Help with Enhancing Colours in CS4

jeniveeev

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Hi, i was wondering if anyone could help me out with something thats probably really easy but i cant work out how to do it. I have an image that ive processed but i would like to boost the colours as a final finish to the picture. Ive seen it done before where you take a large soft brush over the brightest areas (i.e. kids hats/t-shirts etc) to give the colours some punch and vibrance. ive tried it in cs4 but its either not working or im erasing stuff! anyone help me please as its really frustrating. thank you.
p.s. ive looked in google for tutorials but cant find what im looking for.
 
Hue/Sat layer, adjust the saturation of the desired colour(s), mask it all hidden then reveal the areas you want richer by brushing away the mask with white.

Or this may work for you

Switch to LAB mode
Select Image/Apply Image
Change blend mode to Soft Light
Choose either A or B channel, dependant on which looks best)
Adjust %age to suit
OK
Change back to RGB.
 
Hue/Sat layer, adjust the saturation of the desired colour(s), mask it all hidden then reveal the areas you want richer by brushing away the mask with white.

Or this may work for you

Switch to LAB mode
Select Image/Apply Image
Change blend mode to Soft Light
Choose either A or B channel, dependant on which looks best)
Adjust %age to suit
OK
Change back to RGB.

Thanks jason - ive tried this but i must be going wrong somewhere, when i brush away the mask with white it doesnt make a difference! it looks the same. sorry but would anyone know of a tutorial for this so i can follow step by step? thanks
 
Check the layer mask is active (theres a whire border) now check you brush is 100% opacity and that your on the right layer and have the right colour.
 
Make sure the layer has some adjustment applied too, else it won't do anything.
 
But does it do what you want it to?

:)

Yes it did, it took me a while to work it all out but everyones suggestions were so helpful. i mostly wanted the mouth, a button and parts of a pink hat enhanced. il post the image in portraits section and you can offer some C&C if you like? :-))
 
In CS4 open the image in Adobe Camera Raw. You can do this with JPEG files as well as RAW ones. You just set it up in the preferences

Now with ACR open select the Adjustment brush. In in the tool bar above the image ( or cheat and just press "K" ).

Now you'll see a nuber of options in the right hand pane. You can adjust various parameters including saturation. Select a reasonable value ( you don't have to be accurate at this stage. At the bottom of the pane you'll see a tick box for auto masking, tick it. It makes all the difference as it will automatically help with masking the area you want and don't want.

Select a suitable brush size and start painting the essfect you want. Don't worry if it's to much or too little at this stage, just ensure you cover all the area you want.
If you make a mistake, pressing the alt or option key and holding it turns the brush into erase so you can remove any overflow that may have occured..

Now the adjustments you have made are not set in stone. If you need more saturation increase the slider, and the area you have worked on will show this increase in saturation. To much , yes you've guessed it reduce the amount.

You can also have multiple adjustments by selecting new from the panel. You can also mix and match. So you can add saturation and brightness at the same time.

The clarity control adjust mid range contrast, you can locally increase apparent sharpens. Like all the controls it will go negative, so you can use it to soften portraits should they need it.

It's not until you press "Open Image" are the adjustments "Hard Wired" and Photoshop process the image with those adjustments.

If you need more information Look for tutorials in using the Local Adjustment Tools in Lightroom. It's the same options but the interface is slightly different, but nothing you can't follow
 
Quick update: The option to open JPEG in ACR for CS4 is in Bridge not Photoshop . ( It was in Photoshop for CS3) : Look for Camera RAW prefs.
 
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