Do you find that some of your landscape and scenic images look a little flat, with similar colors kind of merging together? Images I take on overcast or cloudy days seem to have this problem fairly frequently. A tool used in Photoshop by photo retouchers to change hue and saturation in commercial image editing can also be used effectively by photographers. It is called Replace Color.
It is an intermediate-level technique – but no worries, it’s easier than it looks at first glance!
The sample image below was taken in California in early spring, not too long before the annual wildflower and poppy bloom got into full blast. Plenty of green, with occasional patches of flowers starting up here and there.
I’ve provided “before” and “after” images . I wanted to ensure that the image showed what I actually saw when I was on-scene. Most of the normal adjustments, such as levels and curves, were completed before this round of editing started.
The Long Road - Before
The Long Road - After
In the “before” image, the green tones are often quite similar, giving the image a bit of a flat appearance – this flaw often results in a rather boring two-dimensional print. After adjustment, the green areas are much improved. The same is true for some of the yellow tones, where flowers are starting up. Replace Color did a great job of making this area “pop”.
The Replace Color tool can be found through Image>Adjustments>Replace Color. Here’s the opening dialogue box; note that I have selected the yellow/gold area in the background – they show in white in the black selection box. It is a group of flowers that I wanted to emphasize.
Key parts of this tool include the eyedroppers, the Fuzziness slider, and the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders.
If you use the eyedropper on the left, you can select a color to replace or adjust. Once that color is selected, you can broaden or narrow the selection by moving the Fuzziness slider left or right.
Note how the selection increases as I move the slider to the right. See how the white areas in the selection box on the left have gotten larger.
Replace Color - Increase "Fuzziness"
Just about any color you wish can be selected using the eyedropper with the plus sign. Colors can be unselected by using the eyedropper with the minus sign.
Once a targeted color is selected as desired, you can adjust it by using:
- the Hue slider to change the color
- the Saturation slider to increase or decrease saturation
- the Lightness slider to increase luminance of the selected color, or color range
… and double clicking on the color square on the lower right will open a dialogue that is pretty much identical to the Color Picker (you can use this to select just about any combination of hue, saturation, or lightness).
Here’s another review of how this works:
- First, select an area of colors that are part of a feature in the landscape that you want to emphasize or de-emphasize.
- Next, move the fuzziness slider left or right to adjust your selection.
- Next, try the lightness slider. It’s usually best to start with small adjustments – a little goes a long way. Bring luminance up or down to suit your goals for the image.
- It can also be useful to make small adjustments in saturation. If you push saturation up, be aware that an aggressive adjustment may result in loss of detail in print.
- If you want to tweak the color itself, try the Hue slider in VERY small movements, usually 1 point at a time. The change from yellow to green required only a modest shift to the right with the Hue slider.
Hue Adjustment
**Note that color square at the top of the dialogue shows the “before” color, and the Result square at the bottom shows the sum of your adjustments – this makes step by step comparisons easy.**
You can repeat these adjustments, in most cases, in many areas and colors, in the image.
With a bit of practice, you’ll be able to develop subtle, and very pleasing tonal separations in areas that previously merged together. Work on one color or variation of color at a time. Small adjustments go a long way.
Practice will also enable you to make these adjustments and still keep the image looking “natural”. You can also use Replace Color to adjust larger areas, such as sky or water.
Click here or on the Workshops tab at the top of this page to see schedule for Mastering Digital Printing workshop on Feb 10 and Feb 17.
(A final note: I encourage you to consider using Soft Proofing in Photoshop when making this kind of adjustment, so your on-screen color can shoe what your print will really look like. (see this link for a full-length article on screen to print match and soft proofing).
All images © David Saffir
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