How to Dramatically Separate Colors with Curves in Photoshop

On this video photographer Josh Cripps of Professional Photography Tips looks at a simple technique for using curves in Photoshop to separate colors in an image.

Sometimes when you take a photo you want a little extra punch for some of your colors. This is exactly what Cripps demonstrates in this video using the curve adjustment layers and some neat tricks.

For the first curve adjustment layer Cripps use the entire RGB spectrum while for the second one he uses specific colors in order to increase or decrease them in specific areas in the image. Almost all of the heavy lifting here will be done using the hand tool called the targeted adjustment tool and by clicking and dragging up or down in the areas that you want to make lighter or darker (or if you only target a specific color – more or less color). There are some other useful tips but this is the main concept – simple – useful.

We have covered many (many) videos where adjustment layers were an important part of the editing process, this one covers specifically curves but there are many other useful adjustment layers – one of the best recent videos covering this topic was done by photographer Nino Batista which you can find here.

You can find  many more helpful photography tips and techniques on our Photography tips section here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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