Correct the color of a bad photoshop photoshop. How to do color correction in Photoshop
Has the camera distorted colors due to incorrect settings? Or maybe you took a picture in a specific lighting that made objects and people in the photo take on unnatural hues? Make a color correction! The PhotoMASTER editor provides three handy tools for correcting color balance. In this article, you will learn about each of them, as well as the rules for color grading.
Customize photo colors in 1 click!
In the PhotoMASTER program, you can transform a photo in a couple of seconds. The editor provides two options for auto-correction. With them, photo processing, color correction and other work to improve image quality will no longer cause any problems. One of the buttons allows you to take too dark pictures, and the second is for quick color editing.
Open the image in the editor and in the panel on the right, check the box next to Color. The photo will be automatically processed by the application, and all changes will be immediately displayed in the preview window.
Manual color balance correction
Control photo editing down to the smallest detail! You can customize the color of the photo yourself. To do this, click on the tab of the same name in the "Improvements" menu. Here you can also adjust the "Color Balance". There is no better color grading tool for a beginner!
Control blues, reds and greens in the light and dark parts of a photo. Just drag the slider on the desired scale and follow the changes on the screen.
The Pros' Secret Weapon: Curves
If you want to have full access to all the possibilities for color correction, then use the curves (Composition> Curves). When the function is activated, a coordinate plane with an RGB curve will appear in the panel on the right.
RGB is the base color space, which consists of red (Red), green (Green) and blue (Blue) colors. All other shades in the image are the result of mixing them.
The highest point on the graph is white and the lowest point is black. Intermediate points, respectively, are light tones, dark tones and semitones. Here's how it looks on the diagram:
The curve is easy to work with. Create a key point in the area you want to change. Pull it up, then the brightness of the image will be enhanced. You can also move it down and thereby reduce the value of this parameter. All lessons of color correction through the curve are built around the channels: blue, green and red. Please note that when you enhance a color from a bunch, you automatically mute the color opposite to it. Red is associated with blue, blue with yellow, and green with purple.
Let's try to edit this photo:
There is too much blue in the image, so let's start with this channel. Let's create a point and drag the curve down: this will tone down the blue in the photo a bit and add some yellow.
If you think that the image is too red, then go back to the RGB channel and brighten the image. To do this, create a key point on the curve and drag it up.
Ready! The difference is visible to the naked eye:
With the help of the curve, you can perform color correction, as well as toning the image. Ready-made presets will help you create a vanilla effect or perform separate toning. You can play with the color yourself and choose the most suitable tint for the photo. Also, it will not be superfluous to look into the built-in catalog of effects, in it you will find cinematic photo color correction styles and will be able to stylize photos under the "House of Flying Daggers", "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", "The Shining" and other popular films.
Now you know how to color correct. Photoshop and Lightroom are no longer required! Use ready-made filters for processing or adjust everything manually in a matter of minutes using PhotoMASTER. Download the editor and try all its features right now!
Since color correction in Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly vast and multifaceted topic, I want to immediately clarify what this article is actually about and to whom it is addressed. So, this article is addressed primarily to novice retouchers, who, I hope, will be able to draw from it useful information about simple methods for solving very specific color correction tasks. Simply put, this article is written for those who want to quickly learn simple but effective methods in order to immediately try them out in practice. For those who are interested in a deep understanding of the process, I recommend turning to more academic works in style. For example, to the excellent articles by Andrey Zhuravlev, published in his LiveJournal and on this site.
Easy skin color correction
It seems to me that we should start with skin color, since this task, as a rule, presents the greatest problem for everyone who masters Photoshop.
Getting down to business, first of all, I want to advise you not to forget about the subjectivity of color perception, and not to get hung up on "processing by numbers". When correcting skin color in a particular photo, one should also not forget about the context, shooting conditions and other features of it. So, for example, it is worth bearing in mind that a bright environment (say, dense green foliage) inevitably gives reflexes on the skin, the complete removal of which will make the photograph unnatural.
However, there are certain patterns that we will focus on.
The famous Dan Margulis, a color grading guru who devoted a lot of time to researching this topic, once deduced the “correct” color ratio, which many retouchers rely on to this day. This ratio (in CMYK color model values) is as follows: in the case of normal Caucasian human skin, the Y (yellow) value should be slightly (very slightly) greater than the M (magenta) value, and the C (cyan) value should be 3-5 times less than the value of M (magenta). As a rule, if the skin in the picture is not in deep shadow, the K value is zero, since you do not need to add black to create a normal tone - darker (tanned) skin is obtained by increasing the C, M, Y components, while maintaining proportions. It is also worth noting that with age, the amount of yellow increases somewhat. Therefore, in infants, the values of the components of yellow (Yellow) and magenta (Magenta) are almost equal, but the old people are noticeably yellower.
Now, to apply the knowledge of this relation in practice, we will use the tool Color Sampler Tool. It allows you to mark points on the photo for which we will see the current color value in the palette info.
To see the average skin color for the selected area, and not the color in one pixel (which for many reasons can differ significantly, which will surely mislead us), increase the value of the parameter sample size from "Pint Sample" to, say, "11 by 11 Average". Now we will see the average value for a square of 11 by 11 points.
To further reduce the risk of accidentally measuring in the wrong place, we will place two or three points in different parts of the face. They should be placed on medium-lit areas of the skin, avoiding highlights and shadows. The bridge of the nose and chin are best suited. Of course, the cheeks are even better, but it is important for us not to get on the blush. Please note that the already set point can be freely moved around the photo.
 
