Image correction in Photoshop. Photo Editing: Color Correcting with Curves in Adobe Photoshop

There are a huge number of types of photo processing in Photoshop. Each person sooner or later finds a certain way that is convenient specifically for him. But in order to develop your own unique style, it is best to take a little bit of information from different sources. The most important thing to consider when creating your own professional processing algorithm is color correction in Photoshop. It is not difficult to learn this, but it will take some time to master this skill.

Where to begin

Before performing color correction in Photoshop, you should carefully consider the style of processing a certain series of your photos. Surely you will have to work on pictures of different subjects. Especially if you are a photographer. Juicy, contrasting colors are best suited for summer shots. It is desirable to focus on green and blue (vegetation and sky).

The winter landscape goes well with cool shades of blue, or you can try using several options for light turquoise. It will also look good to highlight details by changing the contrast in certain places or increasing the shadows. This effect is wonderful superimposed on the snow.

To decide how to make color correction in Photoshop, if the pictures are taken in any room, be sure to pay attention to the lighting. yellow and red will perfectly complement the photo, where the rays break through the windows sunlight or the interior has almost similar colors. Cool, dark tones like browns, blacks, or grays are used if that effect was originally intended to be achieved (for example, you chose a gothic theme for your shoot), or if the setting will go well with those colors.

We can talk for a long time about what kind of color correction in Photoshop is best done in a given situation, since styles have been invented infinite set.

Color correction tools

In Adobe Photoshop, there are several of the most necessary and functional virtual devices that help you process photos on highest level. Among them:

• Brightness/Contrast. In addition to correcting the brightness, the tool helps to reduce highlights (too white areas) and remove too black shadows from the image. Makes your chosen colors juicy and deep.
• Curves. A scheme containing a curved line helps to work out in detail the contrast of certain fragments in the image. With decent skills in working with layers, it helps to achieve tremendous results.
• Hue/Saturation. It can turn pink into bright red or even purple. With the help of this "helper" you can change the color of your hair or even clothes, make it brighter, more interesting.
• Color balance. Ability to edit certain color tones. Various variations of colors in working with a document can be observed when using the universal sliders on the color scales.
• Selective color correction. Detailed work with every primary color present in the illustration.
• Filters. With a little time spent searching the Internet for the color filters you need, you can achieve fun photo effects, ranging from and ending with the creation of various highlights.

It is important to note that an excellent result can be achieved when using all the tools together. Even beginners can do this, because gradually they will be able to find their own style and hone their photo color correction skills in Photoshop.

An example of summer photo processing

Processing compositions using delicate, summer colors is very simple and fairly fast. Of course, it all depends on your skills and the level of complexity of the work. To do this, we will need to follow the simple steps outlined in this article. By the way, it will consider the algorithm for successful summer processing and color correction of photos in Photoshop.

Start. Removing extra shadows

It is not very beautiful when in the picture instead of clothes you can see only a solid dark spot, or a person’s hair resembles a black hole.

To fix this, you need:

• Create a new layer (Ctrl + j).
• Select the item "curves", which is located above the panel with layers.
• You will work on the diagram that appears with the line. Click on the line with the cursor and drag it up slightly. See how the black colors change in the photo. It's important not to overdo it.

• The whole picture will become much brighter. Next, invert the image (press Ctrl + i). You can see how the square on the "curves" layer will turn from white to black, and the image will return to its previous form. That's the way it should be.
• Select the brush tool located on the left side of the screen.
• After selection the right sizes brushes start by clicking on the left mouse button, carefully draw the dark areas of the image. The darkness will gradually disappear, the structure will return to the object.

It happens that the effect superimposed on the picture is too pronounced. If something similar happened in your case, then use the "opacity" slider. It is located on the right side, just above the line with the last layer you created.

After you lighten all the necessary objects, proceed to the next step.

Eye color correction

It often happens that the eyes in the photo are too dark or their color for some reason loses its saturation. Because of this, the image of the model in the pictures fades a lot.

