Precise color correction in Photoshop. Learn more about color grading in Photoshop
Hello dear readers. You must have heard about the existence of color correction in photoshop. This article will describe in detail the principles and techniques of color correction in Photoshop`e.
This article will describe:
- What is color correction used for?
- What Photoshop tools can be used for color correction?
- color correction examples
- how not to spoil the image
What is color correction for?
There are many tutorials on color grading, but they only describe the principles of image processing. Before you start working with images, you need to understand what color correction is and what it is used for.
Color correction is Replacing the original color component, hue, hue, and saturation of an image. It is used for several reasons.
1. It often happens that we see real colors that are completely different in the picture. This is due to incorrect camera settings, poor quality of shooting equipment or specific lighting. Technique does not have the ability to adapt to lighting in the same way as the human eye. This causes inaccuracies in the pictures.
2. Color defects. These include light exposure, excessive darkness, haze or dullness of tones and colors.
3. Creative experiments. Color correction allows you to embody the intentions of the photographer. You can add fabulousness or brutality, expressiveness or dullness to pictures. It all depends on the intention of the photographer.
Most often, it is performed by decomposing the image into channels. There are several modes for editing:
- RGB - Red, Green, Blue (Red Green Blue). This is the most popular image editing mode. He has to deal with it most of the time.
- CMYK - Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (Cyan Magenta Yellow blacK).
In this mode, white color in the channels shows the maximum presence of color, and black - on the contrary, the minimum. If, for example, the Blue channel is completely filled with black, then there is no blue color in the picture at all.
We briefly reviewed what is color correction and what it is used for. Now it's time to move on to practice.
Photoshop has earned the title of the most powerful color grading tool for a reason. If you look at the tab Image (Image) -> Adjustment (Correction), you can understand that it is all devoted to color correction.
It will take too much time to parse all the tools, so let's select the main ones: Levels (Levels) - called by the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L, Curves (Curves) - Ctrl + M, Hue / Saturation (Hue / Saturation) - Ctrl + U, Selective Color (Selective colors) and Shadow / Highlights (Shadow / Light).
Color Correction Examples
Let's consider three cases of applying color correction using specific examples.
Incorrect color reproduction
Look at this photo of a tiger:
There is a lot of red in the picture. For correction we will use curves (Image (Image) -> Adjustment (Correction) -> Curves (Curves)). Select the red channel and slightly lower the curve just below the middle, as shown in the figure:
Here's what happened in the end:
minimal manipulation significantly improved the quality of the image. Curves are a very powerful tool. It is used in many photo editing tutorials.
Let's conclude: if the image has an increased content of one color, you need to select the corresponding channel in the curves and reduce its content, as shown in the example.
Color defects
Take a look at this picture:
It has a lot of white haze and colors are dull, but that can be fixed.
The Levels tool will help with the haze. To call the tool, press Ctrl + L and set the following settings:
Look at the left side of the histogram. This is the haze. By moving the slider to the right, we increase the amount of dark tones and get rid of haze.
It got a little better, but the result is still far from perfect. Kitten needs some lightening up. Make a copy of the layer (Ctrl + J) and open Image -> Adjustment -> Shadow / Highlights (Shadow / Light). We make the following settings for the shadows:
We've brightened up the photo.
Initially, it was planned to lighten only the kitten, so we create a mask for the lightened layer and hide the background with a black brush, leaving only our model light.
Result:
The picture is already good. however, something is wrong. Let's open Image -> Adjustment -> Photo Filter (Photo filter) and add a green or warm filter:
If we close our eyes to the initial quality of the image, we can say that we have achieved an excellent result. And here he is:
Color correction is done, but the picture needs to be retouched. This is another topic. Retouching tutorials are not hard to find.
