MaximumPC 2008 12

PICTURE

PERFECT

Edit Hue and Saturation

Not all photos reproduce colors faithfully

O

ccasionally, a color photo doesn’t turn

out as expected. Colors may look washed

out or oversaturated or be tainted by

lighting conditions, refl ections, or a settings fault

with the camera. Sometimes you may want to

alter the color in an image for eff ect, turning a

full-color picture into a black and white one,

for example. GIMP provides two useful tools

for adjusting color: Color Balance and Hue-

Saturation. Color Balance lets you alter three

color channels, aff ecting the primary colors of

red, blue, and green and balancing each with its

complementary secondary color made up of the

remaining two channels. Hence, if you reduce

red, you eff ectively boost cyan, made up of the

combination of blue and green. Hue-Saturation

lets you isolate individual shades in an image

and alter the color’s intensity. You can remove

some or all color with this tool.

STEP BY STEP

Balance Color

1. OPEN COLOR
   BALANCE
   Launch GIMP and
   open the image
   you want to work
   on. For overall
   color adjustments,
   choose Colors >
   Color Balance.
   This enables you
   to change three
   channels—cyan/
   red, magenta/
   green, or yellow/
   blue—using
   sliders.
   3. AD@UST A
   SPECIFIC RANGE
   For greater control,
   choose Colors >
   Hue-Saturation.
   This lets you work
   with a particular
   color range. For
   example, to change
   the color of the
   benches, select
   Green and use the
   slider to ensure
   hues close to green
   are included.


2. KEEP THINGS SUBTLE
   Adjust the Hue slider to change the green color to one that’s closer to
   brown—it’s best to keep color changes subtle. Reduce the saturation a little
   to ensure the color blends well with the rest of the image and click OK.


3. OVERALL
   AD@USTMENTS
   Select Shadows,
   Midtones, or High-
   lights and use the
   sliders to adjust
   the color levels
   for each (or enter
   precise numbers
   in the fi elds next to
   the sliders). Select
   Preserve luminos-
   ity to prevent
   changing the im-
   age’s brightness.

54 | MAXIMUMPC | DEC 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com

COLOR SELECT

Pick the radio button next to the

primary or secondary color that youÊll

want to ad`ust in the image.

OVERLAP

Use this to determine the amount of over-

lap there will be with the ad`acent color

range. The effect is subtle and is useful if

you want to work with intermediary colors.

EDIT YOUR COLOR

These sliders enable you to

alter hue, lightness, and satura-

tion, so you can change the

intensity of a selected color.

To make an image monochrome, choose Colors

> Hue-Saturation and click Master.

Now move the Saturation slider to the left,

which removes all color from the image.

HOT TIP