Hue and Saturation with DigitalCreative.info's Guide to Digital Photography and Image Manipulation

By the time you've finished with sharpening, high pass and levels, you might find that there is no need to visit the hue and saturation adjustment layer but, if you do feel that your picture needs a little more help, go to the layers palette and click on the 'new fill and adjustment layers' icon then choose hue and saturation:

1. Let's have a look at what this option offers us:

The first drop down box, 'edit', opens with 'master' as the default. This means that all adjustments will be applied to all the colours equally. Beneath this menu are 3 sliders, defaulting to '0'. If you move them to the right you increase the effect and if you move them to the left you will decrease the effect. For our purposes, at the moment, we can ignore the colour bars and eyedroppers at the bottom as they are used for more advanced colour selections and adjustments. There are, though, 2 little tick boxes, one of which says, 'colorize'. If you check this box it defaults to edit/master and tints the image with one colour which can be adjusted to your liking. The other little box should be left checked as it allows you to see the effects on your image, in the window, as you try them out.

2. Looking more closely, let's start with the sliders in 'master' mode. The first image shows the position of the sliders and the 2nd shows what effect can be created if you're a little too enthusiastic!

Hardly the most pleasing effect! To take it a little more seriously ............

3. If we click on the edit drop-down menu we will find (1) a list of colours that can be adjusted separately and (2) if we select one of the colours then a new options box, just for that colour, appears with another set of sliders:

4. Looking at the original photo, again, it's obvious that all of it needs some sort of boost ....... the next few pictures show each colour in turn being adjusted and then the final pair shows you the original together with the adjusted version:

5. If we want to change the colour of the boat completely, we can go to edit/red and move the hue and saturation sliders until we see the red become the colour we want; in this case, blue.......:

This example was quite straight forward as there is little or no red anywhere else in the picture, apart from a tiny door on the jetty, which I didn't mind being blue as well. However, if there had been red flowers, a person (skin tones contain red), or anything else, then any reds in them would also have become blue. Even when there are only traces of red in other parts of the image it can affect the overall balance and tone, sometimes in an unwelcome manner. Make sure you examine your picture carefully before you commit the changes permanently.

6. If colours are going to be altered in parts where it's definitely not wanted then use the layer mask to protect those areas. If you look at the next picture you'll see that the hue and saturation layer, to be seen in the layers palette, now has a mask over it only allowing the blue adjustment to be seen on the boat itself. The door is now red again.:

To mask areas of the adjustment layer, go into the layers palette and click on the adjustment layer to select it. Go to the toolbox and select the 'brush tool' then choose a soft brush from the 'brush presets' in the menu bar at the top. Choose an appropriate size to work with then select black as your foreground colour and begin brushing over those areas of your picture that you don't want to be affected by the adustment layer. If you make a mistake change the foreground colour to white, in the toolbox, and 'paint' it back. Remember ........ black removes the effect; the white brings it back. Paint carefully and zoom in on the area on which you're working. The soft brush means that any slight overlaps are not dramatically obvious .... there's a gradual change but you still don't want to find red edges! If getting the edges really right is critical then use a smaller, harder brush and zoom into that part of the image at 100% whilst you're working on it.

7. Using the hue and saturation adjustment layer is one way in which you can make your picture into a monochrome image. Again, go into the layers palette and click on the icon to bring up the adjustment layers and select hue and saturation. When the box opens, check the little box that says, 'colorize' and immediately the picture defaults to rather unpleasant monochrome tones of red!

Move the sliders for hue and for saturation until you find the colour and tone that satisfies you. The first one below is very lightly toned in brown and the second one has the same tone but the boat is masked, in the hue and saturation layer, to keep that the original colour:

8. Using a combination of adjustment layers and masks gives you endless options and possiblities to explore. Don't forget you can also experiment with the different effects that can be found by blending a 'colorize' adjustment layer, over the original, in one of the different blend modes or by reducing the opacity of the layer so that a hint of the original tones can be seen. Again ........... the keyword is, 'EXPERIMENT!'