An Easy Way To Find Neutral Gray - Part 3

Step 6: Delete The 50% Gray and Theshold Layers

Our layer filled with 50% gray and our Theshold adjustment layer have served their purpose and are no longer needed, so select them both and drag them into the trash bin at the bottom of the Layers palette. The Theshold layer is most likely still selected, so simply Shift-click on the 50% Gray layer below it to select them both at the same time and then drag them both into the trash bin, leaving us with only our original Background layer.

Step 7: Add A Levels Or Curves Adjustment Layer

We're almost done. All we need to do now is click on that marker we just added with the "Set Gray Point" Eyedropper tool that's found in either the Levels or Curves dialog box, so click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette once again and this time select either Levels or Curves, you're choice. Either one will do. I'll use Levels.

Step 8: Select The 'Set Gray Point' Eyedropper

Once the Levels or Curves dialog box comes up, click on the Set Gray Point Eyedropper tool to select it (it's the middle eyedropper):

All we need to do now is click with this eyedropper on the neutral gray marker we set in the image a moment ago and Photoshop will remove the color cast from the midtones. Let's do that now.

Step 9: Click With The Eyedropper On The Marker In The Image

Our final step! With the "Set Gray Point" eyedropper selected, simply click directly on the neutral gray marker in the image and Photoshop will neutralize the colors in that spot, effectively removing any color cast from the midtones.

Personally, I don't find the Eyedropper tool icon to be very helpful when trying to select a marker, so you may want to press the Caps Lock key on your keyboard which will change the icon from an eyedropper to a target symbol, identical to the marker icon, which makes it easy to simply line them up over top of each other and then click to select. I'll leave mine set to the eyedropper icon here just to make it easier to see in the screenshot:

And with that one click, the color cast from the midtones in the image has been neutralized!

Our midtones are now color corrected without any guess work thanks to Photoshop's often overlooked Difference blend mode.