Dotted, in the window info change the color space for them to "CMYK Color". To do this, click on the small triangle next to each pipette. Naturally, our image remains in the same color space in which it was, just now for the points we have selected, the color corresponding to the current CMYK colors will be displayed.
Now we just need to correct the color, bringing the CMYK values closer to those described above. To do this, create an adjustment layer with curves (curves).
Since we're working with an RGB image, the Red, Green, and Blue channels are available to us in the curves. When the red channel curve is raised, we will decrease the value of C (cyan), and when lowered, we will increase it, since these colors are opposite. The opposite for M (magenta) is green (green), and for Y (yellow) - blue (blue). Do not forget that changes in any of the channels affect the other two.
Once you start making adjustments, the window info a second column with color values will appear. Now in the left column you can see the values before the changes, and in the right - after.
 
If for some reason you don't want to work with curves, you can use (also through an adjustment layer) the Selective Color tool. This option can be useful in cases where you only need to slightly correct the tone of the face, and do not want to affect the rest of the image. By setting the Colors parameter to Red or Yellow, you can adjust the tone without affecting the rest of the colors.
 
In conclusion, I note that the described method helps a lot in cases where you feel that something is wrong with the skin color in your picture, but you cannot independently determine what it is. In addition, it often helps (especially for novice retouchers) to find a kind of starting point for further manipulations. To rely on it as an indisputable truth, I do not advise anyone. In real life, we attach considerable importance to skin color, for example, noticing by its change the mood of an interlocutor who turned red from embarrassment or, conversely, turned pale from fright. And the perception of this color is always subjective. Remember that the viewer will evaluate the result of your work with their eyes, and not with a Photoshop eyedropper. So you should rely on them in the first place.
Dealing with color spots
Often, when processing a portrait, we encounter areas of skin that differ in their shade. These can be age spots that are not properly toned by a hack-make-up artist, or specific reflexes that have already appeared during the shooting. Often these blemishes are exacerbated by "creative" processing during the raw conversion stage, especially if it involves significant white balance shifts and active tone work.
Perhaps, in an article for beginners, one should simply advise to create a clean layer, apply it in Color mode, and paint the interfering spot with a brush, taking a color sample with an eyedropper, and choosing the optimal transparency. By the way, many people do just that. But I don't want experienced reachers, if they have the misfortune of reading this text, to immediately throw rotten tomatoes at me. And therefore, I’d better talk about a slightly more pleasant way that allows you not to destroy in one movement all the variety of shades and transitions inherent in the natural structure of living skin. However, the proposed method is quite simple, and saves time on manually creating masks (even if you already know how to create them using select color range).
For clarity, let's take a photograph in which we see the face of a very attractive girl, but next to the corner of her mouth there is a completely unaesthetic smeared spot, the secret of which history is diligently silent. With him, we will fight.
 
Create an adjustment layer Hue/Saturation:
 
We select the color range of interest to us and arm ourselves with a pipette Subtract from sample:
 
Don't forget to keep ctrl, click it on our ill-fated spot. in the window Properties the range of interest to us is highlighted:
 
Only to him will all further manipulations be applied. To see this range in your photo, move the Hue slider all the way to the left. Most likely, you will see how the shade has acquired not only the spot of interest to us, but also large areas of the skin adjacent to it:
 
To solve this problem, we refine the range by shifting its edges until the effect of the adjustment layer is limited to the area of interest to us:
 
