Mind-blowing Photo Editing with LAB in Photoshop
- Photoshop on Steroids
Hey Cafe Crew, it's Colin Smith here from
PhotoshopCAFE and today I'm going to show
you how to turn up your photo editing to 11.
What I'm going to do right now is I'm going
to show you how to take control over the detail,
texture and color of your photo in a way that
you've never done before and we're going to
be doing that using LAB or LAB Mode and a
couple of little tricks that I kind of figured
out.
So here we go, we got a photograph right now
and I'm going to choose Image, Mode, and I'm
going to change this to LAB Color or Lab Color.
So, I'm just going to hit Ctrl J to copy it
and that just enabled me to do a before and
after.
All right, so what we're going to do is we're
going to go into Curves, so we're just going
to create a Curves Adjustment Layer just like
you normally would.
There's going to be a difference here, though.
If we look at this, notice instead of RGB,
we've now got Lightness A and B.
Let me show you, first of all, how to boost
the color.
What we're going to do is we're going to start
in the A channel and we're just going to boost
this up a little bit.
Take it to about there.
And we're going to take that to the same on
that side and we're going to go to the B channel.
Let's take it up to about the same amount.
So what we're doing is we're just bringing
out a lot of detail of color here inside these
rocks and these trees.
Now, this is not the same as turning up the
saturation and I'll show you that later on.
I'll give you a comparison so you can see.
All right, so we've done that, now I'm just
going to apply it like that.
All right, so if we'll look at this before
and after, we can see we've really given it
a boost of color.
Now, let's go and play around with the texture
in the rock and in the trees.
So, I'm going to create a second curves adjustment
and with the second curves adjustment, what
we're going to do is we're going to target
this rock in the Lightness channel.
So, by doing this, it's going to just give
us a crazy amount of detail without affecting
the color at all.
So we're just going to kind of play around
and let's just get some crazy detail.
Look at that.
And then, what I want to do is I just want
to select that independently, so we're going
to go under the Color here and we're going
to choose to select Color Range.
And now with the Color Range, I'm just going
to click in there inside the rock, hit that
little + (plus) wand and just kind of drag
it through there and it's going to select
those reds, and just kind of play around for
fuzziness a little bit to kind of make sure
we've selected most of the rock and nothing
else, and then we're going to click OK.
And then what we've done there is we've just
punched all that in the rock.
All right, so let's move on and now we're
going to do something for these trees.
So what we're going to do now is we're going
to go back and we're going to create the curves
again.
And this time, we want to bring out the detail
in those trees.
So, let's just brighten that up about there.
It's looking pretty good and let's just kind
of play around.
And once again, we're able to play around
with this lightness and bring out the detail
without affecting the color.
All right, so now we've done that, we just
want to isolate it to just the trees.
So, what we're going to do is we are going
to go under the Select and we're going to
choose the Color Range again.
Let me just tap there to select the green,
hit the + (plus) and then just click and drag
a little bit to select the greens; see that?
Now, we've got the green area and just click
OK.
And now, what we've done is we've separated
that.
See, just the green areas and we've separated
just the rocks, and then, of course, we got
the color.
So if we didn't want to affect the color,
this is where we would be just working with
the luminosity right there.
But, of course, we do want to affect them
all.
So you can see that we've been able to bring
out a ton of detail--before and after.
Now we've got a lot more color and a lot more
detail.
I'm going to show you how to kind of tame
that in a second and what I'm going to do
first of all, though, is I'm just going to
go here, because remember I said, turning
up the saturation is not the same thing.
So, here we are, we're just going to prove
that.
So I'm going to go here and I'm going to hit
Hue/Saturation and I'm going to turn up the
saturation.
And so, let's just crank up that saturation.
All right, so let's look at that.
See what's happened?
We do the saturation, see it just kind of
flattens everything out versus doing it with
the A/B channels.
Let's have a look.
Here's the A/B channel right there.
See the difference versus that?
See how it just flattens it out?
All right, so the thing I was going to show
you now is how to kind of tame this, so what
we can do is just go in and adjust the opacity.
So, if the color's a little much and you want
it a little more natural, just bring it back.
The great thing about working with this method
is it's going to give you more texture and
more color than you're ever going to need.
So, now, we can just come back into reality.
So you want to kind of give our rocks that
much texture and we'd go in here, and once
again, we can take this all the way down and
just give it a little bit more detail, a little
bit more texture into those trees.
So, now, we've got a much more realistic result,
so if we look at it before and after.
And at any time we can convert this back to
Image Mode.
We can just go back here, the RGB color, and
let it flatten.
So make sure you do all your adjustments,
your luminosity, masking and everything in
there.
And then at this point here, you could just
bring it into the Camera Raw Filter now and
you could just kind of finish it off because
now you've got a ton of details.
So, maybe you want to bring a little recovery
into some of the highlights.
You might want to give it a little contrast,
play around with the exposure a little bit,
see that?
We can hit our blacks and whites, and we can
kind of just finish off our image here.
All right, guys, there we have it.
Now you can see the before and the after.
And if you want to see how truly remarkable
this is, let me zoom in because I don't think
you're realizing all the detail.
Look at this detail.
This is what the image look like before and
after.
So I think you can kind of really see that.
In fact, let me do a little split on this
and let's bring this up to 100% and I think
you guys can see.
Look at the texture there in the rocks versus
there.
So, this is a really powerful technique.
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And until next time, I'll see you at the Cafe.