This phenomenon can be eliminated as follows:

• You will again need to take the "brush".
• Press the Q key.
• Hover over the eye and click the left mouse button a couple of times. It is important that you do not go beyond the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe eye iris.
• You will notice how the selected area turns red. Everything is correct.
• Select the second eye as well, then press the Q button again.

• Both eyes are highlighted with dotted lines. In the top menu, select the "selection" item and click "invert" (or the keyboard shortcut Shift + Ctrl + i).
• Next, click on "curves" again.
• Right-click on the curves layer that appears and click on "Create Clipping Mask..."

• The scheme of curves will change somewhat. That's the way it should be. Start dragging the cursor line up, as in the shadow step. You will see how only the eyes lighten up. Lighten them as much as necessary in your case. If they were initially too light, drag the line down to darken.

Color saturation

If you think that the eye color is not saturated enough, just select the Hue/Saturation option. Create a clipping mask for this layer and just as you darken / brighten, change the saturation of the eye color using the sliders on the color correction panel. You can also change the intensity of these effects by using "opacity".

Color grading in Photoshop involves a lot of manipulation, but fine-tuning all the color tones in your photo is the most important procedure.

To edit colors you need:

• Select "Selective Color Correction".
• In the menu that appears, with smooth hand movements, move the sliders with color symbols in different directions. In the photo you will see how certain shades change.
• Once you've gone through all the sliders, click on "red" and select the next color in the list.

Move the sliders until you have gone through all the colors on the list and reached the desired color balance. Do not forget after the end of the procedure, if necessary, change the intensity of the layer.

Filters

But few people know how to do color correction in Photoshop yet. best quality And what you need to do. Often, editing a photo with just the usual tools of a graphic editor is not enough. There is not enough showiness or some kind of certain style, which cannot be reached in the usual ways? To solve this problem, there are various filters.

To use them, you need to select the desired filters on the Internet and download them to your computer. Then install them in your Photoshop. To perform this action, you need to open the Plugins directory. It is located in the Photoshop folder. Move the materials you downloaded to the Plugins folder. After that, you can freely use the plug-ins downloaded from the Internet.

require at least superficial intervention. To resort to color correction, remove the excess, add the necessary, etc.
Haven't met yet professional photographer who would not process their photos. Well... maybe one of those things. Dustin Diaz, a very popular photographer today.

His pictures are built on the play of light, made very high quality, beautiful and tasteful. But even his photographs I question. I don't think he forgot about color correction. =)

The most common photo editing software is Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw. There is one more simple one, which, probably, everyone has - Paint. Of course, it cannot be put on a par with Adobe Photoshop. But you shouldn't completely dismiss Paint. With its help, you can’t do much, and there can be no talk of color correction, but it won’t be difficult to crank out something elementary. For example, in Paint, you can quickly resize a photo, crop the edges, and save it to another format. For something more, this program will not work. For more hard work there is a huge monster of photo processing (and not only) - Adobe Photoshop. This program has a lot of features and bags of advantages. And don't be scared. Knowledge and experience will quickly lead you to the desired result.

Now more to the point: about color correction.
It is not uncommon for the photographs that we take to turn out to be slightly cloudy, dull, or even the main tone turns into one color (red, blue). This can easily be corrected with color correction.
Color correction- change the background color. Those. in this way in Photoshop you can change the overall background of the photo. For example, take a picture completely in red tones. Or multiply some colors in the photo, and extinguish others.

Allows you to achieve color correction several methods and from each the effect will be different.

1. In the program menu photoshop in the "Image" section, several methods of automatic correction are offered: auto tone, auto contrast, and automatic color correction itself. You can experiment with all the options in Photoshop.

2. If none of the applied ones suits us, we consider another method. To do this, open the "Correction" tab in the same section and try what we are offered photoshop here: brightness, contrast, levels, curves, etc.

3. color correction can be done in the "Layers" section Photoshop programs. Select "New Adjustment Layer", then "Curves".

A window appears corrections. Without changing parameters photoshop, moving only the line diagonally, you adjust the overall color background. But if you change the RGB to red, blue, or green, you'll correct a specific color. Photoshop also suggests using standard templates (for example, a color negative).

