http://www.digitalcameraworld.com MARCH 2020 DIGITAL CAMERA^75
TOOL SCHOOL1
Hand Tool
The Hand Tool gives you
on-image control over
colours. Toggle the tool
on, then drag over specific colours
in the image to alter the saturation
of the targeted colour range. Hold
Ctrl/Cmd and drag to target the
Hue instead of the Saturation.
Here, targeting the hue enables
us to change the colour of the
green paint splashes, giving
swift access to other colours
for an entirely different look.3
Adjustment
Layer and mask
Here we’ve applied
Hue/Saturation as an
Adjustment Layer, which means
the adjustment affects the layers
below it in the stack. You can
apply Hue/Saturation directly to
a pixel layer by going to Image >
Adjustments, but an Adjustment
Layer gives greater control: you
can edit the settings at any time,
or use a Layer Mask to make it
work selectively over the image.2
Range dropdown
As well as ‘Master’,
which targets all colours
at once, you can use this
dropdown to target six individual
colour ranges: reds, yellows,
greens, cyans, blues, magentas.
(You can fine-tune the range
further – see tip 6.) You can tweak
the Hue, Saturation or Lightness of
certain colours while leaving others
unaffected – useful not just for
altering the paint colours here, but
for all kinds of colour adjustments.4
Colorize
Tick this box to add a
colour wash over the
entire image. The initial
colour reflects your foreground
colour in the colour picker. Adjust
Hue and Saturation to alter the
colour wash. This can be a simple,
effective way to add a colour tint
to a black-and-white image.
If you use the Colorize control
in combination with a low layer
opacity, it gives you the option
to add a subtle colour shift
to a colour image.6
Adapt ranges
When you target a
colour range (see tip 2),
you’ll see four controls
that let you adapt the range of the
affected colours. The two inner
bars (the straight lines) control the
spread of colours targeted, while
the outer triangular bars change
the fall-off. You can also add to
or subtract colours from the range
with the eyedroppers. If a range is
adjusted into a different part of the
spectrum, the list of colour ranges
in the dropdown reflects this.5
Hue and
Saturation
sliders
The Hue slider alters the
colours in your image. Beginning at
0, the slider ranges from +180 to
-180. As these figures suggest, it
can be useful to think of the Hue
slider in terms of a colour wheel,
and changes to it as degrees of
rotation. Saturation controls the
intensity of the colours. Drag
right to boost colours, or left to
desaturate them. Lightness adjusts
the brightness of the colours.