any changes done in Camera RAW are stored in Photoshop, i.e., your edits are non-destructive.
STEP 2: Head to the Application Bar and select ‘Filter > Camera RAW Filter’. Camera RAW Application then opens.
STEP 3: Working from the Color panel in Camera RAW, select the Pipette (illustrated below).
STEP 4: Select a color from your image that you want to be represented as white. When you do this, it works most realistically if you select an area that is not pure white, but instead just slightly off-white as illustrated below.
Press OK to commit the change and you return to the Adobe Photoshop main window.