Here is the result with a little tweaking:
Creative approach to color grading
The first example will use a different source image:
Apply a warm photo filter to it (Image -> Adjustment -> Photo Filter):
Create a new layer and fill it with #f7d39e. Change the blending mode to Exclusion (Exception) and set the opacity to 25%
We get rid of the intermediate layer with the fill and look at the result:
The second example will demonstrate the principle of processing a portrait:
Let's take a picture with a fairly popular "whitening" mode. Create a copy of the layer (Ctrl+J), and press Ctrl+U to bring up the Hue/Saturation filter. Set Saturation - 0. The picture will turn black and white. Change the blend mode to Overlay and the opacity to 70-80%
Let's add an effect to the photo, which is often used in modern cinema. Open our snapshot again to return to the original image. Press Ctrl+M to open the curve editor. Select the blue channel and add blue to the dark tones. Go into the blue channel edit mode and add blue to the dark tones. In light colors, we lower the curve. This will give yellowness and will not allow the skin color to be lost.
Here's what the image looks like after editing in Photoshop:
Let's remove the purple tint by adding green to the dark tones. we perform these actions also with the help of curves.
Minor skin color adjustments:
On this processing can be completed.
How not to spoil the picture?
There are no specific rules on this issue. Color correction depends on the personal preferences of the photographer and his sense of proportion, but there are several recommendations:
- When using various tools, it is worth checking all kinds of settings. The result may be unexpected and unpredictable. And it's not always bad.
- Constantly make copies and duplicates of layers. This will allow you to return to any stage of processing if something goes wrong.
- Get inspired by the work of professional photo artists. This will develop taste and achieve new, interesting results.
This completes the review of color correction examples.
Based on materials from the site:
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to use Photoshop's color correction tools to spice up faded and dull photos.
If you look closely at the photo below, you will notice that it lacks contrast, the colors are rather dull and do not convey all the emotions and feelings of beauty received during the shooting. There is a feeling that the photo has a muted yellow-green tint.
Although the photo has some flaws, it is quite possible to bring it back to life with the help of color correction tools. Please note the following methods I used to correct the color in this photo.
Inverted Average Blur Technique
Step 1. Duplicate (Ctrl+J) background layer.
Step 2 Choose a team Filter> Blur> Average (Filter> Blur> Average). This tool will determine the prevailing tint in the photo and fill the current layer with it.
Step 3 invert (Ctrl+I) this layer. Now the layer will be filled with the opposite color from the average.
Vibration
Step 1. Above all layers Vibration.
Step 2 Move slider Vibration to make the colors more or less vibrant. This option allows you to increase the saturation of those colors in the photo that are initially faded. In other words, it makes the undersaturated areas of the photo more expressive, while leaving the saturated areas untouched. He also tries to avoid increasing the saturation of skin tones.
Step 3 Move slider Saturation to make the colors more or less vibrant. Unlike a slider Vibration, this option increases the saturation of all colors in the photo.
As a result, the colors become more saturated, and the background is less bright.
Adjustment layer Hue / Saturation (Hue / Saturation) allows you to change the shades of individual colors, their saturation and brightness.
Step 1. Create an adjustment layer Hue / Saturation (Hue / Saturation).
Step 2 Move slider Hue to change the colors of the image. Please note that the mode is selected in the drop-down list. All (Master). This means that any changes to the settings will affect all the colors in the photo. I chose -18 to make the flowers more pink.
Step 3 Move slider Saturation to increase or decrease the brightness of the colors. This will affect all colors in the image. Since in the previous step I already adjusted the saturation of the image, here I left the slider at 0.
Step 4 Move slider Brightness to increase or decrease the brightness of the color range. Again, since the selected mode All (Master), it will affect the brightness of all colors in the image. I prefer to adjust the brightness with other adjustment tools (Levels or Curves), so here I left the value 0.
Step 5. Select a mode from the drop-down list Reds. Moving sliders Hue, Saturation and Brightness will only affect the red areas of the image. Set the desired settings for each color range to your liking. The main goal is to make the colors of the photo more expressive and attractive, as well as highlight the in-focus area.
This is how the image looks now after adjusting the adjustment layer Hue / Saturation (Hue / Saturation).