After refining the range, return the slider Hue to the original (zero) position. Now we can gently move it in the right direction, compensating for the shade of the spot until it matches the normal skin color. I think you can not explain that in order to combat red spots, you should shift Hue to the right, and to fight the yellow ones - to the left. You can also use the slider Saturation to slightly discolor the stain, and lightness to compensate for the change in brightness, if any:
 
"Accelerate" colors in LAB
I think we paid enough attention to the skin, so it's time to move on to more interesting manipulations with the image as a whole. I'll start with the most popular trick, which allows you to make the picture much “juicier” in just two clicks. As a source, let's take this street shot:
We will make it “juicy” in color space LAB, transfer the image to which you can use the menu Image => Mode:
 
Now all we need is to create an adjustment layer Curves and then in channels a and b shift the extreme points of the curves, as shown in the screenshot:
 
 
The more vertical we give our curves (in fact, as you can see, they remain very straight), the more colorful our photo will become.
If you only want to add color and avoid the toning effect, make sure that the curve, as before your intervention, passes strictly through the center of the grid (that is, the top and bottom points should be shifted by an equal distance). On the other hand, no one forbids experimenting with shades, which I did by giving an overcast photo a little sunshine:
 
Here's a simple trick. I hope you will understand with understanding that it is impossible to clearly explain how it works within the framework of one article. For those who want to understand the issue, I recommend that you read the book already mentioned above by Dan Margulis, which is called “Photoshop LAB Color. The mystery of the canyon and other adventures in the most powerful color space. The publication is the most popular, so it will not be difficult to find it.
Coloring a photo with curves
No less interesting manipulations can be performed in the more familiar RGB color space, also using just one tool - the curve.
As in the previous method, we create an adjustment layer Curves, and start working with individual channels. Only this time the curves will actually curve. In essence, we will simply colorize the image in the desired tone, manipulating the curves responsible for the red, blue and green channel. The trick is that we will give different shades to areas of the photo that have different brightness.
For example, we can raise the blue curve, but not along its entire length, but only in the area corresponding to dark tones. The dark parts of the image will take on an appropriate tint, becoming colder. At the same time, we will raise the curve responsible for the red channel in the light area. Now the lightest parts - the sun glare on the ground and the model's skin lit by direct rays - will be painted in a reddish tint, creating the illusion that the picture was taken at dawn.
 
 
Naturally, your creative imagination should by no means be limited to imitation of natural lighting conditions. Using the blue and green channels, I easily got this interesting effect:
  

Do not forget that curves can not only be raised, but also lowered. At the same time, by lowering the curve responsible for one or another color channel, we enhance the opposite color (cyan for red, magenta for green, and yellow for blue).
Thus, we can colorize our image with opposite colors using just one curve. For example, by giving the blue curve a shape that is inverse to the shape of the Latin S, we will “cool” the dark areas and make the light areas more “warm”, thus obtaining a classic contrast separate toning:
 
Notice how much I raised the "dark" part of the curve - the cold shadows look quite natural in the photo, so why not. But I omitted the “light” part much less significantly so as not to yellow the skin of the model.
However, we will return to the topic of toning in another article. And here I will focus on just one more small nuance: if you do not want to affect the brightness and contrast of the original image and strive to work only with color, do not forget to change the blending mode of the adjustment layer to Color.
selective color
If you are too lazy to mess with curves, but you want to wind up crazy (or not so) shades, there is a very elementary, but very visual way to colorize photos for you.
It is based on the tool selective color, so we'll start by creating the appropriate adjustment layer:

As you, I hope, have already guessed, the simplest way to create a beautiful and contrasting (in the coloristic sense) picture is through giving the light and dark areas of the photo different shades. Therefore, we will perform all manipulations by selecting the Whites and Blacks values in the Color parameter.
I will not dwell on this method in more detail - it is too obvious. All transformations are so visual that you just have to connect your imagination. I will give just one option, made in haste, as an example:
 
