New Adjust Colors in Photoshop, easily change colors the new way

Colin Smith

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Change colors in Photoshop the new(ish) way

There are 2 parts to the Adjust Color. The option in the taskbar is brand new. We also have an updated Hue Saturation panel. This feature is out of beta and in the main version of Photoshop.

This new Photoshop tool is great to make quick adjustments to specific colors in your images. You could give certain colors a lift, to change them completely. This tut will show you the features and how to change colors. The video is more in depth and explains every part of the workings.

You will see Adjust Colors in the Task Bar

Adjust colors button on the contextual task bar beside Select subject and Remove background

When you click, you will see the six prominent colors in the image.

Six prominent color swatches linked by yellow lines to a red motocross bike and rider

Click any color to reveal HSL sliders. Adjust the hue to change the color.

Motocross bike and rider turned purple with the Hue slider at -106

When you use the colors, a hue Saturation Adjustment Layer is created.

Hue/Saturation 1 adjustment layer created above the motocross photo

Notice, the Hue Saturation Properties have been updated. (all features covered in the video).

Hue/Saturation properties updated with the swatches and Hue at -106

Id we want to refine the selected colors, this can be done from the panel, not the task bar.

Color range slider outlined in Hue/Saturation over the purple motocross bike

If you look closely at the color range slider, see 2 color bars. The top is the original colors, the bottom is what they have been changed to.

Notice, the blue, used to be red.

Before and After color range slider with the range outlined

See there is a red hue in the back wheel.

Red still showing on the back wheel, circled in red

Move the right slider to the right to push away the red.

Now we get better color.

Back wheel now purple after widening the color range

In the Hue/Saturation Panel (The adjustment layer), Create a new Hue Saturation Adjustment layer to access it directly without the task bar.

if you choose default as the preset, you get 6 primary colors.

RGB – Red, Green and Blue

Hue/Saturation swatches labeled RGB: red, green and blue

And CMY(k). Cyan, Magenta and yellow.

Hue/Saturation swatches labeled CMYK: yellow, cyan and magenta

Here we can see it used to be a drop down instead of color dots.

Old Hue/Saturation dropdown listing Master, Reds, Yellows, Greens, Cyans, Blues and Magentas

The other way to sample colors, is to use the eyedropper. This samples a precise color and is my favorite method.

Targeted adjustment hand tool outlined in Hue/Saturation over a woman in a red cap

The HSL Sliders are:

H – Hue – The actual color itself.
S- Saturation – The amount of color
L – Luminance – Brightness, black to white.

Color wheels explaining Hue as the color, Saturation as amount and Luminance as brightness

In the Drop down menu in Hue Saturation, you will see that we can choose Prominent colors here too.

Hue/Saturation preset menu with Default, Prominent Colors and Cyanotype

Changing The color of a dress

Lets do the workflow here.

Choose the eyedropper.

Eyedropper outlined at the end of the Adjust Colors swatch bar

The prominent chose the shadow reds in the image.

With the eye dropper we can choose the true red in the dress.

Woman in a red dress by snowy mountains, labeled which is prominent, shadow red or diffuse

Click on the defuse part of the red dress to select the color.

Diffuse red picked from the dress in the Adjust Colors swatches

Move the Hue slider to change the color

Red dress turned purple with Hue -99 and Saturation -12

Notice some of the skin Tone has changed, because there is red in the skin tone.

Grab the minus eyedropper

Click on her cheek

Subtract eyedropper circled to remove the skin tone from the selection

Notice this color is now removed. What it did, is adjust the color range.

Purple dress with the woman's skin tone restored

Adjust the Range Sliders and Faders to clean up the selection.

Before and After range sliders narrowed to the dress color

If you need to, paint on the Adjustment Layer mask to further refine the image. You can see me demonstrate that on the video.

Woman in a purple dress standing in front of snowy mountains

Thanks for checking this out. For a deeper look into how Hue Saturation changes colors including black and white check out this tutorial. 

Drop a comment and let me know if this was helpful. (The like and Subscribe is on the Youtube video).

Great to see you here at the cafe

Colin


PS Don’t forget to follow us on Social Media for more tips.. (I've been posting some fun Instagram and Facebook Stories lately)
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