Photoshop Tutorials 08:photoshop6 Colorful

The tutorial asks a question: What is the most wonderful thing about Photoshop? Maybe you'll tell me it's a channel, a layer or a filter? These answers are all right! But the most fascinating thing about PHOTOSHOP6 is "color adjustment." I wonder if you have ever tampered with the color adjustment on your home TV. If you are one of them, you will be surprised by the powerful adjustment tools of Photoshop. This solution will allow you to fully appreciate the beauty of Photoshop magic. The sky is going to be sunset when the sun shines high at noon. Photoshop has a complete set of tuning tools, as shown in Figure 8-01.

Figure 8-01

The menu in the diagram is the Adjust command, which is located under the Graphics menu, these include: levels, automatic levels, automatic contrast, curve adjustment, color adjustment, brightness/contrast, hue/color saturation, color removal, replacement color, selected color, channel mixer, inversion, equality, threshold, tone separation, change, and other directives. You can choose from the current color and color patterns, the contents of the previous section is critical, you may wish to review the previous section before you study this section.

Adjust with change

In the adjustment, the most significant change is the direct comparison of image adjustment before and after the difference. In Photoshop6, the command to perform this action is the change, the last item in the Color-adjustment menu. Change is actually an easy-to-use system composed of several image adjustment tools. You can use this command to adjust the hue and brightness of the image, observe the contrast effect by using thumbnails, and then click the most satisfying thumbnail with your mouse. The Change dialog box is shown in Figure 8-02.

Figure 8-02

The options in the upper-right corner of the dialog box are darkened, midtones, or saturation, adjust them individually, and then move the triangular slider between the fine and the rough to determine the number of adjustments each time (the slider moves one block and the number of adjustments doubles).

The adjustment method is: If you want to add color to the image, just click the appropriate color thumbnail. To subtract the color from the image, click the relative color on the color wheel.

The two thumbnails at the top of the dialog box are the original image (or the original selection) and the Pre view (or Preview selection) of the adjustment effect. The thumbnail on the right is used to adjust the brightness of the image (click one of the thumbnails and all thumbnails will change). The middle thumbnail is a reflection of the current adjustment situation. The following diagram represents the addition of a color (if you want to add color to the image, just click the appropriate color thumbnail.) To subtract the color from the image, click the relative color on the color wheel.

With so many boring things to say, here's an example.

1 open a color image file. Select,, command.

2 According to the need to adjust the content, choose darkened, intermediate harmonic high light or saturation four options to adjust the content.

3 Use the move between fine and rough triangle slider to determine how much to adjust. Change the color of the image by clicking the appropriate thumbnail in the dialog box. To add a color, click the color's thumbnail. To reduce a color, click the thumbnail of the color that complements the color. To adjust the brightness of the image, click the lighter and darker two graphs to the right of the dialog box, as shown in Figure 8-06.

Figure 8-06

4 If you feel the adjustment is a bit overdone, to return to the original image, you can press the main ALT key Cancel will become the reset key. Click Rebuild to return the image to the original image.

5) Click OK to complete.

Adjusting with levels of color

The level menu is the first, and the next is the dialog box shown in Figure 8-09.

Figure 8-09

The options for the channel Drop-down list (where the options will vary depending on the pattern of the image), as shown in Figure 8-10, can be used to adjust the composite channel or monochrome channel separately, or to adjust several monochrome channels simultaneously (such as "RG", which represents the red and green channels). The method is to hold down the SHIFT key and select the channel in the Channel floating window. When selected, the channel options Bar will display abbreviations for the selected channel, such as RGB, RG, GB or CMYK, CM, CK, and so on.