As you can see, the presence of four cyan magenta yellow and black sliders provides a very rich scope for fantasy flight. The main thing is not to be afraid to experiment.
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!
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 rendering
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:
Would you like to learn more about how color grading is done in Photoshop? The purpose of this tutorial is to help beginners learn the basic color grading techniques in Photoshop to enhance their images.
General color correction in Photoshop
In this tutorial we will work with general color correction. General color correction in Photoshop affects the entire image by controlling the intensity of red, green, blue, gamma (midtones), shadows (black), and highlights (white).
Use color effects on adjustment or separate layers to quickly change or remove them if necessary during the color grading process.
Monochrome and sepia
A monochromatic image is an image whose color spectrum consists of one color or its shades.
Step 1
Open the image - Ctrl + O.
First, let's adjust the grayscale of the image.
Open the layers palette -F7.
I think the best way to adjust the midtones is to use a Black and White Adjustment Layer. (The black and white adjustment layer only appears in Photoshop starting with version CS3).
To add a black and white adjustment layer, click on the corresponding icon at the bottom of the layers panel.
Working with a black and white adjustment layer allows you to control the six primary and secondary colors - red, green, blue, cyan, magenta and yellow - by adjusting the amount of these colors in the image.
This is a very useful tool for fine-tuning the tonal range of your image.
Step 2
Double click on the layer thumbnail in the layers palette to bring up the properties window.
In the "Set" line, select "Sepia" from the list.
If you're using Photoshop CS6, all sepia settings will be set to default. If you are running an earlier version, you may need to set the preferences manually.
In this case, check the box "Colorize" (Toning), it will automatically desaturate your image and color in the tone on which the slider in the line Hue (Color tone).
Set the value in the line Hue (Color tone) - 35, as shown in the picture:
Step 3
Finally, adjust the color brightness of your image using the sliders on the Black and White Adjustment Layer.
Click on the hand icon in the Properties panel, this will allow you to select the areas of the image whose color tone you want to adjust with the eyedropper, and the color that is in the range of this area will be highlighted in the properties panel for further editing.
Avoid significant color changes or you will be at risk of posterizing the image.
Usually, changing only the Black and White layer is not enough to make the final color correction of the image.
Finally, apply another adjustment layer – Curves (Curves) and adjust the image to the end.
(It is best to do this step at the end - after adjusting the color, so that you see the corrected color spectrum).
The sepia is ready.
You can use any other monochrome color schemes in the same way.
Instead of setting Hue (Color tone) 35 in the second step, move the slider on the Hue color bar to the color you want to colorize the image.
You can also slightly increase Saturation (Saturation) to enhance the effect of color.
Bleach Bypass
A popular image processing method is Bleach Bypass.
This Photoshop color correction method adds a silver tint to a photo, as if combining a black and white and color image into one.
Step 1
Open a new image - Ctrl + O.
Apply a Black and White adjustment layer to our image as we did earlier (click on the icon at the bottom of the layers palette). You can also desaturate the image with a Hue / Saturation adjustment layer (Hue / Saturation)).
Change the layer's blending mode to "Overlay" (Overlap) at the top of the layers palette.
Step 2
A feature of images processed by the Bleach Bypass method is a significant increase in contrast.
To soften the contrast, add a new adjustment layer – Curves (Curves).
Carefully change the contrast to achieve a high-quality effect.
Try to get rid of overexposure and dip in the shadows.
Additionally
Often, a grainy effect is used along with the Bleach Bypass method.
If you want, you can use this effect when color correcting photos.
Create a copy of all layers - Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E.
Adding noise with a filter.
Go to the menu: Filter – Noise – Add Noise (Filter – Noise – Add Noise).
Check the boxes next to "Gaussian" and "Monochrome".
Set the effect to your liking. I put 1%.
A bit about color theory
Before we start looking at the next color grading method, let's talk briefly about color theory.
Look at the color circles below.
The RGB color model is based on three colors: red, green and blue.
The intermediate colors are the CMY secondary colors cyan, magenta, and yellow.
Secondary colors are formed by the sum of two primary colors:
Cyan = green + blue,
Magenta = red + blue,
Yellow = red + green.
Simple enough.
Secondary colors are on the opposite side of the primary colors on the color wheel:
Red - blue
Green - purple
Blue yellow
There are six more tertiary colors, which are created by mixing primary and secondary colors. But we will not dwell on this in detail now.
For now, only primary and secondary colors and their relationship to each other are important for us.
With the adjustment layer "Curves" (Curves) you can separately set the settings in the red, green, and blue channels.
Let's see how it works.
Shifting the curve above the diagonal line in the red channel increases the amount of red in the image.
Shifting the curve below the diagonal line increases the color opposite to red on the circle, blue.
Same with other channels.
Shift up in the green channel - increases the green; down - opposite - magenta. Shift up in the blue channel - enhances blue; down is yellow.
Blockbuster / fashion magazine
