Chapter 7. Changing and Adjusting Colors

Almost any photograph can benefit from some simple color or lighting corrections. For example, you might find that a vivid sunset you photographed ends up looking rather dull and ordinary, or that a portrait taken outdoors is too dark to discern any details. Luckily, you’re never stuck with a roll of inferior images. Photoshop Elements provides a powerful set of color correction tools, with both manual and automatic adjustments, so you can fine-tune your images as much as you want.

In this chapter, I’ll review Photoshop Elements’ color-correction tools and discuss which tools you may want to use, and when you’ll most likely want to use them. I’ll also show you how to help colors display and print accurately (also known as color management) and how to correct colors and tonal values in your images. Along the way, I’ll shed some light on why what may appear to be the most obvious color-enhancement options are not always the best choices for improving the color in an image.

About Color Models and Color Modes

No matter how your images got into the computer, whether from a scanner, a digital camera, or copied from a stock art CD, the version of the image stored on your hard disk can only approximate the colors of the original scene. A computer is only capable of dealing with numbers, so it somehow has to come up with numerical equivalents of the colors perceived by our eyes.

Computers use number systems, called color models, to display and reproduce color. One of the most common is the RGB color model. In this model, the color of each pixel is described as combinations of different amounts of the colors red, green, and blue. These colors were chosen because the cells in our eyes that respond to color (called cones) come in three types; some are sensitive to red, some to green, and some to blue. Therefore, the RGB model tries to characterize colors in a way that’s similar to the way the human eye perceives them.

Color Modes

A color mode specifies which color model will display and print your images. Elements includes four color modes—RGB, Grayscale, Bitmap, and Indexed. (Another common mode, CMYK, is not supported; it’s primarily used for print publishing.)

• RGB mode. RGB stands for red, green, and blue, which are the three color channels your eyes perceive . These are also the three color phosphors used in your computer monitor to display color. The combination of these channels creates the full-color image you see. Many selection and correction options allow you to adjust these colors independently.

An RGB image is made up of three separate color channels: Red, Green, and Blue. (Each channel contains only its color’s hues, which are represented in grayscale when viewed separately like this.)

• Grayscale mode. A grayscale image is made up of 256 unique shades of gray . Converting from RGB to Grayscale reduces the image to just one color channel, so the resulting image file size is about one third of the RGB version. If you’re looking to create a black and white photo, however, see “Converting to Black and White,” later in this chapter.

Grayscale mode converts the color channels to shades of gray.

• Bitmap mode. A bitmap image really is a black-and-white image, because during the conversion, each pixel is rendered as black or white .

You can convert any grayscale image to a bitmapped image (here enlarged to 100 percent to show the texture).

• Indexed mode. The indexed color version of an image is limited to a maximum of 256 colors, and is used when you’re preparing images strictly for viewing on computer monitors. In most cases you won’t convert photos to this mode but will instead use the Save for Web dialog (see Chapter 12).

To change color mode:

1. From the Image menu, select Mode and choose one of the color modes. The Bitmap and Indexed Color options present you with conversion options; the Grayscale option displays a dialog asking if you want to discard the color information .

   

   Converting from RGB to Grayscale discards the color information.

2. Click OK.

Managing color

You’ve learned some color basics, but before going any further, you may want to take a couple of steps to ensure that the color you see on your monitor will be reasonably accurate when you decide to print or send images to the Web. Fortunately, color management in Elements is simple and doesn’t require any labor-intensive chores on your part.

You should first make sure the colors you see on the monitor are reasonably accurate and represent what others will see on their monitors. Calibrating your monitor is a particularly good idea if you have an older monitor or have inherited it from a friend or relative (you don’t know what they might have done to the monitor settings). If you have a newer monitor, it probably came with an accurate calibration from the factory.

Windows includes a color calibration tool in the Displays control panel. Or, turn to tools such as Datacolor’s Spyder (spyder.datacolor.com).

If you prefer, you can also choose color settings optimized for either Web graphics or color printing.

To choose color settings:

From the Edit menu, choose Color Settings.

The Color Settings dialog appears with three color management options plus the option to choose No Color Management .

Choose a color management option best suited to the final output of your image.