Tool Color Balance is one of the easiest color correction methods. It allows you to separately change the colors in the shadows, midtones and highlights of the image.
Step 1. Create an adjustment layer Color Balance.
Step 2 It is worth starting the correction with medium tones. From the drop down list select Midtones (Midtones) and move the sliders to adjust the desired color tones in the midtones.
Step 3 Then adjust the colors for Light tones (Highlights) and Shadows.
This is what the image looks like after editing Color Balance.
Adjustment layer Selective Color Correction allows you to change the CMYK values for each color individually. For example, you can change the amount of blue in the red areas of a photo. This tool is able to significantly change the colors of an image.
Step 1. Create an adjustment layer Selective Color Correction.
Step 2 Move slider Blue to the right to increase the amount of blue in the red areas of the photo. Moving the slider to the left will decrease the intensity. Also experiment with sliders. Purple (Magenta), Yellow and Black in red areas.
Step 3 From the drop-down list, select other colors and adjust the CMYK sliders for each color in the photo.
This is how my photo looks now after working with the adjustment layer Selective Color Correction.
After you have finished working with adjustment layers, I suggest working with their masks. If some areas in the photo are too saturated, go to the mask of the desired adjustment layer and paint over this area brush (B) black color. Areas filled with black on the layer mask are not affected by the adjustment layer.
You may have noticed that after applying all the adjustment layers, halos appeared in the background. This is easy to fix by painting them black on the masks of all adjustment layers with a soft brush. Thus, the actions of the adjustment layers will not apply to them.
Final result:
Translator: Vladimir Nesterov
In this tutorial, I'll show you how to create a selective color correction effect. First, we will desaturate the image, and then carefully restore the color of a separate fragment of the image to our discretion using mask adjustment.
So let's get started!
Final result:
Step 1
Open the girl image in Photoshop.
Step 2
Now let's desaturate this image. There are many ways to achieve this effect, but I will choose an adjustment layer black and white(Black and White), as this will perfectly desaturate the image.
black and white(Black and White), for this we go Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Black and White(Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black&White).
Apply the settings shown in the screenshot below to make the image black and white with good contrast, and reduce Opacity Set the opacity of the adjustment layer to 95% so that the original shades are slightly visible.
Step 3
In the layers palette (F7) you can see the layer mask attached to the adjustment layer Cherno-white(Black&White).
On the layer mask, black hides and white restores the image - we're going to use a layer mask to show only the red color of the girl's dress. To do this, we use various black brushes on the layer mask of the adjustment layer. black and white(Black&White) - by painting with a black brush, we will hide the discoloration effect, thus restoring the original color shades.
Step 4
Let's adjust the mask. Select a standard soft round brush (B), set the brush color to black, brush size to 100 px and opacity(opacity) brushes 100%. Click on the layer mask of the adjustment layer black and white(Black&White) to make it active. Now start painting with regular brush strokes on top of the dress image - don't worry if you brush over the edges of the dress image, we'll fix it in the next step. The result should be like the screenshot below.
Step 5
Now let's make a more precise mask correction. Reduce the brush size to 5 px and then change the brush color to white. Zoom in on the outline of the dress, where there are some black brush strokes outside of the girl's dress, and then carefully paint just along the edges of the dress, but don't be afraid to paint inside the dress area.
Step 6
Continue to paint on the areas where the original tones are visible outside the outline of the girl's dress, use a small brush and a white brush color to hide the extra original tones. This correction process is very time consuming and time consuming, so take your time to get a great result.
In the areas where the hair is falling on the dress, you can lower the brush opacity to 50% and then brush over the hair a few times to blend in perfectly with the dress, then increase the brush opacity again to paint over the areas where there are sharp lines between the dress and other parts of the image. It took me 20 minutes to make this correction - you can see my result in the screenshot below.
Step 7
Now that you've completed the painstaking work of correcting the red dress mask, let's do the standard correction. Let's increase the contrast a bit. Create a New Adjustment Layer Curves(Curves), for this we go Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Curves(Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves). Set the curve as shown in the screenshot below to increase the contrast and brightness.
