Color manipulation can create or break your image editing process. The ability to target specific colors in special areas of your image provides creative control that basic sliders may not just match.
Coming from you Matt CloscovskiThis practical video examines the progression of color adjustment techniques in Literoom Classic, which also applies to Literoom and Adobe Camera Raw. Closcowsky colors move through a hierarchy of the editing approach, which begins with the most basic global adjustment such as vibration and saturation. These devices affect the entire image equally, which sometimes works but often proves to be very heavy. He then moves to the color mixer panel, which allows you to target specific color limits throughout the image. While more sophisticated than global adjustment, the color mixer still affects every example of one color in your photo. For example, adjusting the blue color in the sky will affect any blue elements elsewhere in the frame, whether you want or not. The point color tool provides another level of accuracy by clicking on a specific shade and allowing you to adjust that particular color range, but again, it affects all examples of that shadow throughout the image.
The recommendation of the game-changing approach Closcowski involves a combination of masking with color adjustments. Only by creating a mask of the area you want to impress first – whether the sky selection tool, object selection tool, or manual brushing – then you can only apply color adjustments in that area. This technique becomes even more powerful when you use the color range selection tool within masking, which essentially gives you the color mixer panel with but with accurate spatial control. For example, you can only choose only reds in a specific balloon without affecting red elements in your photo. You can then further refine this selection by adjusting the range slider to make the selection less or less strict, and even if necessary, reduce the areas using a brush tool. Once your mask is completed, you have access to hue and saturation controls that work like color mixers, but only within your masked area.
This masking-first approach varies fundamentally how you think about color editing. Instead of applying adjustment and expecting that they do not cause problems anywhere else in your image, you first separate the same place where you want those adjustments to be effective. The method of Closcovski gives you freedom to extend color adjustments with global devices, as you are properly limited their effects in areas that they need. Watch the video above for full randon from Closcowski.