• Always Optimize Colors for Computer Screens displays images based on the sRGB (standard RGB) color profile and is the default setting. It’s a good all-around solution, particularly if you are creating images to be viewed primarily onscreen.

• Always Optimize for Printing displays color based on the AdobeRGB profile. Although the image you see onscreen may display with only subtle color differences (as compared to sRGB), you will generally get truer, more accurate color when you send the image to print.

• Allow Me to Choose will default to sRGB, but if the image contains no color profile, you’ll have the option of choosing AdobeRGB.

Converting to Black and White

Taking a color photograph and making it black and white (well, technically grayscale) can involve more than just draining the color. The RGB values can be adjusted to highlight different tones in the final image and the contrast can be changed—edits you could perform separately later. But the Convert to Black and White dialog rolls them into one place and throws in some handy presets, too.

To convert an image to black and white:

1. Open the image you want to convert.
2. From the Enhance menu, choose Convert to Black and White (or press Ctrl+Alt+B) to open the similarly-named dialog .

   

   The Convert to Black and White dialog includes many adjustments you likely would have made anyway.

3. Optionally, choose a preset from the Select a style list that matches the type of image you’re editing .

   

   Elements includes several preset styles that can get you started.

4. If you want to change the black and white photo’s appearance, use the Adjust Intensity sliders .

   

   Experiment with the Adjust Intensity sliders to get the look you want.

5. When you’re satisfied with the result in the preview, click OK. The photo is converted to black and white .

   

   You may not be Ansel, but you’re getting there.

Removing Color

Unlike converting to black and white (which removes all color information from an image), you can use the Remove Color command to remove color from just a portion of an image. This feature can be used to great effect for highlighting or dimming specific areas, creating neutral fields in which to place type, or as a first step before applying a colorization or color tint effect.

To apply the Remove Color command:

1. Using any of the selection or marquee tools, select the area of your image from which you want to remove the color .

   

   Select the area you want to convert to grayscale.

2. From the Enhance menu, choose Adjust Color > Remove Color, or press Ctrl+Shift+U.

   All color is removed from the selected areas of the image and replaced by levels of gray .

   

   The color in the selection is removed.

About Tonal Correction

Tonal correction tends to be one of the least understood (and most intimidating) features of Elements. Mention levels and histograms and white points to even some seasoned graphics professionals, and you’ll see their eyes begin to glaze. That’s a shame, because there’s really no magic involved.

In plain terms, correcting tonal range simply comes down to adjusting brightness and contrast. Elements offers several ways to make automatic brightness and contrast adjustments. But the most precise and intuitive method is by using the Levels dialog, and the heart of the Levels dialog is the histogram.

Understanding histograms

The histogram is a graphic representation of the tonal range of an image. The lengths of the bars represent the number of pixels at each brightness level: from the darkest on the left to the lightest on the right. If the bars on both sides extend all the way to the left and right edges of the histogram box, the darkest pixels in the image are black, the lightest pixels are white, and the image is said to have a full tonal range . If, as in many images, the bars stop short of the edges, the darkest and lightest pixels are some shade of gray, and the image may lack contrast. In extreme circumstances, the bars may be weighted heavily to the left or right, with the tonal range favoring either the shadows or highlights . Whatever the tonal range, the brightness and contrast of an image can be adjusted using sliders located beneath the histogram in the Levels dialog (see “Adjusting Levels Manually,” later in this chapter).

A photo displaying full tonal range and its accompanying histogram. Note how the histogram extends all the way to the left and right, indicating that pure blacks are present in the darkest shadow areas and pure whites are present in the lightest highlight areas. The fairly uniform peaks and valleys throughout the middle portion of the histogram also indicate sufficient pixel data present in the midtones.

Here’s the same image, this time too bright and with insufficient contrast. Note the lack of data on the left end, indicating a lack of black pixels, and the abundance of data on the right, indicating very light tones.

Adjusting Camera Raw Photos

Many digital cameras save photos in camera raw format, which is the unedited data captured by the camera’s image sensor; each manufacturer uses its own proprietary specifications, so you’ll see files ending in .NEF, .CRW, or others. Camera raw gives you more options for adjusting an image—the camera hasn’t already made choices for sharpening or tonal balance for you.

