Technique: Easiest Way to Neutral Colors

*This tutorial was created by Markus Hartel - find the link below.


For those of who (for some reason that is positively beyond me) are still shooting jpeg and avoiding the ease of raw: a tutorial on what looks to be the easiest way toward natural colors. To be honest, it makes me a little sick that I hadn't figured this out years ago.

Essentially the process is as follows: 1. Duplicate the image layer. 2. Run filter>blur>average filter. 3. Create a curves adjustment layer. 4. Using the neutral color picker, click anywhere on the averaged image. 5. discard the middle, averaged layer. 6. Voila.
I found this a huge help so pay the man his due and pop over to his site and check it out.

Find:

Neutral Color Step 1
Neutral Color Step 2

Markus' website