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ColorWasher vs. Other Plugins

 

This page shows you the result of correcting a photo with ColorWasher and similar tools. It is meant to give you the chance to compare ColorWasher with other tools. We tried to do the photo corrections in the other tools as accurately as possible and didn't try to cheat by using them wrongly. We probably even used them more accurately than most users do. The names of the other tools aren't mentioned (only those of Photoshop and PSP), but they are sorted according to their price. For each tool an automatic and a manual correction was done.

 

The Original Photo

This photo is a good test object. It has a quite strong yellow cast, approx. 35% according to ColorWasher's reading, which hides a lot of yellow noise. The noise was produced because of the bad light conditions and because the camera used a high ISO-setting to compensate for that. Additionally the cast is spread over the whole brightness range in the photo, so you can see how the tools manage to work on dark and bright areas.

 

Enlarged Noise Samples

Original Photo at 250% zoom
Enlarged sample of the noise in the original photo.
The color noise is quite hidden by the yellow cast.
   
Corrected with ColorWasher
Corrected with another Tool
ColorWasher managed to hide the yellow noise quite effectively. The noise isn't recognizable at all at the original size of 100%. Many of the other tools make the hidden noise quite visible. The corrected photo becomes yellow dithered.

 

 

Automatic Correction
Manual Correction
   
ColorWasher Version 2.0 ($50 / $30)  
Automatic and Manual correction remove the yellow color cast completely within seconds. The noise that was initially hidden by the color cast (which can only seen at original size and not in these thumbnails) was effectively hidden by ColorWasher during the correction.

Remaing Cast: 0.4%, 0.0%
   
   
ColorWasher Version 1.0  
Version 2 of ColorWasher performs an even better correction than Version 1 at default settings. The old version still retained a part of the color cast in the darker areas of the photo. This look can still be produced manually in Version 2.0 by using the Standard Light cast type.

Remaing Cast: 0.4%, 0.0% (but 11% and 10.6% in the Shadows)
   
   
Photoshop Version CS 2 ($650)  

Photoshop's AutoColor still leaves a pink cast in the photo while Auto Levels improves contrast, but only removes a bit of the yellow cast. At least the hidden noise isn't revealed in both cases.

Remaing Cast: 9.8%, 23.6%

   
   
$200+ Tool  

: The Automatic Correction doesn't remove the color cast at all. The Manual Correction adds a green color cast. The hidden noise was revealed which makes the photo look quite grainy. At least it does a nice job on the contrast and brightness.

Remaing Cast: 32.9%, 8.6%

   
   
$200+ Tool  
Not possible

After some tweaking we managed to get this brown cast result. It was the best result we managed to achieve. Trying again we got one with a green cast which looked even worse.

Remaing Cast: 22.4%

   
   
$100+ Tool  

Again a very expensive tool that has an useless Automatic mode that sometimes even makes the color cast worse. After fiddling with sliders in Manual Mode for a long time, we managed to come up with this brown cast image that has a bad contrast.

Remaing Cast: 37.6% (was made even worse!), 12.9%

   
   
$100+ Tool  

: The Automatic mode is no use for removing the color cast. After extensively using the color pickers the color cast was removed in the bright areas, but turned green in the shadows. Additionally the yellow noise gets quite visible.

Remaing Cast: 33.3%, 1.2% (but 13.7% in the shadows)

   
   
Paint Shop Pro ($100)  

PSP's Automatic Color Balance adds a blue cast and PSP's Manual Color orrection tool adds a green cast in the dark areas and a pink cast in the bright area. Both reveal the ugly hidden noise.

Remaing Cast: 5.9%, 0.4% (but 10.2% in the highlights and 11.8% in the shadows)

   
   
$75+ Tool  
Not Possible

A slightly pink cast is left in the bright areas and a green cast in the dark areas. The hidden noise was made quite visible.

Remaing Cast: 3.1% (but 11.4% in the shadows)

   
   
$50 Tool  

The Automatic mode of this tool left a strong brown cast in the photo. Fiddling a lot with the manual controls resulted in a slightly blue cast.

Remaing Cast: 18%, 7.5%

   
   
$50 Tool  
Not Possible

This tool made the photo even darker by over amplifiying the contrast and doesn't offer a feature to adjust that. The hidden noise was made very visible by this tool. At least it removed the color cast more or less sufficiently.

Remaing Cast: 5.1% (and 13.3% in the shadows)

   
   
$50 Tool  

This plugins offers a tedious semi-automatic mode that often doesn't help much. Extensively adjusting the auto result with manual controls doesn't produce a much better result. The orange cast that compensates the yellow one is still there.

Remaing Cast: 16.1%, 12.5%

   
   
$40 Tool  
Not Possible

This tools demands a lot of slider tweaking until it produces such a result. There's still a pink cast in the bright areas and a green one in the dark.

Remaing Cast: 7.5% (but 14.1% in the shadows)

   
   
$30 Tool  
Not Possible

After tweaking some controls for a very long time, we managed to come up with this relative good result. However, the cast is still remaining very visibly in the shadows.

Remaing Cast: 2% (but 14.1% in the shadows)

   
   
Freeware Tool  
Not Possible

This tool still keeps a strong yellow cast and makes the hidden noise a bit visible

Remaing Cast: 15.3%

   

 

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