Using Photoshop Hue/Saturation command

The Hue/Saturation command lets you adjust the hue, saturation, and brightness of a specific color component in an image or simultaneously adjust all the colors in an image. In Photoshop, this command is especially good for tweaking specific colors in a CMYK image so they are within the gamut of an output device but there’re working in other color mode as well. For more information about the hue, saturation, and brightness (HSB color model).

Tips: Settings in the Hue/Saturation dialog box can be saved and loaded for reuse on other images.

Using the Hue/Saturation command:

You can use Hue/Saturation command and apply directly to active layer or us it as Adjustment Layer.

To apply Hue/Saturation to active layer: Do one of following

• Choose Image » Adjustments » Hue/Saturation.
• Press Ctrl + U (Windows) or Command + U (Mac OS)

To create Hue/Saturation as Adjustment layer: Do one of following

• Choose Layer » New Adjustment Layer » Hue/Saturation. Click OK in the New Layer dialog box.
• Click Create New Adjustment Layer Button at bottom of Layer Palette and choose Hue/Saturation.

The primary advantage of using Adjustment layer, instead of apply it directly to the layer, is you can modify the setting anytime you want, by Double-Click at it thumbnail to open the adjustment windows and edit the setting.

The Photoshop Adjustment Layer also allow you to temporary hide its effect, like regular layer, by make it invisible by click its Eye icon or even discard it permanently by dragging the layer to Trash button to delete it. Or you can also limit the effect of the adjustment layer to only selected part using layer mask. This will be discuss in detail below.

Moreover Photoshop Adjustment layer enable you to apply the same color adjustment over different layers at once by create the Adjustment layer on top of all the layers you want to adjust. This allow you to keep all working layer with out merging the layers to make color adjustment.

Note: When you working with more than one layer and use Image » Adjustments » Hue/Saturation the new color adjustment will apply to selected layer only. You have two options to apply the color adjustment to other layers by not use Adjustment Layer. First, by manually select each layer and reapply the color adjustment. Or second merge all layers you want to make color adjustment and then apply color adjustment to merged layer.

Tip: You can re-apply the last Hue/Saturation setting to other layer by press Ctrl + Shift + U (Windows) or Command + Shift + U (Mac OS)

Hue/Saturation Windows Options:

• Edit (A): Choose Master in Edit pop-up menu to adjust all colors at once. Or choose one of the other preset color ranges listed for the color you want to adjust. (See also Adjust Hue/Saturation for selective color below)
• Hue (B): enter a value or drag the slider until the colors appear as you want. The values displayed in the text box reflect the number of degrees of rotation around the wheel from the pixel’s original color. A positive value indicates clockwise rotation, a negative value counterclockwise rotation. Values can range from -180 to +180.

A: Saturation B: Hue

• Saturation (C): Enter a value or drag the slider to the right to increase the saturation or to the left to decrease it.
  The color shifts away from or toward the center of the wheel, relative to the beginning color values of the selected pixels. Values can range from -100 (percentage of desaturation, duller colors) to +100 (percentage of saturation increase).
• Lightness (D): Enter a value or drag the slider to the right to increase the lightness (add white to a color) or to the left to decrease it (add black to a color). Values can range from -100 (percentage of black) to +100 (percentage of white).
• Color Bar (E): The two color bars in the dialog box represent the colors in their order on the color wheel. The upper color bar shows the color before the adjustment; the lower bar shows how the adjustment affects all of the hues at full saturation.

Tips: Click the Reset button to undo a setting in the Hue/Saturation dialog box. Press the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) key to change the Cancel button to Reset.

To adjusted selected range of color with Hue/Saturation command:

In this tutorial we will use Hue/Saturation command to easily adjust selected color of the red roses photo below.

Image by: Martin Bailey
Before	After

1. Use Hue/Saturation command by either choose Image » Adjustments » Hue/Saturation to adjust selected layer or choose Layer » New Adjustment Layer » Hue/Saturation and click OK in the New Layer dialog box.
2. In the Hue/Saturation dialog box, choose an individual color from the Edit menu. To change color of the red rose at the fore-ground to other color select Red at Edit drop-down menu. When you select the individual color in Edit menu you will have additional options at the color bar area (E).

The four color values, in degrees, display in the dialog box (indicate by red alphabet letter above). They correspond to the adjustment sliders that appear between the color bars (indicate by green alphabet letter).

• The two inner vertical sliders (B and C): define the color range and the color value are shown at B and C respectively.
• The two outer triangle sliders (A and D): show where the adjustments on a color range "fall-off" (a feathering or tapering of the adjustments instead of a sharply defined on/off application of the adjustments) and also the color value are shown at A and D.

