Making adjustments

Make color and tonal adjustments using an easy layer-based workflow with the improved Adjustments panel.

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Requirements

To complete the tasks demonstrated in this tutorial, you need the following software and files:

Adobe Photoshop CS4

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Sample files

lrvid4002_ps.zip (ZIP, 30MB)

Prerequisite knowledge

Basic knowledge of adjustment layers

Making adjustments

Join Deke McClelland as he demonstrates how to navigate the new Adjustments panel in Adobe® Photoshop® CS4. This tutorial shows you how to streamline your workflow and simplify the color adjustment process using this new panel.

Working in the Adjustment panel allows you to navigate the color adjustment options without using the menus. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to apply a Curves adjustment to an image using this new workflow.

1. Navigate to the Adjustments panel.
2. Click the Create A New Curves Adjustment Layer icon to create a nondestructive adjustment layer.

   

   Figure 1: Selecting the Create A New Curves Adjustment Layer icon
3. Click to open the panel menu in the top-right corner of the Adjustments panel and choose Expanded View.. The panel expands and increases the size of the Curves graph, which makes it easier for you to make your adjustment.
4. Click the Toggle Onscreen Selector button (see Figure 2) in the upper-left corner of the Adjustments panel. The onscreen selector allows you to make your adjustments directly inside the image area, instead of clicking and dragging within the Curves graph itself. Notice as you move your cursor over the image that it turns into the eyedropper.

   

   Figure 2: The Curves options in the Adjustments panel
5. To darken highlights, click in a white area of the image with the eyedropper and then drag downward using the onscreen selector. Notice that the Curves graph changes as you drag with the onscreen selector.

   To brighten shadows, click inside of a shadow in the image and drag upward.

   Note: The Curves adjustment is applied nondestructively as an adjustment layer on top of the original image.

Using Vibrance

To increase the intensity of a color in a specific area of an image, you can add a Vibrance adjustment layer. To add a Vibrance adjustment layer:

1. Select the area using the Lasso tool.

   Tip: Alt/Option+click to toggle the Polygonal Lasso tool to make a polygonal selection of connecting straight lines.

2. In the Color Adjustments panel, click on the V icon that represents Vibrance.

   Note: Photoshop creates a Vibrance adjustment layer and constrains the effect to the selected region. In other words, Photoshop automatically assigns a layer mask to the Vibrance adjustment layer.

   Tip: To return to the full list of color adjustments, click the Return To Adjustment List button (the left-pointing arrow in the bottom-left corner of the Adjustments panel).

3. Using the slider in the Vibrance panel, increase the Saturation value to +100. Note that increasing saturation results in a lot of discrepancies or color noise.
4. Take the Saturation value back down to 0.
5. Increase the Vibrance value to +100. Doing so provides a smoother effect than increasing the saturation.

Using Hue/Saturation

To change the color of an object, you add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

1. Choose Hue/Saturation from the Color Adjustments menu.

   

   Figure 3: Selecting the Hue/Saturation color adjustment
2. Select Colorize to color the entire image. By default, the image is tinted red. To change the color and saturation, you can use the Hue and Saturation sliders or the onscreen selector.
3. Click the Toggle Onscreen Selector button in the upper-left corner of the Hue/Saturation panel.
4. Drag to the right inside the image to increase the saturation.
5. Drag to the left inside the image to decrease the saturation.
6. To change the Hue, Ctrl+click (Windows) or Command+click (Mac OS) the image.
7. Select the Toggle Onscreen Selector button in the upper-left corner of the Hue/Saturation panel.
8. To advance to the right in the color spectrum, drag to the right inside the image. To move to the left in the spectrum, drag to the left.



Figure 4: Adjusting the hue
9. To constrain the Hue/Saturation effect to the area masked by the Vibrance effect, click the This Adjustment Affects All Layers Below button at the bottom of the Hue/Saturation panel.

   

   Figure 5: Constraining the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer

Changing color to black-and-white

1. Ctrl+click (Windows) or Cmd+click (Mac OS) the Vibrance layer to load the masked selection.

   

   Figure 6: Selecting the Vibrance layer
2. In the Color Adjustments panel, click the twirldown to expand the Black & White Presets.
3. Click the Red Filter preset to apply a red tinted black-and-white effect, create an adjustment layer, and apply the effect.
4. To apply the effect to everything but the loaded selection, switch to the Masks panel by clicking the Masks tab at the top of the panel (see Figure 8).
5. Click the Invert button in the bottom-right corner of the Masks panel.

   

   Figure 7: Selecting the Masks panel
6. Return to the Adjustments panel by clicking the Return To Adjustment List button.
7. Select the Toggle Onscreen Selector button from the upper-left corner of Adjustments panel. Notice that the cursor changes to the eyedropper again.
8. Click a saturated area of the image and drag to the right. The blue areas in the original image become brighter and less saturated. Clicking and dragging to the left makes the colors darker.
9. To remove the Vibrance and Hue/Saturation effects, hide the Adjustments and Masks panels and then turn off the visibility of the Vibrance and Hue/Saturation layers or delete them.

   

   Figure 8: Turning off the Vibrance and Hue/Saturation layers

Where to go from here

• Photoshop CS4 Help and Support
• Learn Photoshop CS4
• Using the Masks panel, by Deke McClelland
• Making localized corrections, by Chris Orwig
• Improved color corrections, by Deke McClelland
• Lynda.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

About the authors