4. You can try to create a duplicate layer and experiment with overlaying a duplicate layer on the main one. It is done like this. In the layer block of Photoshop we find our photo and click on it with the right mouse button -\u003e “create a duplicate layer”. Go to a new layer by clicking on it with the left mouse button. And in the "normal" column, click on the arrow and select any of the suggested Photoshop options. In this case, you can change the transparency of the layer (the default is 100%).

5. You can go even further and install a special plug-in on Photoshop, which will process the images according to the template. plugin AlienSkin Software Exposure after installation is reflected in the program menu photoshop in the "Filters" section.

He is responsible not only for photo color correction but also imposes effects, such as scuffs in the picture, scratches, makes the edges of the photo rounded, a black frame, applies the effect of exposure to the picture, corrects the clarity, blurring of the photo, etc. For those who like to experiment in Photoshop, Exposure opens up space for imagination.

Questions related to color correction in Photoshop can be left here in the comments. I will help with all I can! 0

Not all Photoshop enthusiasts have the knowledge to solve all the problems of digital photography. It is for this category in Photoshop that there are a number of automatic commands that will eliminate the flaws in the image in just two clicks. In this lesson on working with photoshop we will look at two such methods: the "Shadows / Highlights" correction command and the Photoshop application Adobe Camera RAW. And although the "Shadows / Lights" command cannot be attributed to automatic commands (since it has rather advanced settings), it is configured so that when it is used, the picture is automatically brightened, which is why I am considering it in this lesson on automatic correction commands . Adobe Camera Raw has a one-click auto-correction feature that takes care of full image exposure correction (including shadows, fill light, contrast, and lost detail restoration), and in CS5 Camera Raw it really delivers some pretty good results. If you like them, you can adjust the settings so that every photo you open in Camera Raw will be automatically adjusted by this feature. By comparing the results of the correction of these two methods, you can easily select the method of automatic correction that suits you. it will become simple and understandable for you.

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Let's open the original image. It immediately catches the eye that the photo turned out to be too dark.

There are a huge number of methods for brightening an image, let's use the "Shadows / Lights" command. Let's go to "".

A window of the same name will appear in which we do not change anything, but simply click " Ok".

Here is the result of working on the automatic lightening of the picture with the "Shadows / Lights" command.

Now let's try using the Adobe Camera RAW application and compare the results. Go to the "File" menu and select "Open as".

In the window that appears, select the folder in which the photo we will work with is located, the photo itself and the format of the file to be opened - Camera RAW Open ".

The picture will open in Adobe Camera RAW.

By default, the application has the General tab open. We find the "Auto" link and click on it.

We get this result.

If you did not like how the picture was corrected, then it is very easy to return to its original state, for this we click on the link " Default".

Now let's set up the Adobe Camera RAW application so that it automatically adjusts our photos when we open them in this application. Click on the third icon from the right Open settings dialog".

In the "Settings" window, check the box Apply automatic tone correction Ok ". That's it, now the images opened in this application will be automatically adjusted in accordance with the settings of the Photoshop CS5 program. If you sometimes don’t like this correction, then don’t forget about the magic button" Default", which in one click will cancel the automatic correction photos.

Compare the results of the Shadows/Highlights command and the Adobe Camera RAW application. And although they are similar, Camera RAW still gives better results. Also, don't forget that "Shadows/Highlights" automatically only lightens the photo, and Camera RAW struggles with other disadvantages of digital photography as well. So the victory of the Adobe Camera RAW application is predetermined!

In this tutorial, my first collection of color grading, which shows various options. The correction methods are very simple, but I hope that they will be interesting and useful to you.

1. Romantic Purple Blue Effect:

Original photo.

Selective color correction(Selective color). Go through the indicated colors and set the settings as in the screenshots.

Let's get the result.

Now create an adjustment layer Hue/Saturation(Hue/Saturation) with these settings. Here we will change the following colors: cyan, indigo and magenta.

Here is the result.

Create a new adjustment layer again Selective color correction(Selective color) and use the settings.

(click on image to enlarge)

Get it like this.

Create a new empty layer and fill it with a black to white radial gradient.