Unlike changes made in Photoshop Elements, however, the modifications you make in the Camera Raw dialog are saved alongside your image, so you can go back and tweak the raw settings later if you want.

To adjust camera raw images:

1. Open an image. If the file is in camera raw format, the Camera Raw dialog appears .

   

   Camera Raw gives you an opportunity to adjust the raw, unedited image data.

2. If you want to give the dialog first crack at the image, click Auto above the adjustment sliders. Otherwise, edit the settings by dragging each slider . Here’s a breakdown of what they do:

   

   The Camera Raw dialog contains many adjustment tools for correcting an image before it’s opened in Elements.

   • White Balance. The Temperature and Tint sliders make the photo warmer or cooler. (The Auto button doesn’t apply to White Balance settings.)

   • Exposure brightens or darkens the image.

   • Recovery pulls detail out of blown-out (very bright) areas.

   • Fill Light brightens midtones without overexposing the image.

   • Blacks pushes darker areas to black.

   • Brightness raises or lowers the overall illumination.

   • Contrast applies contrast to the image’s midtones.

   • Clarity sharpens the image by detecting and working on edges, as opposed to sharpening everything.

   • Vibrance applies saturation but doesn’t allow colors to become clipped (blown out).

   • Saturation increases or decreases the color intensity as a whole.

   More controls are available in the detail tab (click the icon with two triangles):

   • Sharpening offers the same type of controls discussed in Chapter 6; the settings are applied to the entire image.

   • Noise Reduction works to remove the digital spottiness caused by shooting in low-light situations or at high ISO settings. The Luminance slider applies to grayscale noise, while the Color slider affects chroma noise, or noise made up of multiple colors.

3. The Camera Raw dialog also includes several tools found in Elements ; if you need to rotate the image, for example, you may as well do it here.

   

   The following tools are available if you want to make the adjustments here (left to right): Zoom, Move, Eyedropper (for identifying white point), Crop, Straighten, Fix Red-Eye, Preferences (for the Camera Raw dialog), and Rotate counter-clockwise and clockwise.

4. Click the Open Image button to apply the adjustments and open the file in Elements .

   

   When you’re happy with the results, click the Open Image button.

Adjusting Levels Automatically

Photoshop Elements gives you the option of applying a quick fix to image levels and contrast with the Auto Levels and Auto Contrast commands. Although I recommend working with the histogram in the Levels dialog, the auto commands can be a good jumping-off point before launching into more controlled, manual image correction. The auto commands tend to be most successful when applied to a photograph that contains an average tonal range; one where most of the image detail is concentrated in the midtones. Midtones are those tonal values that fall about halfway between the darkest and lightest values. Midtone areas tend to contain more image information—more visible detail, that is—than extremely dark or light areas. Photos with predominant midtones—whether in grayscale or in color—are usually the best candidates for auto correction. Severely overexposed or underexposed images may be beyond help. If the camera or scanner didn’t capture the detail in the first place, it’s not there to be corrected.

To apply Auto Levels to an image:

1. From the Enhance menu, choose Auto Levels, or press Ctrl+Shift+L.

   Photoshop Elements instantly adjusts the image’s tonal range .

   

   The photo on the top lacks sufficient tonal range, particularly in the highlight and lighter midtone areas. The photo on the bottom, corrected with the Auto Levels command, reveals more detail in both the shadow and highlight areas because the pixels have been distributed across the full tonal range.

2. If you’re not happy with the result, select Edit > Undo Auto Levels, or press Ctrl+Z.

To apply Auto Contrast to an image:

1. From the Enhance menu, choose Auto Contrast, or press Alt+Ctrl+Shift+L .

   

   Choose Enhance > Auto Contrast to apply an instant contrast fix to your image.

   Photoshop Elements instantly adjusts the image’s contrast .

   

   The photo on the top lacks sufficient contrast, so detail is lost in both the shadow and highlight areas. The photo on the bottom, corrected with Auto Contrast, reveals detail not present in the original.

2. To undo, choose Edit > Undo Auto Contrast, or press Ctrl+Z .

Adjusting Levels Manually

The Levels dialog can do more to improve the overall tonal quality of your image than any other workspace in Elements. Many images, whether scanned or imported from a digital camera, don’t contain the full tonal range, and as a result lack sufficient contrast. That lack of contrast translates into loss of detail, usually most noticeably in the shadow and highlight areas. Using the histogram and sliders in the Levels dialog, you darken the darkest pixels and lighten the lightest ones to improve contrast, then adjust the brightness levels in the midtones.

