Color Me Delicious: A Recipe for Selective Color Enhancement in Photoshop

Active: 5 mins

Total: 5 mins

Servings: 1 Layer

I am Bradley Jack, and I used to live a monotone life. My job was dull, my wardrobe was plain, and my routine left me feeling uninspired. That was until I discovered the "Selective Color" feature in Photoshop. I was amazed by its ability to bring life and vibrancy to an otherwise drab image.

I started experimenting with the feature on my personal photos and was struck by the transformation it brought. The once lifeless images were now full of energy and color. This sparked something within me and I felt an urge to bring more color into my life.

I started small, incorporating bold colored accessories into my wardrobe, and the effect was immediate. I felt more alive and inspired. Encouraged by this, I decided to take up painting and soon found myself surrounded by a rainbow of hues. My paintings were unlike anything anyone had seen before and they were a hit among my friends and family.

The "Selective Color" feature in Photoshop was just the beginning of my journey. With each passing day, I discovered new and fantastical ways to add color to my life. I found myself traveling to distant lands, encountering magical creatures, and discovering hidden treasures. My life was full of adventure and excitement, always brimming with a kaleidoscope of colors.

One day, I stumbled upon a magical portal that transported me to a world where color was the ruling force. The skies were a shade of pink that I had never seen before, and the trees were a bright shade of orange. I was surrounded by creatures that glimmered and shone, and every step I took was accompanied by a burst of color.

In this world, I discovered the true power of color. I learned how to harness it, to use it to my advantage, and to bring it back to my own world. I returned to my monotone life, now armed with the knowledge and ability to bring color to everything I did.

I continued to paint and to explore, always seeking new and imaginative ways to add color to my life. My paintings became more vivid and full of life, and my adventures more exciting and colorful. People took notice, and I became known as the bringer of color, the one who could turn even the dullest of things into a work of art.

From that day on, I lived a life that was anything but monotone. I was constantly seeking new ways to bring color and vibrancy into my world, and it was a journey that I would never forget. The "Selective Color" feature in Photoshop may have been the starting point, but it was the beginning of a fantastical and magical journey that changed my life forever.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 Image

  • 1 Computer

  • 1 Photoshop

  • 1 Selective Color

  • 1-7 Monitors

DETAILED DIRECTIONS

This recipe is super easy to utilize once you understand the color wheel and some color theory. The most important thing to understand is mainly the complementary colors in regards to the light spectrum or additive color. These complimentary (or opposite) colors are as follows: Red/Cyan, Yellow/Blue, Green/Magenta. With this knowledge we can brighten the specific colors of an image easily using Selective Color. It is also helpful to know what colors make up other colors in the light spectrum. The reason for this is that the Selective Colors allows you to add or subtract CMYK from a specific color. So if you wanted to make something that is Cyan you need to subtract Red. But without Red being an option, what can we do. Well red is made up of Yellow and Magenta in the light spectrum so you can remove both yellow and magenta in order to make the colors “pop”. If you have ever had a client that wanted to make something “pop” and had no idea what to do give using “Selective Color” a try. Now onto the good stuff.

First things first, drag and drop your image into Photoshop. I recommend making it a Smart Object but since we are using a Layer Adjustment it’s not necessary for this recipe. Once you have your image plugged into Photoshop, determine what you would like to “pop”. For this image of this woman swimming I think making the water more vibrant would be a great idea.

 
 

In the top right hand corner of your interface there should be some tabs labeled “Properties”, “Adjustments”, and “Libraries”. Click on the “Adjustments” tab to pull up all of the options for Adjustment Layers. The Selective Color adjustment is the fourth option on the bottom row. Click that to create a new adjustment layer. This layer will apply to anything beneath it. You can clip this adjustment layer to the image if you wanted to by right-clicking it and selecting “Create Clipping Mask” but it is not necessary for this recipe since we only have one layer. But if you have a multilayered file, you might want to try that out.

 
 

With this new adjustment layer created, you should see new information appears in the “properties” tab. This will allow you to adjust the properties of the Adjustment Layer. For this water image we want to make the water more vibrant so we need to adjust the “Blue” and the “Cyan” colors. By default you should see a dropdown menu that displays “red”. Click on that and select “blue” in order to adjust that specific color. Going back to our color wheel knowledge, if we want to make blue more vibrant and “pop”, we need to adjust the opposite color, which in this case is yellow.

Drag the slider next to yellow to the left to remove yellow from all of the blues in the image. For the example I removed 25% yellow. If you drag it all of the way to the left, you can see what dragging the slider to effecting most. There is not a lot of blue in the image because it is actually Cyan, so let’s adjust that next. Select the Cyan from the drop down panel and lower the yellow 25% by either typing -25 into the box on the right or by dragging the slider. This should have more of an immediate impact. I also like to add black to the colors to make them deeper and a bit darker so let’s adjust the black slider to 50%.

Since the opposite of Cyan is Red, and red is made up of Magenta and Yellow, we can adjust the Magenta slider as well if we want to see what effects it has on the image. For this image you can see that it make the cyan either more green or more blue so for this time we dont need to adjust it.

If you hit the “eye” next to the adjustment layer in your layers panel you can toggle that on and off to see the changes that have been made to the image.

Below you can see the Before and After of using the Selective Color adjustment layer. This is something I use often for skin tones, skies, and any specific colors I want to “pop”. It is also a good way to color match multiple photos taken at different times and places!

 

QUICK DIRECTIONS

  • Open photo in PS

  • Create “Selective Color” adjustment layer

  • Select dropdown of color want to “Pop”

  • Remove % of complimentary color (10-50%)

  • Add black if necessary.

  • ???

  • Profit.