Image Color Enhancement in Photoshop: Step-By-Step Guide

Enhancing the colors in any image can be quite an intensive and time-consuming process. However, if you’re going to learn how to use one color correction tool, the curve tool is an excellent method. It allows you to make precise color and brightness adjustments to an image. You can hire an editor for photo retouching services to perform subtle tweaks to a specific area of your image or make complete tonal changes to your entire photo. 

But if you want to edit it yourself, the curves tool allows you to quickly remap black and white levels, brighten or darken the mid-tones, and also match colors between various shots in a sequence. Let’s understand how it works.

Starting with Curves

To create a control point, click on the baseline. You can make changes by dragging the point up to lighten the image at those tones and surrounding tones. By dragging down, the image will darken at the tones around your point. 

The most fundamental change you can make is to click on the center of the curve and drag up to lighten the mid-tones. It acts similar to the Brightness feature but with more control over the focus of the effect. Instead of dragging, you can also click to create a point and then use the arrow keys to move it to the desired level. A single arrow click moves 1 point within the range 0-255, and holding the Shift key down at that time, moves it 10 points.

The Curves Tool works best for: 

• Subtle or harsh light adjustments 

• Vintage tints and fades 

• Minor color adjustments in Red, Green, and Blue 

While it can be used for adjusting brightness, the curve tool is really about contrast. Contrast defines the visual ratio of the tones in your photo. Low contrast photos, on the other hand, will look comparatively dull and almost gray. Any experienced photo editing agency will not dismiss low contrast and know it is suitable for ethereal aesthetics like the woods in fog or a flared backlit portrait at sunset. 

 A high contrast image will generally have more defined shadows and highlights, with intense saturation. Increasing contrast can enhance colors in an image. So how can you do this? 

Here is a quick step-by-step of how you can use the curves tool.

1. Step 1: Open your image in Photoshop by choosing File>Open from the menu or press Ctrl+O, select the desired image, and click the open button.

2. Step 2: Go to the menu and click Image > Mode > Lab Color. 

3. Step 3: To add a curves adjustment layer, select the image layer in the Layers panel and click on the black and white circle icon at the bottom. From the menu, choose Curves.

4. Step 4: On the properties panel, select Curves Display Options from the Color section.

Here you will see two grid options; selecting the one on the right will show you the histograms on a ten by ten grid, making it easier to see the approx area to move the sliders.

5. Step 5: You will see a drop-down menu showing the different color channels at the top of the panel. It will be set to Lightness by default. Feel free to adjust the color channel as you wish. 

To manipulate the color area, move the sliders at the bottom or click on the curve. You will observe changes in your image accordingly.

6. Step 6: Repeat the same process for the other channel, which changes colors from blue to yellow.

7. Step 7: Adjust the Lightness as needed. And voila! The colors in your photo should pop. 

To make more edits to the colors, add more adjustment layers to enhance the image. If you are not happy with the results, you can always seek professional help and hire an expert for photo editing services. 

The curves tool is handy and more versatile than Levels for advanced control over image contrast. You can also change colors by using the individual color channel curves or using other tools to enhance an image's colour. But, experts prefer this tool because of its accuracy. 

If you find it difficult to execute or require advanced editing services, you can contact our editing experts at Clipixie, a professional photo editing agency in India.