Step 8
The color of the dress is a little closer to crimson, but I really want it to be red.
Create a New Adjustment Layer Hue / Saturation(Hue / Saturation), for this we go Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Hue / Saturation(Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation). Set value color tone(Hue) to 42 to bring the hue color closer to red, and increase Saturation(saturation) up to 20.
As you can see, we do not need any additional correction, because we have only one color in the image, which can be changed using an adjustment layer Hue / Saturation(Hue/Saturation) - the red color of the dress. There are other very very subtle tones in the image as well (remember we lowered the opacity of the adjustment layer Black & White(Black&White) to 95% so that the original tones are slightly visible), but this adjustment of this step does not affect them very much.
Step 9
Let's add a vignette effect to our scene. Create a new layer, fill this layer with white (Shift+F5).
Step 10
Change the blending mode of the vignette layer to Multiplication(Multiply) - This blending mode will hide all the white tones, keeping only the black tones at the edges of the image. In my opinion, the vignette effect is subtle, so I decided to duplicate the vignette layer (Ctrl + J) to enhance the vignette effect.
Step 11
Now let's add a softening effect to our image. Create a merged layer from all visible layers (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E) and then apply to the created merged layer, apply a filter Gaussian blur(Gaussian Blur), for this we go Filter - Blur - Gaussian Blur(Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur). Set the blur radius to 50 px. Change the blending mode of the blur layer to Soft light(Soft Light), and also reduce the value fills(Fill) up to 35%. You will see that individual tones have become slightly visible, and the contrast has also increased slightly.
Step 12
Next, let's add some sharpening to the image. Create a merged layer from all visible layers (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E), and then apply a filter to the created merged layer contoursharpness(Unsharp Mask), for this we go Filter- Sharpness- contoursharpness(Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask). Apply the following settings for this filter, which are shown in the screenshot below.
Almost any image or scene benefits from the sharpening effect, the secret is simple - the main thing is not to overdo it, because. unpleasant pixel details will be visible.
Step 13
As a final step, let's brighten up the highlights that already exist to make the image stand out.
Create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N), change the blending mode for this layer to overlap(Overlay). Choose a standard soft round brush with opacity 10% and color white. Paint with a brush over the bright areas of the legs, arms and dress of the girl.
And we have completed the lesson! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Good luck, feel free to post your work! See you soon!
Final result:
In this article, you will learn all the subtleties of modern processing and color correction of a portrait from Alexandra Bochkareva.
I mainly shoot portraits of young girls in natural conditions - the unity of man and nature seems to me the most advantageous. Nature is the best decorator. It is also very important that during the shooting there is mutual understanding between me and the model. My best photographs depict those people with whom we were on the same wavelength, who understood what I wanted from them in the process of work.
Close-ups occupy an important place in my portfolio, so I pay special attention to details, emotions and external data of the model. At the same time, in most of my portraits, the models completely lack makeup and styling: the whole emphasis is on their naturalness and natural beauty.
For most of these portraits, I use Soviet manual lenses, most often my favorite Helios 77m-4. I really like the softness that it gives to photographs.
Like most photographers, I find models for shooting myself. I like to work with red-haired girls, with models of atypical appearance and beauty - they have a special charm.
I edit all my photos in Photoshop. Having opened the picture in Camera Raw, first I try to bring it closer to the picture that I see in my head: I equalize the exposure, skintone, add contrast and brightness to the picture. And then I start the main process of retouching and processing.
I'll tell you about it using the example of this photo, which I took in St. Petersburg this summer.
During the shoot, the model was sitting opposite me. At home, having reviewed the pictures from different angles, I chose this one for processing: I really liked the look of the girl and the magical light in the frame.
