How to make sand white??? :)


haring

Member
Nov 4, 2010
221
0
16
I am a wedding photographer based in Miami. I shoot a lot of beach weddings. Some of my clients want me to make the sand white. How do you achieve this so it looks great?

I have tried to desaturate the sand however I just don't like how it looks. It looks muddy and not real. How do you achieve the white sand look without traveling to Micronesia....?

Thanks so much!
 

Show your photograph, so that we can see what we can do. What is this thread doing in World of Nature??
 

I am a wedding photographer based in Miami. I shoot a lot of beach weddings. Some of my clients want me to make the sand white. How do you achieve this so it looks great?

I have tried to desaturate the sand however I just don't like how it looks. It looks muddy and not real. How do you achieve the white sand look without traveling to Micronesia....?

Thanks so much!



the sand won't be whiter than the wedding grown, and you can't increase the overall exposure as it will blown the white grown.
just use brush tool to do quick mask of the area of sand, than apply adjustment layer with Hue and Saturation, lower the Saturation, and increase it Lightness of the Yellow channel.
you may want to explore other channels and adjustments to suit your taste.


hope this help.
 

the sand won't be whiter than the wedding grown, and you can't increase the overall exposure as it will blown the white grown.
just use brush tool to do quick mask of the area of sand, than apply adjustment layer with Hue and Saturation, lower the Saturation, and increase it Lightness of the Yellow channel.
you may want to explore other channels and adjustments to suit your taste.


hope this help.

I have tried this method but the sand looks dirty and muddy.... I guess I have to find a beach with white sand.... :):):)
 

You can try increasing the gamma and contrast of the original photo to make the sand white, then cloning in the whitened sand to the original photo.
Hope you don't mind that I use one of your photos for illustration.

(photo copyright: haring)

Before
15167417405_3030d9c95a_b.jpg



After
14990770008_ef38ff983b_b.jpg
 

Last edited:
How do you achieve the white sand look without traveling to Micronesia....?

Thanks so much!

You may not have to go as far as micronesia ;p

Siesta Beach is the number one beach in the 21st annual Top 10 Beach List, produced by coastal expert Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, Director of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research.

Siesta Beach in Sarasota boasts that it has the finest and whitest sand in the world, and I cannot argue with this claim; the powdery sand is nearly pure quartz crystal.

http://www.drbeach.org/top10beaches.htm

Currently number one in my annual top 10 list, this tranquil beach claims to have the finest white sand in the US and I have to agree. In fact the sand is so clean and soft, it almost feels sacrilegious walking on it with shoes on. The beach is a big crescent, the sand is like sugar and the sea is emerald green. It's so calm the surf is measured in inches. A lot of people think it's coral sand but actually it's quartz crystal, and it stays cool even when the sun's at its peak.

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2013/apr/27/best-beaches-florida
 

I have tried this method but the sand looks dirty and muddy.... I guess I have to find a beach with white sand.... :):):)


so this is the photo you want to make the sand whiter?

obviously the overall color temperature is very cold and the sand is in shadow area, I would rather take care more on the skin tone then bother so much on the color of the sand.

I don't like the people looks like Bakkwa, just to a globe curve adjustment layer. the skin tone look so much natural to me now, and who cares about the color of the sand?

Untitled-1.jpg