Color Correction: The Complete Color Correction Process in Photoshop
Hi, there this is animation fix imperfect and today I’m going to take you through the complete process of color correcting a portrait in Photoshop. So without any further ado let’s get started,
So here we on Photoshop never go ahead and download this photo Editing. Before we jump into color correction. We have to understand that not every image requires color correction. Only the images in which you think the colors are off required and we will do it using curves. So click on that just with layer icon and choose curves and before we do anything. We have to understand what is curves. Now inside of curves, you have RGB Channel and you have red-green, and blue now what do these mean.
Read more articles :
https://call541490.medium.com/create-a-ghost-mannequin-effect-756f2319b8e4
Let’s Understand that if you open the color picker what is white if you choose white look at the values of RG and B they are 255 each now every image is formed by the combination of red green and blue. When you have all of these three in maximum and equal quantities you have what white has a look all of them are maximum 255 is the maximum number. That each value can go all of them are maximum and all of them are equal if you choose black.
All of them are minimum and all of them are equal focus on the second statement all of them are equal if you choose gray or some other color correction that doesn’t have any other color. If you choose any neutral color
have a look all of them have a number depending upon the neutral color correction but all of them are equal. So we can say when RG and B are equal. Just responds to neutral color it just gives you neutral color correction. So RGB Channel if you look at the RGB Channel if you make any changes to that it only affects the brightness, not color correction did you understand that. If we open up the color picker have a look if the values of RG and B are the same it just affects the brightness has a look black/white brightness. It doesn’t add red to it or it doesn’t add blue to it just the brightness and that’s what happens when we are in the CIM bind channel of our G and B.
When we move a point we move the value of our G and B together equally and that’s why it just affects the brightness. Okay also keep in mind that the right-hand side is bright and the left-hand side is duck simple on the right side. We have bright pixels on the left side we have dark pixels. So if you want to make the bright pixels brighter pick a point in the right and take it up. If you want to make the dark areas darker dark pixels darker make a point in the left and take it down easy right. Okay again remember right inside bright areas left-hand side dark areas. If you move to the red Channel, if you want to add red in the bright areas click a point on the right to take it up.
Read more articles :
If you want to remove red from the dark areas click a point on the Left take it down depending upon how much left. You go it just targets the darker areas. If you go more to the left, if you go to the right, it begins to target brighter pixels. Okay, that’s how this works, now you might ask a very basic and very interesting question why is the curve by default a diagonal. Why is it diagonal like this? why isn’t it a straight line? It is because have a look at the right-hand side the rightmost side is the brightest pixel and we cannot make the brightest pixel brighter because it’s totally white there’s no point in being able to make it brighter and that’s why we have the roof and that’s. Why it is diagonal also the left-hand side as we said or for the dark areas represent the dark pixels.
We cannot make the darkest pixel which is black any blacker than the screen can represent right and that’s. Why it hits the wall so it hits the wall at the bottle this one hits the wall at the top and that’s why it is diagonal okay and if that confuses. You just ignore all of that right inside is bright shaft inside is dark. Okay let’s zoom in and first of all let’s take away the magenta from the bright and so how do we take away the magenta there’s no magenta Channel right over here how do we do that just keep in mind the opposites red green blue is the opposite of cyan magenta yellow RGB opposite of see my red is the opposite of cyan green is the opposite of magenta and blue is the opposite of yellow.
So if you want to remove magenta. We have to add green why because green is the opposite of magenta. So let’s go to the green Channel. Now we’re in this curve is this highlight located a great way to find that is the hand to find out where magenta is, for example, this area and we simply have to add green to it click to hold the click and drag it up and when you see magenta gon stop it. But when we have added the green it also adds green to the highlights it also does it to the shadows and we don’t want that. So you want to remove the
greens from these areas because these areas have a lot of greens click and drag it down like that very slowly and gradually. Okay, that that has been taken care of if you also want to remove it from the complete highlights you can do that as well.
You want to add a little more green and here you can just remove it from the highlights as well. If you wish to but I would leave it at that also let me give you one more tip. If you want to adjust the points by not looking at the points because if you click with the mouse and adjust it you look at the point and not the image here’s what I would suggest clicking on the point ok once that point is selected using the up and down arrow keys to adjust it. Just like this so down arrow key up arrow key to adjust it slowly and gradually just t work your way through I okay that looks nice.
Let’s select this one up and down arrow keys, you can also use the right and left arrow keys to move it right and left it is gone. Okay now let’s have a look at it before and after because it’s very essential to have a look before after wonderful. Now there are greens in some areas like that. So we have to let’s try to see which area does it fall we have to take it even more down to move it to the right a little bit. Okay, it looks perfect have a look before after that is gone, now the highlights have too much green.
We have to reduce it and that’s why you have to look at it time and again this looks. Okay, now I think it has too much yellow we have to increase blues why because blue is the opposite of yellow. So let’s go to the blue channel and let’s click a point right over there and drag it up. Now the yellows are gone but it also adds blue to the shadows and we don’t want that again click and drag it down you can also use the arrow keys to just fine-tune it. If you want to have a look before after looks much better. Now let’s go to the red Channel and I think the highlights have too much red. If we click on that and select that and take it down like that much better but the shadows developed that color the seon color. We don’t want that so click on the shadows and take it up. Okay have a look at the before and after before after looks much better, press ctrl or command 0 to zoom out zoom out even more, and have a look it’s a good idea to zoom out and have a look because that way you won’t be influenced by the current colors of the image zoom out have a look how it looks.