Let's go through all the editing steps together. Here's what the Raw file looked like before we started:
The photo was taken in sunny summer weather, so there are a lot of yellow warm shades in the picture. We need to remove this excessive warmth in order to make the portrait more expressive and spring-fresh. We will also remove excessive redness from the skin and give the leaves an emerald hue. To add brightness and juiciness to the portrait, we will pay great attention to color correction.
So let's get started
Open the file in Camera Raw and do the following steps.
In the main settings, lower the temperature of the photo - this will help to freshen up the portrait, make it lighter. Then increase the overall brightness of the image (Exposure) and set the black point. The picture becomes brighter and more voluminous. Now go to another tab in Adobe Camera Raw, Grayscale, and edit the sliders.
First, we work with sliders of red and orange shades - so that the berries and freckles become more expressive. Then with yellows and greens to bring out the color of the leaves and the sunlight coming through them.
When everything is ready, we open the photo in Photoshop and adjust the cropping - to improve the composition of the frame, align it and remove unnecessary parts of the image. Carding:
Before proceeding with the process of retouching the image, duplicate the layer and go to the filter “Plastic” (Liquify). Here we slightly correct the shape of the eyebrows and slightly add volume to the hair: I always try to make the changes subtle, but significant, while the model remains itself.
Now let's move on to retouching
To do this, we need two techniques. The first is frequency decomposition: here we do the main retouching of the portrait, clean the skin and the background. The second is dodge & burn, with its help we draw the details of the image: eyes, highlights, freckles, hair and clean the skin if there are stains on it.
There are many ways of frequency decomposition; I use 2-frequency decomposition with Gaussian Blur and High Pass filters.
This is a creative process, so many tools can be involved here. Specifically for the color correction of this portrait, we use selective color correction and curves. For the final result, we need cold shades, so we remove excess warmth with the help of sliders - in red, yellow, green. They will also emphasize the details of this picture - freckles, eyes, a rosehip branch, making them brighter and more contrasting.
Then we open the curves, adjust the saturation of the image and get more pronounced shades. To do this, use the red and blue channels.
After that, we re-create the layers for the dodge and burn and again draw the details and volume of the card: we pass with a soft white brush over the highlights in the eyes, berries, leaves, hair, and with a black brush over the eyebrows, eyelashes, so that they become more pronounced and detailed .
Add some final touches of contrast using the Brightness/Contrast sliders.
The image is ready.
We save the file in a large size, then we create a small copy for publication on the Web.
Thank you for your attention. All the best shots and inspiration in creativity!
Often the photos we take come out dark and dull. This can happen for a variety of reasons, such as when you were photographing in bad cloudy weather, at night, or in a poorly lit room. And of course, when viewing photos on a monitor or printing them out, you were simply upset and no matter how you tried to select, the result of yours left much to be desired. But don't be discouraged, as in this tutorial, you'll learn how to improve your photos in just a few steps!
The beauty of this tutorial is that all these steps are very easy to understand and universal for almost all photos. Using a simple example, we will walk you through processing steps such as: cropping and correcting the horizon, increasing contrast and brightness using curves, creating a bokeh effect using texture mapping and sharpening. So let's get started!
For example, I chose this photo of the cat Snowball:
Photo taken with Pentax K-5, 50 mm lens at f/1.6, 1.40c and ISO 800
The note: I'll make a small digression. I used Photoshop CS2 to edit this photo. Why? First of all, Adobe now officially lets you download and use Photoshop CS2 absolutely free! I wrote about this. For beginners, this is just a fairy tale. Secondly, all the tools here, all the necessary tools are present, as we will assume in the CS6 version. So, let's finally start correcting the photo.
Step 1 - Correcting the Horizon and Framing
Some pictures are obtained with a littered horizon, as well as with extra objects captured in the frame. To fix this, you need to use two tools:
- Transform Selection(Selection Transform Tool)
- Crop(Crop Tool)
About these two tools, I wrote a separate lesson: where everything is described and described in detail. However, let's take a quick look at how they work again.
To use the tool Transform Selection, first you need to make a selection of the canvas by pressing the keyboard shortcut CTRL+A.