Set the blend mode of this layer to Soft light(soft light), Opacity(Opacity) leave 100% and soft Eraser(Eraser) Erase the background around the model.

Now let's fix the color and light on the legs of the model. Create a new layer, set the blending mode for it Color tone(Hue), leave Opacity(Opacity) 100%, and using a soft brush with color fab4f6 paint on the areas that need to be corrected.

As you can see, there is still a dark stripe on the thigh. Let's fix this. Create a new layer again, set the blending mode for the layer to Soft light(Soft Light) 100%, and also using a soft brush with color fab4f6, correct this area.

Now let's decorate our work a little. Create a new layer, activate the tool Brush(Brush) white color, with a size of 4 pixels, Rigidity(Hardness) 50% and draw dots. To give them a glow, use a layer style. External glow(Outer Glow) with these settings:

The final result of such a correction.

2. Lovely light red effect.

Source.

Open the image in Photoshop and create a new adjustment layer Levels(Levels). We will use it to add brightness.

Create two adjustment layers Channel mixing(Channel mixer). The settings are shown in the screenshots below.

Selective color correction(Selective color).

Settings for the first layer:
Red- Reds: -60, 28.85, -13
yellow-Yellows: -100, 50, -51, -41
White-Whites: 100, 0.0, -25
Neutral-Neutrals: 6, 0, 0, 0

For the second layer, change the setting - White- Whites: 15, 0, 0, 0
Get it like this.

Create a New Adjustment Layer photo filter(Photo filter).

Then create a new adjustment layer Curves(Curves).

And create an adjustment layer again Selective color correction(Selective color).
Red-Reds: -8, 8, 21, 0
yellow-Yellows: 22, -27, 23, -100
White-Whites: 7, -15, 0, -4
Neutral-Neutrals: 40, 0, -2, 0
Here is the result after the applied actions.

Create a New Adjustment Layer Brightness/Contrast(Brightness/contrast) with these settings.

Final result.

3.Beautiful blue effect.

Original photo.

This time we use the CMYK color mode to correct the image.

Note. translator : Color mode can be changed in the menu Image - Mode - CMYK (Image-Mode - CMYK).

Duplicate the original photo and change the color mode to CMYK. Now let's go to the menu Image - Correction - Channel Mixing(Image-Adjustment-Channel mixer) and adjust the yellow color.

Now change the color mode again, this time back to RGB.

Now create two adjustment layers Selective color correction(Selective color).

Settings for the first layer:
Red-Reds: -21,0,0,0
Blue- 100,53,-20,13
Blue- 13,-8,20,0
Purple-Magentas: -50.13.100.0
White-Whites: -5,0,67,0
Neutral-Neutrals: 14,-10,0,0
black-Blacks: 0,0,0.15

Settings for the second layer:
Blue-Cyans: 100,0,100,0
Neutral-Neutrals: -30.0.20.0
black-Blacks: 0,10,100,100
Here's what we get.

If your image is high contrast, you don't need to adjust the blacks and you can skip the next step.
Create a New Adjustment Layer Brightness/Contrast(Brightness/contrast) with these settings. -2 / 8.
We get such a result.

By activating the adjustment layer masks, you can correct the effect of the correction on the hair.
To improve the skin color of the model, create an adjustment layer Channel mixing(Channel mixer) and set the following settings:

Red-Red: 102.0.5.0
Green-Green: 2.95.5.0
Blue-Blue: 0,-5,110,-5

Create a new layer, set the blending mode for this layer to Soft light(Soft Light) and reduce Opacity(Opacity) of this layer to 50%. Now take a soft white brush and work on the dark area on the forehead on the left. Then create a new layer, set the blend mode for it Chroma(Color), reduce Opacity(Opacity) up to 30%. Now choose soft Brush(Brush) with color fdceec and draw bluish areas on the left shoulder.

Final result.

From the translator: Experiment with adjustment layer settings, and I wish you success in this an interesting activity like color correction.

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 most high point on the chart is White color and the bottom one 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 way we will slightly muffle Blue colour on the photo and add 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!