To adjust the tonal range:

1. From the Enhance menu, choose Adjust Lighting > Levels, or press Ctrl+L to open the Levels dialog .

   

   The Levels dialog.

2. Select the Preview box and drag the slider on the left until it rests directly below the left edge of the histogram . The image darkens as the darkest pixels in the image move closer to black.

   

   Moving the left slider underneath the left edge of the histogram spreads the darker pixels more evenly into the dark areas of the midtones and shifts the darkest pixels to black.

3. Drag the slider on the right until it rests directly below the right edge of the graph . The image lightens as the lightest pixels move closer to white.

   

   The right slider affects the lightest pixels in the image. Moving the right slider underneath the right edge of the histogram spreads the lighter pixels more evenly into the light areas of the midtones and shifts the lightest pixels to white, resulting in more detail in the highlight areas.

4. Drag the middle slider to the left or right to adjust the brightness level of the pixels that fall in the midtones.
5. Click OK to close the Levels dialog.

Adjusting Lighting

Overexposed background images and underexposed foreground subjects are a common problem for most amateur photographers. Much like the Levels command, the Shadows/Highlights dialog operates on pixels in specific tonal ranges while leaving the other tonal ranges alone.

To lighten detail in shadow:

1. From the Enhance menu, choose Adjust Lighting > Shadows/Highlights.

   The Shadows/Highlights dialog appears .

   

   The Shadows/Highlights dialog.

2. In the Shadows/Highlights dialog, do one or all of the following:

   • Drag the Lighten Shadows slider to the right to lessen the effect of the shadows, or to the left to introduce shadow back into the image.

   • Drag the Darken Highlights slider to the right until you’re satisfied with the detail in the foreground or other brightly lit areas.

   • Drag the Midtone Contrast slider to the right to increase the contrast, or to the left to decrease the contrast.

3. Click OK to close the Shadows/Highlights dialog and apply the changes .

   

   The top photo is underexposed in the foreground, so detail in the girl’s face is hidden in shadow. In the bottom photo, making adjustments with the Lighten Shadows and the Midtone Contrast sliders selectively brightens and enhances detail in both her face and shirt.

Fixing lighting using Photomerge Exposure

Another way to deal with photos that contain over- or underexposed areas is to run them through the Photomerge Exposure feature. When you’re shooting, especially in difficult lighting situations, put your camera into its bracketing mode, which captures successive shots and applies a different level of exposure compensation for each; typically, you’ll get three shots with EV (Exposure bias Value) settings of –1, 0, and +1. Capture them in burst mode to minimize movement between shots.

To fix lighting using Photomerge Exposure (Automatic mode):

1. Open two or more related images with different exposures and select them in the Project Bin.

   

   I shot three different exposures to capture detail in the foreground and the background.

2. Choose File > New > Photomerge Exposure. Or, switch to the Guided Edit mode and click Exposure under the Photomerge heading.

   Elements examines the files and opens the Photomerge Exposure interface in Automatic mode .

   

   The automatic merge did a pretty good job, but the colors are a bit too saturated.

3. Use the following controls to adjust the appearance :

   

   Adjust the blend settings to balance highlights, shadows, and saturation.

   • Highlight Details adds more details to highlight areas, which can make the image darker.

   • Shadows lightens or darkens shadow areas.

   • Saturation boosts or tones down the colors.

   You can also switch from Smart Blending to Simple Blending, but doing so disables the additional controls.

4. Click Done.

To fix lighting using Photomerge Exposure (Manual mode):

1. If you’re not happy with the automatic results, or you want more control over how the feature is applied, click the Manual tab.
2. In the Project Bin, click a photo that has a good foreground exposure.
3. Drag a photo with good background exposure to the Background pane .

   

   The image with the yellow border here has a better sky, so I’m using it as the background.

4. With the Selection Tool active, paint the foreground area you want to appear against the background image . Use the Eraser Tool to clean up edges of your selection.

   

   Paint an area from the foreground image to selectively choose what appears in the final image.