Remember: without a selected object, you won't be able to activate the transform tool.
You will notice dashed lines appear around the canvas. This is our selection. Now you can activate the tool Transform Selection pressing a keyboard shortcut CTRL+T:
Pay attention to the highlighted points. Thanks to these points, you can stretch the image. However, for now, we just need to rotate the image and flatten the horizon. To do this, move the mouse cursor outside the canvas. The cursor should take the form of two arrows. Now hold down the left mouse button and rotate the photo:
Now let's use the tool Crop for cropping and trimming everything superfluous. This tool, you can activate both from the palette and with the power of a hotkey C:
Deselect by clicking CTRL+D and dragging the points, crop the area as shown below:
Then press the key Enter:
Step 2 - Brightening Up with Levels
Now let's make our photo brighter and more contrasty. We can use an adjustment layer for this. Curves(curves) or just a tool Curves(Curves).
For this photo we will use the tool Curves(Curves), but first make a duplicate of the main layer by pressing the keyboard shortcut CTRL+J:
After that click CTRL+M to activate the tool:
Experiment with the curve until the image gets brighter and lighter. Raising the point of the curve up, you increase the brightness, lowering the point down, you make the tones darker. That's what I did:
More often than not, you will need to create multiple points on a curve, as in this case. You can know more about curves.
Step 3 - Create highlights and shadows in the eyes and remove defects
In this step, we will give the cat's eyes expressiveness. The best way to do this is to use two tools:
- DodgeTool(Dodge Tool)
- BurnTool(Dimmer Tool)
Select DodgeTool(Clarifier) and in its settings set the parameter Highlights (Light). Thanks to this, the tool will only affect the light areas:
Now try to make the highlights in the eyes brighter:
After that, activate the tool Burn(Dimmer), and in its settings set the value Shadow(Shadows) so that the shading effect affects only the dark areas. Darken some areas in the eyes:
Apart from the eyes, I also darkened the cat's nostrils. Let's remove the defects in the eye area. In this case, it is most convenient and easiest to remove defects using a conventional tool. stamp(Stamp). But in order to make it as high quality as possible, you need to lower the opacity of the tool's effect in its settings.
Choose a tool stamp(Stamp) and in its settings set the parameter Opacity(Opacity) value at 25%
This tool allows you to use the texture from anywhere on the canvas. To select the texture, hold down the ALT key and click on the area next to the eye:
All the texture is selected, now release the key and with a few mouse clicks retouch the "dirty" area:
Do the same with the other eye:
Step 4 - Sharpening
Now the photo does not look as clear as we would like. But Photoshop allows you to correct this shortcoming. The method that will be presented here, in my opinion, is one of the most successful and correct, since it is more flexible and, moreover, does not “destroy” the image, unlike filters.
First, merge all layers into one by pressing the key combination CTRL+SHIFT+E. And then make a duplicate of this layer (CTRL + J)
Change the Blending Mode of the first layer to overlay(Overlap)
After that, apply the Hight Pass filter ... (Color contrast)
Watch the contours in the filter settings. Adjust it so that the contours become a little noticeable, but be careful, the main thing here is not to overdo it. You will immediately see the result of the sharpness adjustment.
When you are satisfied with the result, click OK and merge all layers into one by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+E.
You can find out more about setting clarity.
Step 5 - Create the Bokeh Effect
In the final step, we will give the photo some mood by creating a bokeh effect. To do this, you can use a variety of textures, for example, for this photo, I used the texture from here.
All you need to do is add the required texture to the canvas:
Then change its blend mode to soft light(Soft light) and lower the opacity a bit:
You can use the eraser to erase part of the texture on the cat's body. Then you can increase the brightness a little with the same Curves tool.
That's all. Remember that these steps are universal for almost all photographs. Now you know the sequence of actions and the necessary tools. I hope you found something useful for yourself. Ask questions, subscribe to site updates, add to social networks, like and all the best to you.
