Color cast

[Big_Stan]

I took this picture of a Pileated Woodpecker under forest canopy; the sun was behind me and was shining through holes in the canopy.  

As you can see, there is a heavy green cast covering the feathers on his shoulder (he is a male) and softer green on the tree and his tail feathers.  

Since I can see distinct feather detail through the green, I believe that the color is not caused by an intervening, out of focus leaf, but was caused by light filtering through the canopy.

 

Bottom line, how can I best remove the color on the shoulder and salvage the picture?

piliated.tif

[firstdefence]

1. Select as much of the colour cast as possible using the Flood Select Tool, select small areas and pull the cursor down while holding down to increase the selection. (Make sure to check that you have Add selected and not Subtract
2. Copy the selection to a new layer (Ctrl or Cmd + C and then Ctrl or Cmd + V) Rename the layer Fix Cast
3. With the Layer selected add a Black and White Adjustment Filter and move the green slider to about -70 this should remove the green cast but leave the feathers looking too black/greyish, the woodpeckers feathers have a brownish cast to them so we need to make an overlay layer to bring the brownish tint back.
4. Create a new pixel layer and name it colour overlay
5. Press the Ctrl or Cmd key down and click on the Fix Cast layer, this should bring back the selection and show marching ants, now using the colour picker tool move over an area of the feathers not affected by the cast and click to select a colour. This should be like a mid to dark mushroomy colour.
6. Now selection the colour overlay layer and use the Flood Fill Tool to fill the selection
7. Now change the colour overlays blend mode to colour

This should get you somewhere near. Once you have done that you'll see that area is soft and diffused somewhat, I agree that the light may have created a "haze" and made that area focus soft.

piliated.afphoto File saved with history

[carl123]

Similar to Firstdefence's method but don't bother with the selection which could get a bit tricky.

Just add a Black & White Adjustment Layer, Invert it, then paint with a soft white brush (on the adjustment layer) wherever you see the green cast.

You can tweak the Black & White Adjustment Layer's settings to better blend the image and if you over paint with the white brush just switch to black to correct it.

(fine tune with other adjustments, etc, until you are happy with it)

 

[toltec]

I was feeling a bit lazy, so I just selected the green colour cast bits.

Refined the edges and used the feather brush (no pun intended) in Refine Edges to smooth the transitions between the cast and non cast areas.

Then just applied an HSL adjustment.

[Big_Stan]

Thank you, guys!!  I really appreciate your help.  After following your instructions, I now realize how much more I have to learn.  I was able to get them to work, just not as well as you did.  One variation that I added, was to use the selection brush tool.  I was more comfortable with this tool since it behaved the same way as the quick selection brush in CS6.