Selective Color - What Exactly Does it Do in PS

[TheBigE]

All,

I have been struggling to really understand what the Selective Color Adjustment Does in PS. I have tried reading some blog post and videos...just not clicking.

What I am talking about is

Image -> Adjustments -> Selective Color

It then pulls up a Dialog Box with Colors in Drop Down (Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Magenta, White, Neutrals, Blacks). Below which are sliders

Cyan - Red (not shown)
Magenta - Green (not shown)
Yellow - Blue (not shown)
Blacks - White (not shown)

What I have been doing is selecting a color - say Red and then sliding the first slider Cyan-Red to the Cyan Side and this cause the Red colors in the photograph to really pop. I have found that Red at 100% is a bit too much, and usually end up at about 50%. I then cycle through the other colors (yellow, green, etc) and do the same thing on the sliders...most of the time ending up going to 100% the other way. With the exception of Black - usually that is only about 5-10%.

At first I thought this could be replicated in LR with just the HSL tab - but frankly the colors do not "Pop" as much as they do when using the PS.

Can someone explain what this adjustment is doing....can it be replicated in LR? It is one of the main reason I goto PS, that and dodging and burning.

I will try and post some photos later to show what exactly I see on my end.

Thanks
Erik

[bnnrcn]

Hi Erik . I think you have already found the answer by trying the adjustment layer on your own As you can see it has more control on the colors and I find it very useful especially for landscape shots . I don't think you can replicate it in LR or ACR as it is a more detailed and advanced tool.

If you can tell us what you really don't understand about it, we might give you more detailed answers

[Manfred M]

I think this is easiest to show in an edit...

Image 1





Image 2

[Craigie]

I am still very much a beginner in PS and never used or understood selective colour, what a great tool.
It certainly makes the colour pop out.

[TheBigE]

Hi Erik . I think you have already found the answer by trying the adjustment layer on your own As you can see it has more control on the colors and I find it very useful especially for landscape shots . I don't think you can replicate it in LR or ACR as it is a more detailed and advanced tool.

If you can tell us what you really don't understand about it, we might give you more detailed answers

Binnur - Thanks for the reply. I know what it does, just not how it does it? I guess understand what it is doing will help me understand any pitfalls that may occur.

Is this adjusting the Saturation? The Contribution of the color? The Hue?

Or is it just some crazy Algorithm running the background that is not worth really understanding.

[TheBigE]

I think this is easiest to show in an edit...

Image 1





Image 2

So Manfred - what is the difference between the two photos in the Selective Adjustment ?

My Guess - Blue Selected and then took the Yellow->Blue Slider all the way to 100% on the Blue side? Thereby eliminating the blue?

Thanks

[bnnrcn]

Hi Erik. As far as I understand from my experience, the sliders change the hue in a particular color but as it is a more advanced tool it does its job very detailed and carefully. Let's say you have chosen yellow. When you push the black slider to the left , it reduces the impact of blacks in yellow areas and your yellow color becomes very faint (near to white), if you push the black slider to the right it increases the impact of blacks in yellow areas and your yellow color becomes darker with some black shadows in it. If you try the other sliders (cyan,magenta,yellow) you will get similar results.

I never push the sliders %100 to the left or right though in my landscape edits. I use them according to my needs. Please note that pushing the sliders %100 in this adjustment layer might cause some PP artifacts.

I'm afraid I'm not in the position of analysing the adjustment layer technically I really don't know what Adobe people did to create such an adjustment layer but it is sure that they made a good job

[Manfred M]

With blue selected, the blue slider to -100% and the cyan slider to-100%.

I usually do this type of global adjustment in Camera Raw. If I use it in Photoshop, I do it as an adjustment layer so that I can localize the effect with a layer mask.