3. Select Eyedropper button and click or drag in the bushes area to select color range.

Note: You may notice that while you use Eyedropper and click at the image. The sliders at the color bar will change depended on color you selected. And also, If you modify the adjustment slider so that it falls into a different color range, the name in the Edit menu changes to reflect this. For example, if you choose Yellow and alter its range so that it falls in the red part of the color bar, the name changes to Red 2. You can convert up to six of the individual color ranges to varieties of the same color range (for example, Red through Red 6).

4. Use either the Eyedropper or the adjustment sliders to modify the range of colors. To expand the range of color, click or drag in the image with the Add to Sample Eyedropper tool . To reduce the range of color, click or drag in the image with the Subtract from Sample Eyedropper tool .
   For this tutorial select Add to Sample Eyedropper tool . Drag over at the red area to add additional color that may fall out of the range.

To the adjustment sliders:

• Drag the Triangle Sliders (A or D): To adjust the amount of color fall-off (feathering of adjustment) without affecting the range.
• Drag the area between the triangle and the vertical bar: To adjust the range without affecting the amount of fall-off.

  

• Drag the center area to move the entire adjustment slider: To select a different color area.

  

• Drag Vertical Bars (B and C): To adjust the range of the color component. Moving a vertical bar out from the center of the adjustment slider and closer to a triangle increases the color range and decreases the fall-off. Moving a vertical bar closer to the center of the adjustment slider and away from a triangle decreases the color range and increases the fall-off.

Tip: While an eyedropper tool is selected, you can also press Shift to add to the range, or Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) to subtract from it.
You can move color position that show in the Color Bar by hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command(Mac OS), the cursor will change to Hand Cursor , and drag. So that a different color is in the center of the bar.

Note: By default, the range of color selected when you choose a color component is 30° wide, with 30° of fall-off on either side. Setting the fall-off too low can produce banding in the image.

5. Use Hue slider and drag it to the left to change color of red roses to purple or enter -38 to Hue text box. The value -38 mean, decrease hue of selected color by 38° in color wheel. You can also use Saturation slider and drag it to the left to desaturate the selected color or to the right to increase color saturation. Or if you light drag Lightness to the left to darker the select color or to right to brighten it.

View Full Image | Hue/Saturation Windows

If you’re using Hue/Saturation adjustment layer you can also limited the Hue/Saturation command to effect only selected part with layer mask. From example above, to change only center roses to purple, you can make selection of area you want to select using any selection tool, such as Lasso Tool . In the neat way, you use Pen Tool to create path and turn it to selection . Or, in the rough way, you can use Brush Tool and painted in with black to layer mask for the area you want to discard.

Note: If you have selection active in your image and create Adjustment layer. The selection area will automatically apply to newly created adjustment layer.

To use Pen tool to make selection:

1. Select Pen tool and make sure that tool mode at tool option is set Path (See Photoshop Pen tools for more detail).
2. Draw path around the area you want to select.

   

3. After finish and closing path. In the Path Palette click at path menu button and choose Make Selection. This will open Make Selection windows enter 0.3 in the Feather Radius text box (See also Photoshop Selection Feather).

   

4. Inverse the selection by choose Select » Inverse or press Ctrl(Command) + Shift + I.
5. Select adjustment layer’s mask choose menu Edit » Fill (Shift + F5), this will open Fill windows, at the Use dropdown menu select black. Or set foreground color at Photoshop Toolbox to black. Press Alt + Backspace (Windows) or Option + Return (MacOS) to fill foreground color to selected area in the layer mask.

View Full Image | Mask

To use Brush tool to mask out the area:

1. Select adjustment layer’s mask and set foreground color at Photoshop Toolbox to black.
2. Select Brush Tool select relatively small brush tip (See also Using Photoshop Brush Palette)
3. Start drag in the layer mask to painting with black color at the area you want to exclude form the adjustment layer effect.

Tips: To saving your time, if the area that you want to discard are larger than area you want to keep. Just fill in entire layer mask with black and using Paint tool to paint white at the area you want to include instead.

To colorize a grayscale image or create a monotone effect:

1. If you are colorizing a grayscale image, choose Image » Mode » RGB Color to convert the image to RGB.
2. Open the Hue/Saturation dialog box.
3. Select the Colorize option. If the foreground color is black or white, the image is converted to a red hue (0°). If the foreground color is not black or white, the image is converted to the hue of the current foreground color. The lightness value of each pixel does not change.

4. Use the Hue slider to select a new color if desired. Use the Saturation and Lightness sliders to adjust the saturation and lightness of the pixels.

Even though Hue/Saturation command is allow you to change selective color easily but in some situation, that the specific area in the image got a lot variation of color, you may need some more process and also more than one adjustment layer to get best result. For more detail I will discuss in following article.

Related Article:

• HSB color model and Color Wheel
• All about Photoshop Layer and Layer Palette
• About Photoshop Layer Mask and Vector Mask
• Using Photoshop Selection Feather
• Photoshop CS3 Toolbox: Quick Reference

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