Click here to read a comprehensive tutorial about level adjustments. (PDF)

Click here to view a tutorial about adjusting the curves.

 

Vintage Colors Made Easy with Level Adjustments

Learn how to tweak the levels in order to get these old-school tones:

 

 

Below is the original shot. The reason why I chose this one and not another (close-up) shot is because I liked the intimate lighting and the model's face expression in this one the most. And since the image will only be published online, the resolution does not really matter.

 

 

The first step was obviously the cropping of the image, so that the mysterious face fills the entire picture. I also had Photoshop adjust the levels automatically by pressing Ctrl+Shift+L. Then the image looked like this:

 

 

Now it's time for the actual point of this exercise. I opened the levels window (Ctrl+L) and adjusted the input levels of the red channel by moving the black arrow a little bit to the right:

 

 

After that I tweaked the output levels of the blue channel like this, moving the white arrow to the left:

 

 

The result is this image:

 

 

Finally I cleaned the skin using the clone stamp tool and the spot healing brush tool (shotcut key: J), brightened the white areas of the eyes a little bit with the dodge tool (O), made the lips shine more by selecting them using the elliptical marquee tool (M) and auto-adjusting the levels of the selection (Ctrl+Shift+L), and I removed the noise, increased the contrast and made the skin even smoother using the Noise Ninja plugin. The final result looks like this:

 

 

Should you have any problems or questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

 

Photoshop offers a variety of photo filters under Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter or Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter. See the filters in action:

 

 

 

Most RAW photo programs offer vibrance adjustments. With Photoshop CS4 it is possible to increase the vibrance for JPG images as well. Click on Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Vibrance (or Hue/Saturation) or Image > Adjustments > Vibrance (or Hue/Saturation). Increasing the vibrance or saturation results in vivid and powerful colors, as you can see here:

 

 

Decrease the vibrance level if you want to go for a more depressive look:

 

 

Click here to read more about vibrance and saturation.

 

 

By converting the photo to black and white you can eliminate distracting colors and focus entirely on shapes. Black and white colors also allow higher contrasts, which makes the image more powerful:

 

 

Photoshop CS4 allows you to create a black and white adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White). Click here to see more conversion techniques.

 

 

The term “cross-processing” sounds very technical and abstract. However, the technique to manipulate your images digitally as if they were cross-processed is very easy. But what is cross-processing actually?

 

Cross-processing, briefly, is a photographic technique where slide film (E6) is processed in the set of chemicals usually used to process print film (C41). The result is images with oddly skewed colors (usually with a cyan hue) and increased contrast and saturation because the high-contrast slides have to be enlarged on a paper which is actually intended for print films with less contrast.

 

Less common is cross-processing in the other direction–-print film processed in slide film chemicals. The result you get then is lifeless images in subdued colors because the chemicals intended for slide films compress the lights on the already low-contrast print films. Moreover, you can never be sure what colors you will actually get.

 

The film material is extremely and irreversibly modified due to the cross-processing technique; therefore, the advantages of the digital cross-processing simulation are obvious. And the key for digital cross-processing is the modification of the curves.

 

Process a slide film like a print film

 

 

1. Open the picture you want to process.

2. Press Ctrl+M to open the curves window or click on Image > Adjustments > Curves.

3. Modify the curves for RGB and all channels (red, blue, green) as shown in the pictures below:

 

 

 

 

 

4. These curves are only the beginning; you will probably have to slightly tweak them to satisfy your needs.

 

5. Don’t worry about the brightness too much. Just play around with the curves and focus on the contrast and colors first. After finishing the curves, adjust the levels (Ctrl+L) and make your picture brighter by sliding the small right arrow below the histogram a bit to the left.

 

Click here to read another cross-processing tutorial.

 

 

After selecting the burn or dodge tool by pressing O, you can darken/brighten parts of the image by just painting over it.

 

While a monotone image is created with only one color, a duotone (tritone, quadtone) image is created with two (three, four) colors. In Photoshop, convert your image to greyscale first (Image > Mode > Greyscale), then click on Image > Mode > Duotone. Click here to read a more detailed tutorial. Here's a duotone exampe image:

 

 

 

Your main object remains colored while the rest is converted to black and white. Click here to watch video tutorials of various selective coloring techniques.

 

Additionally, you could color the important parts of the image the way you want, leaving peripheral objects black and white. Here's how to:

 

 

1. Open the picture you want to color and desaturate it (because you can only color a greyscale image). In Photoshop, click on Image > Adjustments > Desaturate or press Shift+Ctrl+U.

