Getting a correct color or white balance is important to photography. If you shoot in RAW, it doesn't apply any white balance setting(the camera will tag the file, but you can change that in conversion). In the conversion there's a slider from cool(blue/lower k value like 1800k) to warm(yellow/higher k value like 12500k). There's another slider for tint, from green to purple. The combination of the two can give you your appropriate color balance. There's also an eye dropper tool in most RAW conversion aps, which allows you to click any grey points on the image. One example would be a white house at night with halogen street lights around. The street lighting would make that house look yellow or orange. If you click that dropper on the house, it will remove that cast and make the house white again. Course what is the real truth of the photo is up to you. I like to use street lights in cities to color my clouds on longer night exposures. Levels is another way to change the color balance. In levels adjustments you can use the RGB channel for basic lightness changes, or you can open the 3 up individually and change them. I've found it will take a lot of practice with that to get what you want. Also in levels is a midtone eye dropper. It's the middle dropper on the main window of levels. You can click on that to select it, then click on any neutral grey points in the image. That will work much like the dropper in RAW conversion. You can also do color adjustments in curves. Both levels and curves are just going to require playing around and practicing removing and adding color to see how it affects the image. Another pretty good one is(if you have it in your version of photoshop) the Color Balance adjustment, which you can also do as an adjustment layer(so it's in there, Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Color Balance). I like this option the most(outside of just using a dropper and being happy with that). If there's a color cast you can't seem to remove via the dropper method, it's often fairly easy to do so with this tool. With this tool you can select the shadows, midtones, or highlights to adjust separately. You then have your main Red, Green and Blue options. If a highlight region is too red you'd click on highlights, then slide it away from red, or add one of the other colors. It's pretty straight forward. It takes some practice as well. If all that fails you and you want one more way to try, you might try this on. Or even try this one first since it is the easiest(though doesn't always work that well). If you have a lot of layers already, click on your background layer in the layers palette. Then click Layer from up top, Duplicate Layer, then click OK. Then go Image/Adjustments/Match Color. In there click on the "neutralize" box. Then click OK. Since it is on a new layer, remember you can move that opacity slider in the layers palette...incase the adjustment was just off a bit. If it did no good you can always just drag it to the trash icon at the bottom of the layers palette. While I'm talking about the bottom of that palette, there's also an easy way to make these new adjustment layers if you don't want to do it from the top menu bar. There's an icon near the trash icon that says "Create new fill or adjustment layer" when you cursor over it. Click on that and click on whatever option you wanted.

USM(stands for Unsharp Mask) is a useful tool for not only sharpening, but also for a "local contrast adjustment". It just adds contrast in a different way. I like to use the normal methods(it doesn't replace those) and a small bit of this. If you have some "digital haze" over your image, it can do wonders to remove that. Above is an example of what it does. This is a gif alternating between no USM adjustment and a small USM adjustment. Here is how I always set mine. First off, you'll want to have your image flattened if you still have a lot of layers open. Just go to Layers/Flatten Image. Then you'll want to go to Layer/Duplicate Layer. Like everything, it's best to do it on its own layer. Then click Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask. Set amount to 20%, radius to 50, and threshold to 0. That's it. Click OK. If you want to do more or less, change the % amount. I find I will rarely go over 20%. Too much of that and your image looks like it is on acid. That's true with most all of this, less is often more. In that image above you can see how it removes some of that digital haze. It will also clip blacks and whites if you aren't careful with those regions. See in this one the sun is brighter and blowing out more, and some of the tree area goes too dark. I never masked out those areas in this example. I always do when I do an image though. It loves to do that, and it requires masking, and it also loves to make sharp contrast areas(like the horizon) look like it's glowing a bit(white halos). I will always mask out along the horizon, erasing this effect to that portion. This is why we did this on a new layer. When you duplicate the background, it doesn't give you that mask option though. To get one, make sure you are clicked on the duplicate layer in the palette, then go up to the top and click Layer/Add Layer Mask/Reveal All. Then select your eraser or brush size, make it black, and paint black over the areas you don't want that added to(like the horizon or dark or bright areas).

