Click here to register IDENTIFY, EVALUATE, AND REPAIR COLOR IN DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY A LESSON IN COLOR CORRECTION USING PHOTOSHOP

You’re at a beautiful resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. You’re walking along the beach taking pictures when a surfer catches a wave right as a dolphin jumps out of the water and dives right over the surfer’s head. You quickly reach for your camera and snap the picture. You head back to your hotel room to look at your awesome picture. It really was the most incredible picture you’ve ever taken, but you notice that the colors aren’t quite as vibrant as you think they could be. You wish there were a way to identify what was wrong and then fix it with some sort of color correcting tool. In this course you will learn how to identify color problems regarding hue, saturation, and value, and how to fix them in Photoshop. Begin the course by clicking the blue forward arrow in the bottom right corner. You can also select a topic through the quicklinks. HUE SATURATION VALUE Overview

Before we begin, please answer the following questions to the best of your ability. Click the circle that best describes your answer, and then click Submit. When I am photographing bright objects such as flowers, I am more concerned with: Lighting. Color. I’m not sure. Submit

Click the circle that best describes your answer, and then click Submit. When photographing landscapes or outdoor objects I look for areas of high contrast: Yes. No. I’m not sure. Submit

Click the circle that best describes your answer, and then click Submit. When I need to adjust color in a photograph I: Let my camera do the work. Adjust the settings on my camera. Use photo editing software on my computer. Submit

This course requires you to have Photoshop installed on your computer and a good internet connection. You will periodically be asked to download a photo from the lesson and post your repaired photo to a provided student wiki. The student wiki has been provided as a space to collaborate with your peers and receive critiques of your work in Photoshop. Please label your photographs with your name and practice photo reference number. To begin the course, try uploading a photo to the wiki that you believe needs repair. Label the photo such as: yourname_badphoto. Click on the Wikispaces logo to access your course wiki. Have fun and enjoy the course!

HUE Hue is color.

Hue Hue is the name of a distinct color of the spectrum—red, green, yellow, orange, blue, etc. It refers to the particular wavelength frequency. Click each circle to learn more. The petals have a red hue. The leaves have a green hue. The stamens have a yellow hue.

Submit Click the blue box next to the picture with a hue problem, and then click Submit. Now let’s see if you can identify hue problems in photos. Which of the two pictures below has more of a hue problem? Not quite. Notice the unnatural red hue of the other photo. Correct! This photo has an unnatural red hue. Hue problems are common in older photos, and they can be corrected.

Adjusting Hue Click the link below to see how to adjust the hue of an image using the Hue/Saturation tool in Photoshop. For the hue adjustment you only need to watch the first 2:13 minutes in the video.

- Hue Adjusting Hue Hue + Click the blue arrows below to adjust the image’s hue using the Hue/Saturation tool. Hue has been subtracted. Hue has been added.

This photo needs color retouching. You’ll need to adjust the hue. Open Practice Photo #1 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Click on the Wikispaces logo below to upload your work. Remember to include your name and photo number. Click here to compare your work. Hue adjusted with the Hue/Saturation tool.

SATURATION Saturation is the intensity of color.

Saturation refers to the amount of white light mixed with the color. Click the boxes below to learn more about the types of saturation. Saturation Fully saturated colors are very rich and bright. Less saturated colors are more pale and pastel.

Submit Click the blue box next to the picture with a saturation problem, and then click Submit. Now let’s see if you can identify saturation problems. Which of the two pictures below has more of a saturation problem? Correct! This photo is less saturated and has paler colors than the one on the right. Not quite. Notice how pale the colors of the other photo are compared to this one.

Adjusting Saturation Click the video screen below to see how to adjust the saturation of an image using the Hue/Saturation tool in Photoshop.

- Saturation Adjusting Saturation Saturation + Click the blue arrows below to adjust the image’s saturation using the Hue/Saturation tool. Saturation has been subtracted. Saturation has been added.

This photo needs color retouching. You’ll need to adjust the saturation. Open Practice Photo #2 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Click on the Wikispaces logo below to upload your work. Remember to include your name and photo number.. Click here to compare your work. Saturation adjusted with the Hue/Saturation tool.

This photo needs color retouching. This time you’ll need to adjust hue and saturation. Open Practice Photo #3 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Click on the Wikispaces logo below to upload your work. Remember to include your name and photo number. Click here to compare your work. Hue and saturation adjusted with Hue/Saturation tool.

VALUE Value describes how bright a color is.

White has the highest value possible, black the lowest. Value is defined as: The lights and darks of your picture, ignoring saturation and hue of your colors. A grayscale photograph just captures the values of the photographed object, but not saturation and hue. Value is sometimes really hard to see, since differences in hue and saturation can obscure a sameness in value. Take a look at the middle stripe of the image – it has the same value than the gray stripes, but it’s saturation shifts from no saturation a the black end to maximum saturation in the middle back to no saturation in the white end.

Value can be difficult to determine in a color photograph. In many instances contrast will be mistaken for strong value. Red and green are contrasting colors but the color photo of the rose does not have dynamic color. Notice when the photo is converted to black and white the reds and greens appear to be the same shade of gray or equal VALUE.

