- Confirm the colors in the image window. The nu-
merical values at the bottom of the dialog box read
195°/225° and 255°\285°. According to the color wheel
chart, this tells you Photoshop is prepared to modify
the colors between ultramarine (225°) and indigo
(255°), centered at blue. The change will taper off as
the colors decline to sky (195°) and purple (285°).
Move your cursor outside the Hue/Saturation dialog
box so that it becomes an eyedropper. Click below
the treehouse, at the location indicated by the eye-
dropper cursor in Figure 6-19. The numbers at the
bottom of the dialog box should shift to something
in the neighborhood of 175°/205° and 235°\265°. (If
your numbers differ by more than 5 degrees, move
your cursor slightly and click again.) This translates
to a range of cobalt (205°) to blue (235°), with a soft-
ening as far away as cyan (175°) and violet (270°). In
other words, Photoshop has shifted the focus of the
adjustment by –20 degrees; so instead of changing the
blues in the image, you’re all set to change the slightly
greener ultramarines.
Admittedly, this is a lot of theory, but a single click is
all it takes to put the theory into practice. And now that
we’ve isolated the sky, it seems a click worth making. - Lower the Hue and Saturation values. Reduce the
Hue value to –10 degrees to return the sky to its former
color range. Then reduce the Saturation value to –40
percent to take some of the intensity out of the sky.
Photoshop CS4 introduced another way to work. Labeled in
Figure 6-19, the targeted adjustment tool lets you change
specific colors by dragging them. Click the tool to select
it. Then drag in a portion of the image, such as the sky, to
change its Saturation setting. Press Ctrl (or �) and drag to
change the Hue. Either way, drag left to lower the value or
right to raise it. With some practice, you can use this one tool
to replicate this entire page of steps.- Click OK. Or press Enter or Return to accept your
changes. The image is now an accurate representation
of the scene as I saw it. But I’d like to take it further
still using a saturation editor that was introduced in
Photoshop CS4, Vibrance.
Figure 6-19.Targeted
adjustment
toolPeaRl Of WISDOm
You can also use the Hue/Saturation command to desaturate
the colors in your image, rendering a previously garish
color photo a stark, bold grayscale image. But often better
techniques give you more control. For a look at a variety of
ways to convert your color image to black and white, see
the sidebar “Converting an Image to Black and White,” on
the next page.Tint and Color 191