5. Use the Transparency slider to control how much the areas are blended—this is helpful if the foreground image is too bright, for example.
6. Click the Edge Blending checkbox to smooth the areas that overlap in the final image.
7. Click Done to create a new merged image .

   

   The final image retains the dramatic background and sheds more light on the poor soul who woke up early to capture this photo.

Adjusting Color

Color cast refers to a general shift of color to one extreme or another: An image can be said to have a yellow or red cast, for instance. Although sometimes introduced into images intentionally (to create a certain mood or effect), color casts are usually unhappy accidents. They can result from any number of circumstances, from a scanner in need of calibrating to tired chemicals in a film developer’s lab. Even light from a fluorescent bulb can create unwanted color shifts in photographs.

Thankfully, Elements gives you several ways to deal with color cast: a wonderful little automatic menu command, a dialog that allows you to manually color-correct an image by adding and subtracting color values in small increments, a dialog for adjusting color curves, and a feature that can dramatically improve skin tones.

To adjust color with the Auto Color Correction command:

From the Enhance menu, choose Auto Color Correction, or press Ctrl+Shift+B .

Choose Auto Color Correction from the Enhance menu to automatically remove color cast from your image.

That’s it. Photoshop Elements performs some elegant, behind-the-scenes magic, examining the image’s color channels and histogram and performing a little math, and voilà—no more color cast.

To adjust color using color curves:

1. From the Enhance menu, choose Adjust Color > Adjust Color Curves to open the Adjust Color Curves dialog.
2. To go with one of Elements’ suggestions, click one of the styles at left . You can also drag the sliders under Adjust Sliders to manually tweak highlights, midtone brightness and contrast, or shadows. The points on the color curve to the right represent each setting.

   

   The Adjust Color Curves feature provides one more way of fine-tuning an image’s color.

3. Click OK to apply the color changes.

To adjust color in an image based on skin tones:

1. From the Enhance menu, choose Adjust Color > Adjust Color for Skin Tone to open the Adjust Color for Skin Tone dialog.
2. Check that the Preview checkbox is selected, and then move the cursor onto the photo until it becomes an eyedropper. Click with the eyedropper on any part of a person’s skin .

   

   The eyedropper samples skin tones in a photo and then makes a best-guess color correction.

   Photoshop Elements adjusts the color in the entire image, but pays special attention to the skin tones.

3. If you’re not satisfied with the results, click a different area of skin, or use the sliders to fine-tune the color change .

   

   Use dialog sliders to make manual skin tone corrections.

4. Click OK to close the dialog and set the color changes.

To remove color cast with the Color Variations dialog:

1. From the Enhance menu, choose Adjust Color > Color Variations.
2. Determine the color cast of your image.

   Because Elements doesn’t offer any help in determining color cast, you’re pretty much on your own here. Look for clues to color cast in objects or areas you are familiar with and can make good, educated guesses on. Ask yourself if that bright blue sky is looking a little yellow, or if those leafy greens have a little pink tinge to them, and then work from there.

3. In the lower portion of the dialog, click the thumbnail with the description that best describes what you need to do (Increase Red, Decrease Blue, and so on) while referring to the After view in the top half of the dialog .

   

   The core of the Color Variations dialog is the lower, thumbnail button area. Each time you click a thumbnail you apply a slight color shift to your image. The thumbnails can be clicked any number of times and in any combination.

4. Continue to click any combination of thumbnails, as many times as necessary, until the After view looks satisfactory.
5. Click OK to close the Color Variations dialog and view your corrected image.

The Amount slider is a bit of a brute force mechanism, but it works well with trial and error.

Replacing Color

The Replace Color command does just what you would expect it to do, and does it very well indeed. In a nutshell, it allows you to select a specific color, either across an entire image or in an isolated area of an image, and then change not only the color but its saturation and lightness values as well. Eyedropper tools let you add and subtract colors to be replaced, whereas a slider control softens the transition between the colors you choose and those around them. I’ve seen this used to great effect on projects as varied as experimenting with different color schemes before painting a house’s trim to changing the color of a favorite uncle’s tie so that it no longer clashes with his suit.

To replace color across an entire image:

1. From the Enhance menu, choose Adjust Color > Replace Color.
2. In the Replace Color dialog, click the Selection radio button under the image preview box .

