You can make your photo’s pop this summer with this technique for increasing the color and contrast saturation.
Select a photo.
Create a duplicate layer (CTRL+J)
With the duplicate selected go to Image> Mode> Lab Color
If you receive the following message select “Don’t Merge” or “Don’t Flatten”
Select Image>Adjustments> Curves and then choose Channel: a
Adjust the curve in a S fashion to adjust the contrast of the color channels. Adjusting the curve above the center line affects reds, while adjusting the curve below the line adjusts greens. Try not to make the skin tones too red.
Select Channel b without exiting the dialogue. The b channel largely impacts yellows above the center line in the image and blues below the line. You can see here that the water is bluer and the skin tone loses some of the redness (with the increase in yellow and blue).
Here you can see the side by side change.
Select the duplicate and go to Image> Mode> RGB and choose Don’t Merge or Flatten if asked.
Add a layer mask to the duplicate
Click on the layer mask to select it and change the Layer Blend Mode to Exclusion.
This results in an odd looking image.
With the layer mask still selected go to Image> Apply Image. In the window that appears ensure your settings are as below.
This merges the image to the mask.
With the mask selected go to Image> Adjustments> Auto Levels
Now change the blending mode of the mask to Normal. This helps prevent color shifts particularly in light areas of the image.
Create a 2nd duplicate of the original photo.
Hold CTRL and select the original copy and the masked layer, right click and choose Merge Layer.
Create a duplicate of the merged duplicate layer, change the layer blend mode to Soft Light and then reduce the opacity to your preference – 55% is used here.
Here are the Before and After
Create your own action to help you apply these steps to other photos.
You can download a PDF version of this tutorial by CLICKING HERE
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