Purple Fringing Removal

[koolbluez]

I was contemplatin of buying the Sony H5 and heard about it's purple fringing probs. The cams good, i wanted to get it, but i also wanted a solution for the purple fringes. So, I went checkin online for purple fringing removal tools.

Guess what... I got many FREE solutions.

Although I didn't personally test out these sw yet, I wanted to tell u guyz about it... and found this place more suitable for the purpose.

So... here r the results that topped my search:

Using software

1. PFree 1.2
A PhotoShop plugin, developed using FilterMeister, that reduces purple fringing on the Sony DSC-F828 and probably other digicams as well. Drop the filter, an .8bf file, into your PhotoShop filters directory, usually something like c:\program files\Adobe\Photoshop\PlugIns\Filters.
2. PTShift
A Javascript that runs in Photoshop CS/CS2

The manual way

(I got them online sometime back... dunno where from)

WAY 1:
Rather than trying to automate the recognition of Purple Fringing on the photo let's go the manual way of relying on human eyes to do the job and human hands to complete the job of the removal itself.
Use a simple Sponge tool in Photoshop in most cases set to 100% and apply it to the Purple Fringing areas.
* Note for the non-Photoshop users : This tool desaturates the area it is applied on. (yes that's right, makes it B&W) you can use any equivalent tool in your favorite program.
Later on in some cases I use the "Burn" tool on the same area (Set to about 5%-7% )
* Note for the non-Photoshop users : this tool darkens the area it is applied on.
Primitive but Effective method.

WAY 2:
- if your image has just one layer, duplicate it. If it has multiple layers, make a new layer on top, select all, copy merged, and paste into your new top layer
- give it a good gaussian blur (eg 150-200 pixel radius) [or Lens Blur with 50-70 pixel radius --pzw]
- click on the "eye" icon next to that layer to make it invisible for the moment
- go to "select" --> "colour range" and sample some of the purple area with the eyedropper tool.
- go to "select" --> "modify" --> "expand" and expand the selection by a couple of pixels.
- go to "select" --> "feather" and feather the selection by a couple of pixels.
- click on your blurred layer to make it the active layer. Change the layer blending mode to "colour".
- click on the "add layer mask" icon at the bottom of the layers palette. This will apply your changes *only* to the purple areas.
You're done! You can easily modify your changes by painting in the layer mask (in white to get rid of purple, in black to restore purple).

WAY 3:
The Hue/Saturation/Lightness (HSL) tool.
PhotoShop isn't the only software package that provides a HSL tool. Different packages (e.g. Adobe Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro) will have different instructions for using the tool. Since PhotoShop is what I use, I'll detail its use, but other packages should follow a similar process.
After opening the affected image, select Image/Adjustments/Hue-Saturation. [In Photoshop Elements 2, select Enhance/Adjust Color/Hue-Saturation; in Paint Shop Pro 8 select Adjust/Hue & Saturation/Hue-Saturation-Lightness].
Ok, here's the important step: In the Edit dialog, click the blue channel or the magneta channel. Do not adjust the master channel. PhotoShop takes the guesswork out of the HSL adjustment step. When the blue/magenta channel is selected, the eye dropper tool on the HSL dialog will become available. Click the leftmost eyedropper and use it to sample the purple fringe in your image. Then reduce the saturation; somewhere between -70 and -80 is usually about right, but you'll need to do this by eye as every image is different. You can use the colour slider at the bottom (between the two color bars) to make finer adjustments. You can also tamper with the lightness to +15 or so.
Finally, you may find the image needs some minor tinkering and will probably appear a little washed out. Making fine adjustments to the Brightness/Contrast or Levels settings will correct these problems.

WAY 4:
Got online... see here
WebDesign.org

Some more free photoshop plugins.
More free photoshop plugins

A 10$ Color Fringe Reducer
A shareware photoshop plugin pack - Turbo Photo

Hope this is useful enuf.

__________
Started as a review, became a tutorial!!!

[blueshift]

Although I do not own any cam..but thanks for the plugins.

[blueshift]

is this a forum error?

[koolbluez]