Figure 8-10

A color scale is a distinction based on the number of pixels in each luminance value (0~255) in the image. The White triangle slider on the right controls the dark part of the image, the Black triangle slider on the left controls the light-colored part of the image, and the middle gray triangle slider controls the middle color of the image. Move the slider to turn the darkest and brightest pixels in the channel (the selected channel) to black and white respectively, to adjust the tonal range of the image--so you can use it to adjust the contrast of the image: The left slider adjusts the contrast of the dark part of the image, and the white triangle on the right adjusts the contrast of the darker part of the image. The Black slider on the left shifts to the right, the image becomes darker, the contrast weakens (the white slider on the right moves to the left, the image is lighter and the contrast weakens). Each of the two sliders at the ends of the color graph represents the light and dark parts. As for the Gray Triangle slider in the middle, it controls the gamma value, while gamma also measures the contrast of the intermediate tone of the image. Changing the gamma value can change the brightness value of the middle of the image, but it will not have much effect on the dark part or the light part. Move the gray triangle slider slightly to the right, making the midtones darker, and the right slightly moving to make the midtones lighter. (The data in the input Levels dialog box represents the value of the midtones).

The dialog box displays the values you want to output, as well as the input levels: You can use numerical control, or you can use the slider control (but he only has two sliders: one is black and one is white). The Black triangle slider controls the contrast of the dark part of the image (the data in the first data box from left to right is the value of the dark part), and the White Triangle slider controls the contrast of the light part of the image (the value in the second data box). For example, if you move the White triangle slider to 158, the light pixel (255 in the input level) becomes 158, a pixel with a lower brightness value in the image changes to a darker pixel or moves the Black Triangle slider to 89, and the Dark pixel (0 in the input level) is mapped to 89. Other pixels in the image become the corresponding lighter pixels.

So many concepts, isn't it boring? Let's give an example:

1 Select a picture, open the Color Order dialog box.

2) Click the checkbox so that you can see the changes in the image at any time.

3 Move the left slider toward the center, the image will lighten, and the right slider will darken to the center image. As shown in Figure 8-18.

Figure 8-18

4) Click OK to complete the adjustment.

Adjust with curves

The Curve Adjustment dialog box, shown in Figure 8-19, has the same channel Drop-down list options bar and levels, where you can select the channel and use the same method. When you open a dialog box, the curve in the graph is in the default line state. The graph has the horizontal axis and the vertical axis, the horizontal axis represents the original brightness value of the image, corresponds to the input item in the color order; The vertical axis represents the new brightness value, which corresponds to the output item in the Color Order dialog box.

The relationship between the horizontal axis and the vertical axis can be controlled by adjusting the diagonal (curve):

1 The end of the curve in the upper right corner moves to the left, increasing the contrast of the image light, and making the image brighter (the end point moves downward, the result is the opposite). The end of the lower left corner of the curve moves to the right, increasing the contrast of the dark part of the image, darkening the image (the endpoint moves up, the result is the opposite).

2 Use the "Adjust point" to control the middle part of the diagonal (click on the curve with the mouse, you can increase the node). The slope of the curve is his gray factor, and if you add an adjustment point to the midpoint of the curve and move up, the image will brighten. Moving down this adjustment point will darken the image (actually adjust the curve's grayscale value, and drag the gray triangle in the Levels dialog box to the right to reduce the grayscale level, and drag to the left to increase the grayscale level). In addition, the input and output of the numerical box can also be controlled,

3 If you want to adjust the middle of the image, and do not want to adjust the image of the light and dark part of the effect, you have to use the mouse in the curve 1/4 and 3/4 to increase the adjustment point, and then adjust the midtones.

Figure 8-19

The adjustment of the color scale is mainly done by drawing curves. The following example illustrates:

1 curve Chart of the lower right there is a pencil option, select him, in the graph table to drag any mouse, you can draw a random curve. When you move the mouse over the graph, it becomes a pencil icon, the SHIFT key is pressed, and the chart is clicked, and the line is forced to be bound in a straight line.

2 Open a grayscale image, convert him to RGB and CMYK color mode of the image, see in two modes, the difference between the Curve dialog box. As shown in Figure 8-21.

Figure 8-21

Figure 8-21 in RGB mode (RGB is the default), when the curve shows the brightness range between 0~255, the left represents the dark part of the image (the leftmost value is 0, that is, black), the right represents the light part of the image (the rightmost value is 255, that is, white). The squares at the back of the curve correspond to the coordinates, each of which represents 64 pixels.