Now that we have a little recollection of color theory, we can proceed to the next processing method.
This effect is often used in cinema, for example, in films such as Transformers. Also this style is popular in fashion photography.
Shadows with this processing method should be bluish, and highlights - mainly the part of the image containing the skin - orange, close to the natural color of the skin.
This is an additional color scheme. The colors used in it - blue and orange, are opposite each other on the color wheel.
When working with portraits of people in photographs, pay attention to skin color. You can't have people with green, purple or blue skin. It will look strange and unnatural. The skin will always be between orange, orange-yellow (tertiary), and yellow.
In addition to the main color, as a rule, opposite colors of the surrounding objects are used: from cyan, blue or blue-violet (tertiary).
Now that we know the principle, let's start styling our photo.
Step 1
Open a new photo - Ctrl + O.
Go to the layers palette - F7.
Create a new adjustment layer - Curves (Curves) by clicking on the corresponding icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
Start color correction photos with shadows; then move on to the light; and finally to semitones.
Step 2
In the drop-down menu, change the RGB channel, which is responsible for the brightness and contrast of the entire image, to Blue (Blue).
We will be color correcting from specific to general, starting with the blue channel and ending with the general RGB channel.
Move the starting point of the curve above the diagonal line, this will allow us to increase the amount of blue in the shadows.
Next, to compensate for our first color adjustment, let's reduce the amount of blue in the primary colors - drag the end point of the curve down, closer to yellow, so that the skin tone remains natural.
Step 3
You will notice that the image has taken on a purple hue.
This is due to the equal intensity of green and red in the image.
To get a bluer tint, you can either move to the green channel and raise the left point of the curve (in the shadows) above the diagonal line, or move the left point of the curve down in the red channel.
However, if you increase the amount of green in the shadows, the image will become slightly lighter and lose contrast.
If you reduce the amount of red in the shadows, the image will become darker and more contrasty.
The first method subtracts colors, and the second, on the contrary, adds.
In most cases, it is preferable to use the first method.
So, in the drop-down menu, select the green channel, move the starting point of the curve up to reduce the amount of red in the shadows.
Step 4
At this point, you can return to the blue channel and adjust the skin tone if needed.
The skin should have the most natural shade: not too blue and not too yellow.
Adjust the light and midtones until you are happy with the result.
Step 5
Go to the main RGB channel.
Adjust the brightness and contrast of your image.
I just moved the curve in the shadows a bit to increase the contrast.
Step 6
You can finish color grading in Photoshop by applying the last filter.
Increasing the blue in the shadows boosted the color of the image.
Add an adjustment layer Hue / Saturation (Hue / Saturation).
Lower the saturation value a bit if necessary.
Here's what we got:
Bronze
Another way to process an image is to add a bronze tint to it.
This effect is similar to sepia, however, unlike sepia, this processing method does not reset the colors of the image, the image does not become monochrome.
Vibrant colors remain visible in the bronze finish, highlights and shadows take on a warm bronze hue.
Let's take an example of an image with a large number of colors and a large tonal range. This will make it easier for us to see what is happening.
Step 1
Open the photo - Ctrl + O.
Create a new adjustment layer – Photo filter (Photo filter) by clicking on the corresponding icon at the bottom of the layers palette.
Change the filter color to "Sepia" and set the density between 90 - 100 percent.
Step 2
Apply another adjustment layer - Hue / Saturation (Hue / Saturation), again clicking on the icon at the bottom of the layers panel.
Reduce the saturation of the image in the range from -10 to -50, adjust this value to your liking.
Step 3
Create another adjustment layer - Curves (Curves).
The bronze effect looks pretty good with some extra contrast.
Adjust the curve as in the picture below (increase the contrast):
Step 4
At the final stage, let's add some diffusion, it should look good.
Make a duplicate layer with the image under the adjustment layers - Cltr + J.
We work on a copy of the layer.
Go to the menu “Filter” – “Blur” – “Gaussian blur” (Filter – Blur – Gaussian blur).
Don't blur the image too much. For my photo, I made a blur of 2 pixels.
At the top of the Layers palette, change the blending mode of the blurry layer to Overlay. You will notice that the contrast of your image will increase.
To soften the effect, change the parameter Fill (Fill) at the top of the layers palette to your liking from 25 to 50%.
Finally, finalize the contrast with an adjustment layer – Curves (Curves).
Here is what we ended up with:
Conclusion
Today we talked about how color correction is done in Photoshop, looking at several methods for color correcting photos.
In fact, there are many ways to color correct photos in Photoshop. At the same time, it is impossible to assert that any of them is the only correct one. Different professionals use different tools. Each has its own processing methods. You can use any processing method that suits you best.
Also, remember that each image you process will look different than the other, with a similar style of color grading.
There is no universal method of processing and color correction in Photoshop for any images, in each case everything will be individual.
Try not to add a lot of effects, so as not to "overdo it", apply them as delicately as possible.
Experiment, learn new effects, learn how to create your own, enjoy your work!
