Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers - Martin Evening [160]
Color selection shortcuts
The shortcuts for selecting the color groups in Hue/Saturation have changed since Photoshop CS3. Use to select the master group, to select the reds and so on.
3.
As well as manually dragging the sliders, I was also able to use the eyedroppers (circled) to add or subtract from a color range selection. For this step, I selected the plus eyedropper and clicked on the edges of hair to add these colors to the Magentas selection and remove the purple color contamination from the hair. However, you'll also notice that as I widened the color ramp selection, other colors were included in the selection, such as the lips and the scarf.
4.
This brings us to the final step, in which I painted on the adjustment layer mask with black in order to hide the Hue/Saturation mask and prevent this adjustment from affecting the skin tones and the scarf. Painting with black restored the colors in these regions to how they were originally.
Vibrance
The Vibrance adjustment is available as a direct adjustment and as an Adjustment panel option (Figure 5.52), and allows you to carry out Camera Raw style Vibrance and Saturation adjustments directly in Photoshop. If you refer back to Chapter 3, you will recall that Vibrance applies a non-linear style saturation adjustment in which the less saturated colors receive the biggest saturation boost, while those colors that are already brightly saturated remain relatively protected as you boost the vibrance. The net result is a saturation control that allows you to make an image look more colorful, but without the attendant risk of clipping those colors that are saturated enough already. As you can see in Figure 5.53 below, Vibrance also prevents skin tones from becoming too oversaturated as you increase the amount setting. The Saturation slider you see here is similar to the Saturation slider in the Hue/Saturation adjustment, but applies a slightly gentler adjustment. It matches more closely the behavior of the Saturation slider in Camera Raw.
Figure 5.52 The Vibrance Adjustment panel.
Figure 5.53 This shows a comparison between the before version (left) and the after version (right), in which I boosted the Vibrance by 70%. As you can see, this has made the purple colors in the background and on the scarf appear more saturated. You will notices that the Vibrance adjustment has also increased the saturation of the skin tones, but the saturation boost here is more modest.
Photo Filter
One of the advantages of shooting digitally is that most digital cameras are able to record a white balance reading at the time of capture and use this information to automatically color correct your photos as you shoot. This can be done either in-camera (selecting the auto white balance option) or by using the ‘As Shot’ white balance setting in Camera Raw when processing a raw capture image. If you are shooting with color film, the only way to compensate for fluctuations in the color temperature of the lighting is to use the right film (daylight or tungsten balanced) and, if possible, use the appropriate color compensating filters.
Color temperature and film
In the days of color film there were only two choices of film emulsion: daylight and tungsten. Daylight film was rated at 6500 K and was used for outdoor and studio flash photography, while tungsten film was rated at 3400 K and typically used when photographing with artificial