Adjusting colour with Hue and Saturation

Hue and Saturation

We are going to change the yellow alarm clock into a green clock.
The Hue and Saturation box is a powerful facility in Photoshop for a large shift in colour.

Open image number 02.jpg in the Samples-Various folder.
As it is, any colour change will cause the second hand to change colour along with the body. To avoid that, start by copying the image to a new layer. In the Layers palette, drag the clock on to the Create a new layer icon. We will work on the top layer.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.
The Edit menu opens at Master so change this to Yellows.
Now any actions will affect only the yellow area.
Move the Hue slider to the right up to 118, which changes most of the body colour.
Strengthen the colour slightly by reducing Lightness to -34.
Don't click OK yet.
Not all of the paint work has changed to green so far. There are a couple of ways of achieving this which involve the coloured sliders at the bottom of the dialogue box.
The Eyedropper with the + sign can be used to increase the range of the colour selection.
Choose this tool and click on the reddish portion of the bell.
These shades are now included and turn to green.
The tone of the green will change a little but can be adjusted further with the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders.
Don't worry about the hands and the number dots yet; they will be rescued shortly.
For the second method, do the first adjustment under the Yellow option.
Within the spectrum display, drag the left slider further to the left.
This expands the selection into the red region.
Here also, the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders can be adjusted again.

The second hand and the alarm dial have also changed colour.
Select the Eraser Tool (E).
Choose a brush of 60 pixels and 100% Hardness.
Carefully erase the second hand, the alarm indicator under the 12 and the small dots next each number to reveal the originals underneath.
Finished - ready to be flattened.

Hue and Saturation - 2

Hue and Saturation is also extremely useful for toning black and white images.

Open image number 03.jpg.
This scan has all the information in it but still needs some work.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves
(Ctrl + M / Cmd + M).
Have a go at improving the contrast; some highlights and midtones need to be brightened and the blacks need to be richer. If you get stuck, use a curve similar to the illustration on the right.
Hue and Saturation only works in colour mode so go to Image > Mode > RGB Color.
Although the image is still in black and white, it now has the three colour channels of red, green and blue.
Choose Image > Adjustments > Hue / Saturation. (Ctrl + U / Cmd + U).
Check the Colorize box.
Hue will automatically go to the colour in the foreground colour square in the toolbox, but adjust it to a suitable blue.
Saturation and Lightness can be adjusted as required, but in this case a high saturation would look garish and inappropriate.

Tip
If you feel the curves adjustments, or adjustments in any dialogue box, are going wrong and you want to make a fresh start, hold the Alt key. The Cancel button changes to Reset; click on it; the existing settings are cancelled but the dialogue box stays on the screen.

Other uses for Hue and Saturation can be found in Photoshop In A Day ; for example, when an image is colourized with Hue and Saturation, the colour can be chosen in advance and the image will take on that colour. With this function, the colours in different images can be matched up.

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