Removing color defects (chromatic aberration) V. in Photoshop

Load the photo

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We are again fighting against purple edges, this time with another brush tool. Color Replacement Tool to be found in newer Photoshop versions is at our help this time. Its function is just what its tell-tale name suggests: to replace one color with another one. Therefore it will serve our aim of removing purple edges perfectly.

Choose a picture like that. This phenomenon usually appears at the meeting point of very dark and bright areas in pictures with a big difference in contrasts. This method is useful with pictures where the defected areas are not really highly saturated.

Replacement tool

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First, select Color Replacement Tool in the tools palette. It’s in the menu of the plain brush tool: click the B key. Next, make sure your foreground color is black. If it’s not that color, change it. In fact, any monochrome color will do, grey even.

“Depurple”

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Set the values seen above in the options menu above the brush icon. Choose any value you want for size, but a relatively small brush will work punctually and without being noticed. A too big brush would de-color a too big part of the image. The brush should have a soft edge.

To help you work punctually, enlarge the image and work in sesctions.

Carefully paint the blue-purple areas, which will become colorless. Though the photo is mostly colorful, the fully monochrome colors are less conspicuous than the harshly purple-and-blue discolorations.

Unattractive

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You don’t have to go over each and every bluish edge, but some will have to be covered several times. The point is to de-color most of them, thus the unfitting colors will no longer attract the eye of the viewer.