Comments on: Turn Ho-Hum Color into WOW! with Photoshop

By: Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:41:28 +0000

@Karen

There are two possibilities here. One is that you are slightly off in your alignment on the b channel when adjusting the curve. If the line doesn’t go exactly through the middle of the chart – ie if the curve goes slightly off centre you will build in a colour cast.

Alternately look at the images you are using – my guess is that they are slightly cool to begin with – try fixing the blue colour cast before you go to Lab – this process accentuates the colours in the image so if you start with a colour cast you’ll end up with a worse one.

If you like everything else but the effect in the whites – use blendif slider on the whites in the image on this top layer to effectively mask out the whites and remove them from the fix.

Helen

By: Karen

Karen — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:15:49 +0000

Worked fine but found that white turned a bluish cast and required remonal each time I used this technique

By: Anna

Anna — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 04:10:10 +0000

How do you record this action to reuse it?

By: Diana Mikaels

Diana Mikaels — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 01:17:16 +0000

Thanks a lot Helen! You are doing a great job. I’ve read many of your tutorials, and they are just excellent You may be proud of yourself!
I found it particularly useful to know what Lab Mode actually means, and that you can use an ‘action’ to spare time. I want my color shots to look like color shots, that is, vivid. If I wanted monocrome or grayscale, then I also know what to do!
I became curious about Lab Mode on a different tutorial. It connected Lab Mode with USM Unsharp Mask, in order to avoid halos and artifacts.
Very good!! I’m glad I read this

By: Shane

Shane — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 19:59:11 +0000

This tip is wonderful. My pictures look like they did to me when I decided to take them. Awesome advice.

By: okanagaon photographer

okanagaon photographer — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:50:11 +0000

LAB Color can be so amazing when used properly. Thanks for some more good tips.

By: Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:16:12 +0000

@Marius – settle for the out of gamut areas. I get great big areas in my images too. However, when you return to RGB you will find most, if not all, of them disappear on the trip back.

@beginner4ever check the curves dialog for a small grid icon and click that to get more ‘boxes’. If you are using CS4 then you need to click the flyout menu and choose Curves Dialog Options to see the grid icon.

Helen

By: Beginner4ever

Beginner4ever — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:19:12 +0000

why dont i have as many boxes in my curves adjustment screen?

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 20:04:43 +0000

Thank you for this! I’ve never used Lab before. I tried it out on a random shot while reading over this and WOW. Just wow. I can already tell your tip will be a godsend for this budding photographer.

By: Nurul

Nurul — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:10:27 +0000

I find this very helpful..thank u so much for sharing! ^_^