Figure 8-22

Figure 8-22 in CMYK mode, when the "curve" range is 0~100% (percent), the left side of the curve represents the light part of the image (the leftmost value is 0), and the right side of the curve represents the dark part of the image (the rightmost value is 100%). At this time each square is 25%.

3 the mouse click on the curve, will add an adjustment point (up to 14 adjustment points can be increased). Drag the adjustment point, you can adjust the color of the image. You can remove the adjustment point by dragging a tuning point out of the chart or by selecting a adjust point and pressing the DELETE key. Drag the endpoint or adjust point of the curve with the mouse until the image is satisfactory.

4) Click OK to complete. As shown in Figure 8-23.

Figure 8-23

Adjust with brightness/contrast

The Brightness/contrast command is the same as the previous commands: It is primarily used to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. It can be used to adjust the tonal range of the image simply. The dialog box is shown in Figure 8-24.

Figure 8-24

You can adjust the brightness and contrast by dragging the Triangle slider in the dialog box: Drag to the left, the image brightness and contrast reduced, drag to the right, the brightness and contrast increased (the value of each slider shows brightness or contrast, the range is -100~100), adjusted to fit, click OK finish.

Adjust with color balance

Before you begin to introduce the command, first understand the concept of color balance. First know the color wheel. Color wheel order is 0 degrees red, 60 degrees yellow, 120 degrees green, 180 degrees cyan, 240 degrees blue, 300 degrees magenta. Each color is a corresponding opposite color. Cyan is relative to red, green is relative to magenta, yellow is relative to blue. Color balance adjusts the color of the image, which is based on the opposite principle of color, that is, if you want to reduce a certain color, you can increase the color of the opposite color.

As shown in Figure 8-25, this is the Color Balance dialog box. It can be a general color correction, he can change the composition of the image color, but not the precise control of a single color components (monochrome channel), can only be used for composite color channels.

Figure 8-25

First, in the tonal Balance Range options bar, select the tonal range that you want to change again, including darkened areas, midtones, and high light areas. The Maintain brightness option below the options bar keeps the tonal balance in the image. In general, when you adjust an image in an RGB color mode, this option is selected to maintain the luminosity value of the image.

The main part of the dialog box is color balance, which is achieved by entering numeric values or moving the triangle slider in the Value box here. The triangle slider moves to the color that needs to be added, or drag away the color you want to reduce, you can change the color composition of the image (increase the slider close to the color, reduce the color away from), at the same time, the color bar in the three data box next to the value of the -100~100 between the changes (the corresponding value, The three value boxes represent the color variations of the R, G, and B channels, and in Lab color mode, these three values represent the color of a and B channels. Adjust the color to the satisfaction, just click OK.

Adjust with hue/saturation

The Hue/saturation command adjusts the hue, saturation, and brightness of a single color component in an image, and is a powerful image color-adjustment tool. It changes not only hue and saturation, but also changes the brightness of the image.

Let's take a look at the Hue/Saturation dialog box, as shown in Figure 8-26. The bottom of the dialog box displays two color bars that represent the position of the color on the colour wheel. The color bar above shows the color before the adjustment, and the color bar below shows how the adjustment affects all hues in a fully saturated state.

Then select the adjusted color range in the Edit Options bar menu (select the full view option to resize all colors at once, and other ranges to be modified for individual colors). If you select a different color range, an adjustment swatch appears between the two color bars at the bottom of the dialog box. You can use this to adjust the color block to edit the color. After you have determined the adjustment range, you can make the Triangle slider adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness values in the dialog box, and the colors in the image will change as the slider moves.

The value displayed in the Color bar's data box reflects the degree to which the colors rotate from the pixel's original color in the wheel. A positive value indicates a clockwise rotation, and a negative value indicates a counter-clockwise rotation. Range between the -180~180.

The greater the number of values in the saturation bar the higher the saturation (conversely the lower the saturation). The color value that he reflects when moving outward from the center of the color wheel or moving from the center of the outward color wheel to the original color. Range is -100~100.

The greater the number in the brightness bar, the higher the brightness (the lower the converse). The range of values is between -100~100.