Now I think these areas have a lot of yellows. So we will add one more curves adjustment layer and we will work on this one go to the blue channel and let’s increase the Blues in this area this much is fine but it also increases it in the highlights. So we will take it down from the highlights not so much and take it down from the shadow areas very dark areas. So have a look before after looks pretty good but only looks good on the skin. So we will mask it out with the mask selected press ctrl or command I and then take the brush and just paint on particular areas like that in white make sure the flow is hundred percent see how that looks if it doesn’t look good. You just don’t do it sometimes you will do something and it won’t look good to you have a look before after it does take away the blues but it’s not that great.
So we will try increasing the opacity, okay 65% that’s fine let’s zoom out and have a look at it. So here’s the before here’s the after at this point I think some areas of the face need to be brightened.
So we will add one more curves adjustment layer the shadows are very dark. So we will zoom in and make the phrase a little brighter and make the shadows a little brighter and darks a little darker. Let’s adjust this let’s work on this. Now, this looks a little faded and not right. Let’s reset it and you might have to do it the hymen again. Let’s do it with the hand too, let’s brighten up the shadows and darken up the extreme shadows and darken the extreme highlights. Okay, let’s have a look before after much better. Now we will mask in the face select the must press ctrl or command line this turns the mask black white other areas with sha black are the areas.
Which does not show the concept of mosque take the brush foreground color white just paint on the subject. So you don’t have to paint on the hair because it looks bad just on the skin with white. If you paint extra like we did press X to toggle between the foreground and the background make sure the foreground color is black and paint black on the areas in which you do not want the effect.
Let’s switch back to white and paint it’s pretty good to have a look. So here’s the before here’s the after much better fine-tuned looks great we can also play with hue/saturation in this case. So let’s go ahead and create a hue/saturation adjustment layer by clicking on that judgment layer icon and choose hue/saturation. Now inside a few saturation, we can decrease the saturation of the overall image but the
saturation is pretty good however in particular areas like this the red issue color correction is kind of dominating and we need to reduce that and how can we do that with the hand to selected click on that particular area to see which areas are being affected.
Let’s make it bigger so that we can work on it more clearly increase the hue and the saturation as well pump them up so these are the areas that are being affected if we move the sliders. We just need to target this particular area and how can we do that make the Snyder narrow make the target in arrow the top bar is the complete color spectrum of the image and the bottom bar is the result heavily top and bottom and this one is the range that we are targeting.
So we will target we will stop just at the point where that area falls into. So what was that area this area right that is fine? Now let’s extend it to the left the sliders on the outside make the transition from the area which is targeted and the area that is not targeted smoother. Okay, that is fine, let’s bring everything back to zero.
Now let’s play with the saturation we can decrease the saturation if you want to you can also change the hue of that area to make it more yellowish. But I will just simply decrease the saturation a little bit probably minus seven and make this one zero. That’s okay and we just wanted to affect this area not all over the image press ctrl or command I with the mask selected with the brush. Just paint on that particular area with white. It’s like that you can also play with double click on its hue, in this case, we will go
back to that color was it Reds yes it was repping it was registered inside of Reds people make it a little bit yellowish just a little bit.
Okay, that looks fine let’s have a look at it before and after. So this is the before this is the after completely color corrected. Now it is a very important and essential step you need to go and take a break to eat something do whatever. You won’t just don’t stress your eye take a break rest sleep do whatever. You won’t don’t stress the I come back to this image and you will see things which you were not able to see before I took a break and now that I look here we have a lot of green and we need to work on that. Let’s go ahead and create one more curve adjustment layer zoom in let’s just stuck the property here not here let’s stick it properly right here.
Okay now let’s make it a little smaller so that you can see it properly. Let’s go to greens and lets with the hand tool. Let’s decrease the greens over here it is gone but it’s gone from other areas as well which’s increased the greens in other areas. Okay, that is fine before after that is gone but only in this area. We want that effect to be in so with the mask selected press ctrl or command I with the brush just paint white on those areas and decrease the opacity it’s too much is that gone before after not so much.
When that doesn’t work you have to just add a hue/saturation adjustment layer and do the same thing that we did before with the hand to select this color. Okay take the hue and the saturation all the way to the right make sure that color is selected. Let’s make it a little bigger, so that we can see it properly let’s make the range first of all very narrow and stop at the point. Where exactly those areas are affected let’s increase the range make it softer crease the range to the left to make it softer like that okay that is great bring everything back to zero and let’s try changing the hue, yeah and that solves the problem.
You can also decrease the saturation if you want to have a look at the before and after zoom out so here’s the before with the green here’s the after I think it helped the overall image it looks pretty good.
Now if you want the color correction just to stay on the portrait on the face make a group of all of this
by holding the ctrl or command and selecting all of them or you can select the top layer hold the shift key select the last adjustment layer. It selects everything in the row and then press ctrl or command G.
Now let’s create a negative mask by holding the alt or option and click on the mask this creates a black mask that doesn’t affect any area of the image. Now we need to take a brush with the white color selected just paint loosely on our subject and have a look at it looks wonderful.
If you wanted the background colors to be as it is because it’s so many lights. You have done it have a look at the before and after before after staggering difference. So that’s how to color correct your images step-by-step in Photoshop it’s simple guys open the image look what’s wrong maybe in the highlights. You have lots of magentas maybe in the shadows you have lots of greens maybe the mid-tones have a lot of yellows. So suppose the mid-tones have a lot of yellows what do. We do next to create curves adjustment layer understand how girls work right inside bright left inside dark that’s all there. So if you want to take away the yellows from the mid-tones. You need to increase what blue because blue is the opposite of yellow RGB opposite of seeing my in the mid-tones clicks a point in the middle takes the blue up easy.
Now it will also add blue to the highlights you might have to take the highlights down and just keep on adding curves or if you want to affect just one specific area use masks. You can also use hue/saturation to just target some specific color correction and that’s how to do it I hope this Article was helpful and if this was make sure.