 

2. Create a new layer by pressing Shift+Ctrl+N and set the layer blending mode to “Overlay”.

 

3. Now select the brush tool and color of your choice and start painting over the image. You will see that only the filled pixels are colored (depending on their brightness) while totally black and white pixels stay black and white.

 

4. If you have huge black or white areas and want to color them as well, you have to give them some color information first (black and white are not regarded as colors). You can do so by adjusting the levels (press Ctrl+L) and moving the black and white arrows just below the histogram. Moving the black arrow more to the right will change the black parts to a dark grey tone, while moving the white arrow to the left will change the white parts to a bright grey tone. Now your new grey areas are ready for being colored as well.

 

5. Let your creativity flow and try other layer blending modes as well. If “Overlay” is not enough for you, you could try “Color Burn.” Or try something totally different–with “Difference” as in the picture below. Try different opacity settings for the colored layer and different brushes. As I said above, nothing can hold you back from the total coloring madness. And don’t forget to play around with the layer opacity setting if you prefer more subtle colors.

 

 

6. If you’re not satisfied with the colored image, just delete the layer you created in step 2 and start over by creating a new one with Ctrl+Shift+N.

 

TIP: This technique is also useful if you want to change the eye color in a portrait ;)

 

 

'Actions' are scripts for Photoshop, which automate a workflow.

 

 

Downloading actions

 

Finding actions is easy. Using a search engine, search for "photoshop action" or click these links to get you started:

 

Thousands of actions on deviantART

The Photoshop Action Exchange

Actions at Photoshopsupport.com

124+ actions at visual-blast.com

 

 

Installing an action

 

Click here to read a tutorial how to install and use actions in Photoshop.

 

 

Digital painters do it all the time, so why shouldn’t you as a digital photographer use the technique of coloring your images manually as well? Sure, Photoshop lets you change the color of your pictures with several image adjustment options already. But by coloring your photos with the paint brush tool you have the absolute freedom to do whatever you want–just color your pictures as you like and get results that even the best Photoshop preset cannot create. Nothing can stop your creativity. And the best thing is: it’s so easy.

 

 

1. Open the picture you want to color and desaturate it (because you can only color a greyscale image). In Photoshop, click on Image > Adjustments > Desaturate or press Shift+Ctrl+U.

 

2. Create a new layer by pressing Shift+Ctrl+N and set the layer blending mode to “Overlay”.

 

3. Now select the brush tool and color of your choice and start painting over the image. You will see that only the filled pixels are colored (depending on their brightness) while totally black and white pixels stay black and white.

 

4. If you have huge black or white areas and want to color them as well, you have to give them some color information first (black and white are not regarded as colors). You can do so by adjusting the levels (press Ctrl+L) and moving the black and white arrows just below the histogram. Moving the black arrow more to the right will change the black parts to a dark grey tone, while moving the white arrow to the left will change the white parts to a bright grey tone. Now your new grey areas are ready for being colored as well.

 

5. Let your creativity flow and try other layer blending modes as well. If “Overlay” is not enough for you, you could try “Color Burn.” Or try something totally different–with “Difference” as in the picture below. Try different opacity settings for the colored layer and different brushes. As I said above, nothing can hold you back from the total coloring madness. And don’t forget to play around with the layer opacity setting if you prefer more subtle colors.

 

 

6. If you’re not satisfied with the colored image, just delete the layer you created in step 2 and start over by creating a new one with Ctrl+Shift+N.

 

TIP: This technique is also useful if you want to change the eye color in a portrait ;)

 

Click on Image > Adjustments > Replace color.

 

 

Sometimes it’s really frustrating. You try so hard to adjust the levels of your photo with Photoshop but it seems to be impossible to get a satisfying result. Most of the time the reason for this is the RGB color mode, which does not fit the color scheme of your picture. So in this tutorial I will show you how you can get rid of this problem by switching the color mode to LAB. This is my original example image:

 

 

This image could really need some more contrast and more vivid colors. Usually, the easiest and fastest way to fix that is hitting the button to auto-adjust the levels (Ctrl+L -> Auto) but this time the result is an image where the original blue colors are lost:

 

 

In order to keep the original hue you have to convert the image to LAB colors. If you haven’t done so already, go back one step in the history (Ctrl+Z), then click on Image > Mode > LAB color as seen on the picture below:

 

 

Now try auto-adjusting the levels again (Ctrl+L -> Auto). This time you should be able to increase the contrast while preserving the natural blue colors of the image like this:

 

 

So, whenever the level adjustments are not satisfactory in RGB mode just switch over to LAB colors and try again. In most cases you should be able to get a much better result.

 

TIP: LAB mode is great for touching up the levels of portrait photos because skin colors will look much more natural ;)