Figure 8-26

The above operation is to the whole image of hue, saturation, brightness of the adjustment control, if selected a pixel area in advance, Photoshop 6 will only the image pixels in this area to do processing, use this to create a special purpose of the effect. Especially in Web page image design and application, this kind of change can also create the amazing animation effect. We'll have a detailed description later.

Adjust with replace color

The replacement color command replaces the color of an area in an image by creating a mask (temporary) based on a particular color in the image to adjust the hue, saturation, and lightness values.

Figure 8-27

As shown in Figure 8-27, when you open the dialog box, select the options under the Preview box (the Preview box appears black). Using the three straws in the dialog box to click the image, you can get the selection of the Mask: The Mask area (not a selection) is black, the mask area is (selection) white, and the gray area is a different degree of selection. The specific use of the option is to set the color tolerance value (the larger the number, the larger the area of the image that can be replaced), and then select the color you want to replace in the image using the Eyedropper tool in the dialog box. Continuous color with the "+" eyedropper tool increases the selection area, and the "-number" eyedropper tool continuously takes the color to reduce the selection (or it can be added directly with the SHIFT key and the ALT key is reduced).

After setting the color area you want to replace, move the Triangle slider in the Transform column to replace the hue, (saturation) and brightness, and also move the slider of the Blur bar to control (the larger the number, the higher the blur, the larger the area of the replacement color), and finalize.

Figure 8-31 is an example comparison. Figure 30 is the parameter setting in the Replace Color dialog box. Leaves from the original spring green into the yellow pages of autumn.

Figure 8-30

Figure 8-31

Adjust with reverse

The inversion command can invert the image, using him to convert the image into a negative piece, or to transform the clitoris into an image. (However, the reverse command is not valid for the scanned color film). The flip command does not have a dialog box, when executed, the brightness value of each pixel in the channel is directly converted to the opposite value on the color scale: white to black, and the other median pixel value (255-Original pixel value = new pixel value).

The effect is shown in Figure 8-32.

Figure 8-32

Adjust with tonal homogenization

Tonal homogenization enables redistribution of the brightness values of each pixel in the image: The darkest value is black (or as close as possible), the brightest value is white, and the median pixel is evenly distributed. If you select an area in the image, execute the command and bring up the tonal homogenization dialog box, as shown in Figure 8-33.

Figure 8-33

In the dialog box, if you choose to homogenization only select the region option, the command only acts on the selected area. If you select the entire image based on the selection area homogenization option, all pixels in the image are evenly distributed in reference to the pixels in the selection. The effect is shown in Figure 8-34.

Figure 8-34

Adjust with threshold value

A threshold command converts a color or grayscale image into a black-and-white image with high contrast. You can specify a certain level of color as a threshold, and then execute the command, so that pixels brighter than the specified threshold are converted to white, and pixels darker than the specified threshold are converted to black.

The histogram in the Threshold dialog box displays the pixel brightness level in the current selection. Drag the triangle slider below the histogram to the appropriate location (or enter a value in the top Data box). Click OK to finish and the effect is as shown in Figure 8-35.

Figure 8-35

Adjust with brightness/contrast

The Brightness/contrast command is the same as the previous commands: It is primarily used to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. It can be used to adjust the tonal range of the image simply. The dialog box is shown in Figure 8-36.

Figure 8-36

You can adjust the brightness and contrast by dragging the Triangle slider in the dialog box: Drag to the left, the image brightness and contrast reduced, drag to the right, the brightness and contrast increased (the value of each slider shows brightness or contrast, the range is -100~100), adjusted to fit, click OK finish. You can also enter numeric values directly.

As shown in Figure 8-37, the effect diagram after the command is executed. Figure 8-38 is the parameter setting for the Brightness and Contrast dialog box.

Figure 8-37

Figure 8-38

Other

In addition, there are automatic levels, automatic contrast, color adjustment, remove color, selected colors, channel Mixer, equality, tone separation and other commands, here is no longer introduced, you can try or refer to the above chapters to use the above orders to adjust.

Color Adjustment as one of the powerful tools of PHOTOSHOP6, its function is not only described above, we can not grasp all at once have no relationship, in the actual operation in the future slowly experience, but also to consult the Help manual.

Turn from: Dynamic Network production guide www.knowsky.com