   

   Options under the image preview box let you choose whether to view your color selections or just the image.

   When the Replace Color dialog is open, your pointer will automatically change to an eyedropper tool when you move it over your image.

3. With the eyedropper tool, click in the image to select the color you want to change .

   

   Click the actual image in the image window to make a color selection.

   The color selection appears as a white area in the image preview of the Replace Color dialog .

   

   The image preview area of the Replace Color dialog shows selected colors as white or shades of gray.

4. To expand the selection and include similar colors, drag the Fuzziness slider to the right. To contract the selection and exclude similar colors, drag the Fuzziness slider to the left.

   You may want to expand or contract your selection beyond the limits of the Fuzziness slider. If parts of a selection fall too heavily in shadow or highlight, or have very reflective surfaces, you may need to make additional color selections or deletions.

5. To add a color to the selection, Shift-click the eyedropper tool in another area of the image. To subtract a color from the selection, press Alt and click.

   The dialog contains separate add and subtract eyedropper tools, but the keyboard shortcuts provide a much more efficient way to modify your color selections.

6. With the Preview checkbox selected, drag the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders until you achieve the desired color effect.

   

   Drag the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders until you capture the right color effect. You may have to experiment a little until you get it just right.

   These sliders operate just like the ones in the Hue/Saturation dialog. The Hue slider controls the actual color change; the Saturation slider controls the intensity of the color, from muted to pure; and the Lightness slider controls the color’s brightness value, adding either black or white.

7. Click OK to close the Replace Color dialog and view your corrected image.

To replace color in a specific area of an image:

1. In the image window, make a selection around the area to which you want to apply the color change .

   

   Any selections you make are reflected in the Replace Color dialog.

2. From the Enhance menu, choose Adjust Color > Replace Color.
3. In the Replace Color dialog, click the Image button under the image preview. A detail view of your selection appears. When the Replace Color dialog is open, your pointer automatically changes to an eyedropper tool.
4. With the eyedropper tool, click in the image preview box of the Replace Color dialog to select the color you want to change .

   

   Click the image within the Replace Color dialog to make a color selection.

5. Click the Selection radio button to toggle to the Selection view.
6. To add or subtract a color from the selection, click the Image button to toggle back to that view; then use the keyboard shortcuts, as described in the previous procedure, to adjust the selection.
7. Use the Fuzziness slider to further fine-tune your selection .

   

   Increasing Fuzziness expands the selection area.

8. With the Preview checkbox selected, drag the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders until you achieve the desired color.
9. Click OK to apply your changes.

Adding a Color Tint to an Image

Using a technique called colorization, you can add a single color tint to your images, simulating the look of a hand-applied color wash or the warm, antique glow of an old sepia-toned photograph. You can apply the effect to any image, even if it was originally saved as grayscale, as long as you first convert it to RGB. In addition to colorizing an entire image, you can use layers and layer modes to tint specific areas or objects. Because the shades of color you apply are determined by the image’s original tonal values, photographs with good brightness and contrast levels make the best candidates for colorizing.

To colorize an area of an image:

1. Using any of the selection or marquee tools, select the area of your image you want to colorize. If you want to colorize an entire image, it’s not necessary to make a selection.
2. From the Enhance menu, choose Adjust Color > Adjust Hue/Saturation, or press Ctrl+U to open the Hue/Saturation dialog.
3. With the Preview checkbox selected, click the Colorize checkbox . Clicking the Colorize checkbox converts all the color in the image to a single hue.

   

   Click the Colorize checkbox to add a colored tint to any image.

4. Drag the Hue slider right or left until you arrive at the color you like .

   

   The position of the Hue slider determines the color your tinted image will be.

5. Drag the Saturation slider to adjust its values. Dragging to the left moves the color’s saturation value closer to gray, whereas dragging to the right moves its value closer to a fully saturated color.
6. Drag the Lightness slider to adjust the color’s brightness values.

   Dragging to the left dims the color’s brightness value, shifting it closer to black, whereas dragging to the right brightens its value, shifting it closer to white.

7. Click OK to close the Hue/Saturation dialog. Your image (or selection) is now composed of different values of the single color hue you selected.