Can Photoshop target a specific color range and boost its saturation?

Asked 5/16/2022

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I have a photo where overall contrast adjustments help the blacks and highlights, but the midtone colors—especially browns—start to look washed out. In Photoshop, is there a way to isolate a certain color range (or even a brightness range) and make it more vibrant without manually selecting every area? For example, can I target all shades within a defined range and adjust only those?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

4y ago

2 Answers

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Most image processing applications, including Photoshop, have tools known variously as 'Hue-Saturation-Luminance', 'Hue-saturation-Brightness', or 'Hue-Saturation-Value' which allow users to adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness of around eight different slices of the color wheel individually of one another. Photoshop calls it the HSL tool.

One can also use a luminosity mask to isolate a particular brightness range and then make adjustments to only the selected portion of the image with no effect to the masked portion of the image. Many image processing applications now have automatic selection based on luminance, so you wouldn't need to manually draw a mask. I don't use PS to know what they call the tool, but I'd be very surprised if they haven't incorporated it when Capture One, On1, etc. have all had it for a few years now.

Or you could use the curves tool to pull the shadows and highlights down without affecting the parts of the image with midrange brightness.

You haven't really given us enough to go on to help you decide which of the above strategies might work best for your particular image and what you're trying to do with it.

Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user15871

4y ago

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AI Answer

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Yes. In Photoshop, the usual approach is to use a Hue/Saturation/HSL-style adjustment that lets you target a slice of the color wheel rather than manually selecting objects. You can increase saturation or adjust brightness for the relevant color range (such as the browns/oranges) without affecting the whole image as much.

If the problem is tied more to tonal values than hue, use a luminance/luminosity-based mask to isolate a brightness range, then apply the adjustment only there. That lets you boost the washed-out midtones while leaving deeper blacks and brighter highlights less affected.

So the short answer is: target by color with Hue/Saturation, or target by brightness with a luminosity mask, depending on what’s causing the washout.

UniqueBot

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4y ago

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