How to make Color Adjustments in Photoshop - create Images that stand out
There are countless ways to work with colors in Adobe Photoshop, and I think it's the most exciting topic in photography.
You can do so many things wrong but also a lot of things right!
That's what I'm going to talk about here in this article - how to do things right.
Let's dive into my five favorite ways to adjust the colors of your landscape images and how to use them to bring your images to the next level.
How to use the Color Balance Layer
Let's start with my most favorite adjustment layer. The Color Balance layer is such a powerful tool when you want to work with your color tones.
The best thing is that you can adjust them in the highlights, midtones, and shadows separately. To get the best possible result, I recommend using at least three different layers to change each tone range on an individual one.
Working this way, you make sure that you have 100% control of your color tones when you want to lower the opacity of your adjustment or when you want to mask out the effect.
Please take a look at the screenshot to get a better feeling of what I'm talking about.
Shadows, hightlights and midtones can be adjusted by using the drop down menu
Personally, I like to keep my shadows a bit cooler, and my highlights warmer to have a nice color contrast in my images.
Adjusting the midtones is essential if you have overdone it a bit and when you want to get rid of a color cast that started to appear after your shadow/highlights adjustments.
This layer also helps you to get a better understanding of complementary colors.
When you open up the adjustment tab, then you can see all six important colors, and they are next to each other.
So red/cyan, magenta/green, and yellow/blue are the complementary colors of each other and work really good when you combine them in one image.
So a red sunset looks excellent with some cyan waves in the foreground, or some pink clouds fit nicely to a lush green foreground element. You get the idea!
There is, of course, so much more in regards to color theory, but those are the essential basics.
So try to find those colors in your own images and analyze what you like about them.
The general rule of thumb tells you if you only got tones from either side in your image without any complementary colors, you won't have a pleasing image.
How to use the Hue/Saturation Layer
The Hue/Saturation adjustment is another powerful way to work with color in Adobe Photoshop.
You can simply adjust every single color channel by using the sliders.
You can work with the hue, saturation, and luminance, even though I recommend using the luminance slider in Camera RAW instead.
If you're not sure which color you have to adjust to get your desired results, you can easily spot them on your image by using the color picker inside of this layer.
Hover over the area you want to adjust, and after clicking on it, Photoshop tells you which color tones you just selected.
It's so easy to reduce or increase the saturation locally this way!
Personally, I like to work with the hue the most - but I also use the method I just explained before.
Often I change the blue hue a bit more towards red to get rid of a cyan color cast, which happens a lot in those tones.
I also love to make the yellows a bit more magenta, so I don't get a green cast in my highlights.
There are countless ways to work with this layer, but that's how I use it most of the time.
Check out my short video to see how I use those adjustments
How to use Curves Adjustments
I'm sure you already like to use curves adjustments in your own image editing workflow.
They're a powerful way to adjust contrast, and it's good to have them in your toolbox. But did you also know that you can use them to work with color?
They offer one of the best ways (if not the best) to get rid of a strong color cast, which can happen sometimes.
I'm mainly talking about blue hour shots with artificial light in them. It's quite common to have a strong red color cast in those types of shots.
When you want to get rid of it, simply select the red color in the drop-down menu and reduce it overall, in the highlights, or the shadows.
Try it out for yourself in which tonal range it looks the best.
There is also a little assistant to help you to pick the right part of the curve. Just click on the hand and move over the part of your image with the strongest color cast, so Photoshop tells you where to use your marker.
Check the screenshots to see an example. This, of course, also works with any other type of color cast.
How to make Selective Color Adjustments
So now it's getting a little bit more advanced but not overwhelming, trust me.
The selective color adjustment layer allows you to work with every single color in each color channel itself.
When you take a look at the screenshot, then you will get a better understanding of what I'm talking about.
It's important to understand how the colors react to each other. Otherwise, it won't be easy to work with this tool.
The color balance layer, which I mentioned at the beginning, is an excellent layer to help you with that.
There you will see that red/cyan, green/magenta, and yellow/blue are connected with each other.
So when you want to add magenta in the selective color tool, you have to lower the greens. If you're going to add red, you have to reduce the cyans and so on.
You can also work with the whites, greys, and blacks, which means highlights, midtones, and shadows.
So I want to give you two examples of how you can use this layer.
Let's say you have a shot of a beautiful sunset somewhere in the mountains. The golden light cast some beautiful colors in the clouds.
The camera, however, didn't do a good job of nailing the white balance.
It can sometimes happen when you have a harsh transition from dark to bright clouds that the colors get messed up in that area.
Now you have way too much red and magenta in the shadows. When you want to have the best possible control of this situation, it's beneficial to use selective color adjustments.
You could, of course, reduce the reds and magentas overall, but it's much more professional to do it locally.
So when you have a red/magenta cast in a dark area in the clouds, simply try working with the dark color tones.
So first start with the blue tones and try to reduce red and magenta in there. Usually, this does the job already.
You can also pick the blacks/neutrals and try to reduce it there as well.
When this is affecting more parts of your image, invert your layer masks and paint white on the area where you want the effect.
The second scenario is about color grading.
You can change the appearance of each color channel separately.
More cyan can be added to the blues and also magenta at the same time.
You can add a strong blue/cyan cast to the shadows without affecting the highlights, and you can also enhance the yellows, so they are warmer or cooler without touching the other colors.
Now that's also something you can do with different adjustments, but none of them gives you the amount of control that the selective color layer does.
Try it out by yourself and trust me; you will love it.
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How to use Color Channel Masks
Okay, so now let's cover the color channel masks as well. When working with luminosity masks (I have a complete guide available on my website), you don't have to work with the actual luminosity all the time.
You can also work with different color values.
When you check the channel section in Photoshop, then you will find a red, green, and blue channel. They show you the tonal values based on the RGB colors, and we can use this to our advantage.
So let's say we have a flaming sunset, and we want to further adjust the color in it.
You simply control-click on the red channel, and now you have a selection based on the red tones.
You can now save the channel by clicking on the mask icon (check the screenshot) and further work with it.
Let's say we now want to change the brightness of the sky by using a curves layer. The mask we just created helps you to work in a precise way.
Of course, we can also do the same thing with the other channels, and we can also refine them to get even more local.
When you control-click on a channel, it gives you the first selection of it, but it's quite broad. Now press ctrl + alt + shift and click on the channel again.
Photoshop will now narrow the selection down for you, and you can repeat this as often as you want.
Now, this helps you to adjust only the bluest tones, for example, and this way, you make sure not to overdo things in certain areas.
The method can be combined with all types of adjustments working with contrast, light, color, and so on.
So that's it now, guys! I hope you enjoyed reading my short guide about how to use the five best color adjustments to improve your own landscape images.
Which one is your favorite, and how do you use them in your workflow?
Feel free to let me know down in the comments, and if you have any questions, I'm always there to help.
Cheers,
Daniel