All this so far is giving a person a lot of control. It's all about that mask layer and making sure you don't affect areas of the image you don't want affected. Here are a couple other useful methods to make your mask, other than just painting away with a brush or eraser. The first is an extremely simple one. It's the gradient tool. All it does is makes a white to black gradient. The length of the gradient, or change from white to black, is dependant upon how far you drag the line. Do an adjustment on a new layer, preferably a landscape image with a horizon. Darken the sky real good or lighten the foreground. Above is how you do the gradient tool on a mask. #1 is the tool itself. Make sure #2 is set to "foreground to background"(it's the default so it should be). Then make sure #3 is the linear gradient tool(it also should be as it's the default). Make sure your foreground to background shades on the tool palette are white above black, like seen here on the left. I then did a levels adjustment layer and moved the midtones slider down, so the sky would darken some. Then I applied that gradient mask. While using that tool, you click, hold down and drag, then let go. It will draw the white to black gradient in the direction you drag. In this case, near the arrow at #4 above, I clicked near the sun and pulled it down into the trees and let go. So the bottom half is black and the top part is white. You can see the mask itself at #5 in the layers palette. If you want to actually view the mask for some reason, hold down the ALT key and click on the mask icon in the layers palette. To switch back hold ALT and click on it again. Like always, the black areas are now masked out, so that darkening doesn't show there. The shorter you make that drag, the quicker it goes from white to black, and the more likely it is to stand out. If there hasn't been a huge change made, it's the quickest and easiest way to make a mask. You can do that and then even start to paint on the mask if you like. If you painted right now, you'd be painting the black onto the mask, since it is the bottom of those two squares(foreground/background squares) in the tool palette. Nothing says you can't flip those and paint white instead, to kind of take back some areas you made black.

Here is a way to make a detailed mask. This is a wonderful method I stumbled upon messing around. The problem is that the cheaper photoshop options, like elements, does not have this. As an example I'm just going to darken the sky again on this image. I do a New Adjustment Layer for Levels. I move the midtones down to darken the sky. I then click OK, expecting to mask out the now too dark foreground. You can see above how the foreground is too dark now, but the sky is ok being daker. So if you don't want to use the gradient tool method for the mask, or the straight forward eraser or painting method, you can do this one. Actually you do this one when those don't work, like with a strong adjustment or something with detail sticking up from the horizon. I want to select the foreground so that when I paint, or erase it to black on the mask, that I only do it to the treeline and below, nothing to the sky at all. This is hands down the best method to make this kind of selection. Go to Select/Color Range(I have this in photoshop CS, but am not sure how many previous versions had it). Then click on the foreground near the horizon. You can now move that fuzziness slider to make the selection you want. You won't want to select too much as you are about to mask on this selection. If you have it going into the sky at all, it will stand out once you mask the selection. So it's best to select too little here than too much. Only worry about the selection just below the horizon. It is ok if lower objects are not selected as you can paint those black easy enough anyway. You want this route because your horizon is the tricky part. So get it like you want then click OK.

So once you clicked ok on that "Select Color Range" tool, you'll be left with the "marching ants" selection seen above. That's all it is doing, is giving you a selection. Now you can take your eraser set to black, or a paint brush and paint in there. See it showing up on the layer mask in your layers palette, #2 above? Again, right now the only part that matters is the part right below the horizon, since it is the tricky part of making the mask. Once that part is filled in enough with black, go to Selection/Deselect.