This photograph has value problems. What value range is this photo in? Incorrect. Try again. Correct! The brightest areas in the photograph are a mid-tone gray. Submit LowMediumHigh

This photograph has value problems. What value range is this photo in? Incorrect. Try again. Correct! The darkest areas in the photograph are a mid-tone gray. Submit LowMediumHigh

Contrast refers to differences in values and hues. Contrast creates visual excitement and add interest to an image. If all the image’s values or hues are the same, the result is monotonous and unexciting. Contrast

Value contrast is most evident when black is next to white, and when light values from one end of the gray scale are next to dark values from the other end. A black and white photograph is readable because of gray value contrasts.

Contrast in hue intensity occurs when a pure, fully intense color is next to a muted or grayed color mixture. The pure color’s strength and intensity seem to cause it to glow.

Submit Click the blue box next to the picture with a contrast problem, and then click Submit. Now let’s see if you can identify contrast problems. Which image below has a contrast problem? Correct! This image shows minimal differences in color values. Not quite. This image is a good example of contrast because of the vast differences in color values.

Adjusting Contrast Click the video screen below to see how to adjust the contrast of an image using the Levels tool in Photoshop.

Adjusting Contrast Click the blue arrows below to adjust the image’s contrast using the Levels tool. Whites have been subtracted. Blacks have been subtracted.

This photo needs color retouching. You’ll need to adjust the contrast. Open Practice Photo #4 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Click on the Wikispaces logo below to upload your work. Remember to include your name and photo number. Click here to compare your work. Contrast adjusted with the Levels tool.

So far, you have learned how to correct hue and saturation using the Hue/Saturation adjustment palette and how to correct contrast in value and hue using the Levels palette. You will now learn how to adjust value using the Curves palette. Click the video screen below to learn how to adjust the value of an image using the Curves palette in Photoshop.

Quick overview of the Curves palette using a Curves adjustment layer. Click on a highlight to learn the palette. On image adjustment tool. Sample in picture to set black point. Sample in picture to set gray point. Sample in picture to set white point. Edit points to modify the curve. Draw to modify the curve. Curves type drop-down menu. Curves color mode. Automatically adjust curves. White point. Gray point. Black point.

Open original file. Notice how the picture has equal value and appears gray. Click on the step to learn how to adjust value and hue in Curves. Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Click on the Curves icon in the Adjustments panel. Adjust the white point to lighten the light areas, and adjust the black point to darken the dark areas. Click on the return button and repeat step 2 to add a new adjustment layer. The picture has more value, but the overall picture has a blue hue. Change the mode drop-down menu to blue and click on the gray point line and drag the blue channel to adjust the hue. Now you may save your picture and continue working. OriginalRepaired

As we discussed, this photo has a low value range. The photo was corrected by adjusting the white point to brighten the picture and by adding two gray points to adjust midlevel tones.

We identified that this photo has a high value range. The photo was corrected by sliding the black point to increase the level of black to the picture.

This photo needs color retouching. Would you adjust hue, saturation or value? Open Practice Photo #5 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Click on the Wikispaces logo below to upload your work. Click here to compare your work. This photo required more than one color adjustment tool! Value adjusted with CurvesBrightness adjusted with Saturation

This photo needs color retouching. Would you adjust hue, saturation or value? Open Practice Photo #6 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Click on the Wikispaces logo below to upload your work. Click here to compare your work. Curves applied to create contrast after saturation. Notice only the green & blue channels were adjusted. This photo required more than one color adjustment tool! Saturation had to be applied before curves to this picture.

This photo needs color retouching. Would you adjust hue, saturation or value? Open Practice Photo #7 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Click on the Wikispaces logo below to upload your work. Click here to compare your work. Saturation made the sky look unnatural. This photo required only the Levels adjustment palette. Levels was applied to brighten the highlights. Curves lightened the values too much.

As you have noticed throughout this lesson, there is not a precise formula to making color corrections in Photoshop. The ability to understand color and to identify a faulted photograph is the first step to repairing photos. Adjusting color using the methods described in this lesson requires experimentation and understanding the limitations and functions of the tools, so don’t be afraid to mix it up!

Now it’s time to show off your new skills! For the conclusion of this course, download the three photos below and post your repaired version to the student wiki. Begin by identifying the problem within the photo and choose the proper tool(s) for the correction. Open Practice Photo #8 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Open Practice Photo #9 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Open Practice Photo #10 from the lesson folder to edit in Photoshop. Click on the Wikispaces logo to upload your photos.

Congratulations! You have completed a course in adjusting color using Hue, Saturation, Levels & Curves in Photoshop. If you would like to review any of the topics covered in this course click the links below. HUESATURATION VALUE

EXTERNAL RESOURCES Curves You have just completed a valuable lesson in identifying, evaluating, and correcting digital photographs with hue, saturation and value problems. The recommended software program for this lesson is Adobe® Photoshop. Below are links to the Adobe® Help website. If you would like to get more information about the tools described in this lesson simply click on the button for each tool. LevelsHue/Saturation

Course Evaluation Please complete the following survey by marking the response that best represents your opinion. 1.The instructional materials were clearly written. 2.I understood the objectives of this course. 3.This course provided me with new information. 4.The course was enjoyable. 5.The audio-visuals were used in a manner conductive to learning. 6.The skills and knowledge I gained will be helpful. 7.I would recommend this course to a friend. Submit

GLOSSARY

Glossary Contrast: the differences in values and hues Histogram: a graphical representation of the lights and darks of the image (in the case of the Levels tool) Hue: a distinct color of the spectrum; the particular wavelength frequency Saturation: the amount of white light mixed with the color Value: the lights and darks of a photo without regard to saturation and hue