Editors: Color Correction Tutorial

Color Correction

After you have opened MS Office picture manager and selected the photo you want to work with, follow this guide to color correct your photo. If you need instructions on opening Microsoft Picture Manager, please click here.

Option 1: Auto Correct your photo.

Sometimes your photo looks ok, but can use just a minor amount of correcting that can be done automatically. By selecting "Auto Correct" from the top menu, Picture Manager will take your photo and adjust it using some default settings.

Photo Before Auto Correction	Photo After Auto Correction

Option 2: Manually Correct your photo.

1. Select Edit Pictures... from the top menu.
   

2. On the right side, you'll see the Edit Pictures tools you have to work with.
   

Brightness and Contrast

1. Click on the Brightness and Contrast Button to see your settings

2. Move the sliders to the left and right until you get an ideal setting. You can see your picture change in the main viewing area as you move the sliders. The trick is to slightly move the sliders. Too much contrast will make your photo look blown out so just try to enhance the picture.
   

Hue and Saturation

Hue and Saturation settings can be tricky so follow these steps to get the most out of this tool.

1. First click on the "Color" link in the Edit Pictures Panel.

2. Hue of a photo refers to the basic color toning of a picture. If you have taken your photo in flourescent lighting and everything looks yellowish, you can use the hue slider to adjust the photo back to normal. You won't see much change unless you increase the "Amount" slider directly above it. Once you increase the Amount, you can move the hue slider.

3. Saturation refers to the intensity of the color in the photo. If your colors look too dull or washed out, you can increase the saturation to bring out the brighter colors. If it seems too bright, you can lower the saturation a little bit to make it look more natural.

4. You can also play with the settings to change the overall tone of the photo. Here you can see my photo in sepia tone.
   

5. Using the Brightness and Contrast tools is a nice way to change your photo to grayscale. By changing the saturation to zero you can remove all of the color. Use the Amount slider to adjust the contrast or go back to the Brightness and Contrast panel to make these changes.