After you deselect you can finish painting in the black on the lower part of the mask. See above how the layer mask icon in the palette is finished in black now that I did that, and the snow is now back to where it was before I darkened the sky. When you do this to larger images, it can be a very powerful tool for your mask creation. It's only there to help you with the horizon. Gradient masks often stand out and painting in tricky horizons can be a pain. Some practice with this thing though and you can really work some magic on a mask layer. The example image I've been using wasn't used because it needed a bunch of changes or anything, just that it worked as an example. If you have problems with this color selection method for your mask and just can't get it to look ok, you might try this. When you do the fuzziness slider, make sure your selection is well within the foreground and nowhere near the background. Then paint the black in like described above. Now it will probably be too black into the foreground near the top. Deselect again so you can finish painting in black on the rest of the bottom of the image, the foreground. Then go to Filter/Blur/Gaussian Blur. In there you can see your white and black mask. Move the slider around and watch how it changes. Often you can use that to blur the mask and get things to look smooth and not noticeable. Here's another tip or trick. Sometimes you will adjust the foreground and then need to adjust the background too. Sometimes(it's been rare this works well for me) you can just invert your mask, so instead of it masking out the foreground, it can mask out the same but opposite to the background. So pretend you do a levels adjustment like above and mask out the foreground like above. You now have this detailed mask made using the Select Color selector. Now you want to do levels for just the foreground and mask out the sky....but you want another detailed mask to do this(it's rare you'd need two detailed masks, but what the hey). Do your second levels adjustment, now for the foreground. Then go back and click on the mask on the first levels adjustment...the one you've painted black in the detailed fashion. Hold down the ALT key when you click on it. Now hold Control and click A, that selects all of it. Then hold Control and click C, that copies that selection. Now go up to the new levels layer mask you are working on, click on it, then hold Control and click V, that pastes it. Now hold Control and click I, that inverts it. Wala! You have the same but opposite mask for this other levels layer...if you wanted it.

Ok here is a quick tip for fixing horizons. Slanted horizons can be pretty annoying to see. It's such a simple fix too. In photoshop just go, Image/Rotate Canvas/Arbitrary. Then you enter the degree angle(you have to guess at it) and whether to rotate it clockwise or counter clockwise and click ok. I did it this way for the longest time. There's a much nicer way. Start off by going to the tool palette, right click on the dropper tool, then select the measure tool from the drop down menu. With that tool, click on one side of the horizon, drag a line to the other side, making sure the line is even with the horizon. Then let go. Now go to the Image/Rotate Canvas/Arbitrary and hey, it inserted the number for you this way. Then just click OK and crop it.

As for sharpening, it can be as simple or complicated as one wants it to be. You can buy expensive programs made just for sharpening files. I'm not too worried about that, so if you are you may want to google "image sharpening" or something. I will do it on a new layer though, via duplicate layer. You can use Filter/Sharpen/Sharpen, or you can use Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask. If it is just a web file, sharpen has worked fine with me...but. It only works for me because I do it on a new layer, one I can then adjust the opacity down on if need be. Usually I'll have to turn that down some. Again, that's done to the layer in the layers palette...under "opacity"(top right of palette). First off you'll have to duplicate layer, then sharpen that layer via Filter/Sharpen/Sharpen. Then you'll want to add the layer mask through Layer/Add Layer Mask/Reveal All. Now here is exactly what I do once all that is done. The biggest photo sin to me is probably oversharpening. It really jumps out at you. The first thing to show oversharpening would be sharp contrast edges like horizons, or tree branches, etc. Mainly it's horizons one has to keep an eye on. But since this is on a new layer with a mask available to use, I ignore what the horizon looks like as I know I can just mask that out some, to tone that down. So I make sure the foreground and maybe things in the background are sharp. Often they'll be a bit too sharp with that sharpen applied. So maybe I'll have to change the opacity down some from 100% to say 80%. Just as an example we'll say that makes the image sharp(ignoring the horizon). 99% of the time if you get that sharp like that, the horizon will then be oversharpened. So, so far everything looks sharp without going over, except for the horizon. Then just set your eraser or paintbrush to paint black again, but change its opacity setting down so when you use it, it's not 100% black with the first dab. If you used the eraser it should say Mode: Brush at the top. Next to that it should have the opacity option. I'd change it down to 20% or something. Go over the horizon till that oversharpening is masked away. Now you have a sharp image all around, without any oversharpening look to it. If you decide to use Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp Mask instead, it's not that confusing. Do the whole Duplicate Layer thing again, then add the layer mask, then do the Unsharp Mask. For settings in there I use Threshold of 0, Radius of 1.0, and then toy with the amount. That's for web based images at like 72 dpi. Say you do it for a print at 240 dpi or 300 dpi, I often just use 2.4 for the radius instead. But again, I'm sure there are more professional ways to accomplish sharpening. That's just what I do. I do the same opacity adjustments and masking if I use plain ol Sharpen, or Unsharp Mask. Also, it's best if sharpening is the last thing you do to a file. Saturation should also be one of the last things you do. Adjusting the curves and levels will affect the saturation, hence bother with saturation after those.