Quick fixes for colour fringing

Dan Mold reveals a couple of simple editing tricks to rid your images of any chromatic aberration in Adobe CC

- Dan Mold

THE MISSION

Remove unsightly colour fringing from areas of high contrast in your photographs

Time needed 15 minutes

Skill level Beginner

Kit needed Photoshop CC

QUICK TIP

It can be easy to overlook chromatic aberration when you’re editing multiple shots, particularly if it isn’t too obvious. It’s worth getting into the habit of zooming into areas of high contrast and checking for it. We tend to check Remove Chromatic Aberration while working in Adobe CC as a matter of course.

Chromatic aberration (also known as colour fringing) occurs when different wavelengths of light are refracted at different angles as they pass through a lens element. This prevents the wavelengths from arriving at the same focal plane as the camera’s sensor, and since different wavelengths represent different colours, this results in the lurid fringes around areas of high contrast that we’d all rather avoid.

This effect is amplified at both wider apertures and the longest or widest focal lengths of a zoom lens. Lens manufacturers work hard to avoid chromatic aberration and other distortions by using various mixes of lens elements and specialist aspherical and flourite lens elements, as well as coatings like Canon’s SWD (Subwavelength Structure Coating) and nano coatings.

While subtle colour fringing might go unnoticed on Instagram or your website, it will be much more noticeable should you decide to produce a large, high-quality print of your work.