General-Purpose Color And Tonal Adjustment Commands - Adobe PHOTOSHOP 5.0 User Manual

If applying the Unsharp Mask filter makes
already bright colors appear overly
saturated, convert the image to Lab mode and
apply the filter to the L channel only. This
technique sharpens the image without affecting
the color components.
General-purpose color and tonal
adjustment commands
The Variations and Brightness/Contrast
commands change colors or brightness values in
an image but are not as precise or flexible as the
high-end color adjustment commands described
in the previous sections. They provide a simple
way to make fast overall adjustment to an image.
Using the Variations command
The Variations command lets you visually adjust
the color balance, contrast, and saturation of an
image or selection. This command is most useful
for average-key images that don't require precise
color adjustments. It does not work on indexed-
color images.
To use the Variations command:
1 Open the Variations dialog box, as described in
"Using color adjustment commands" on page 105.
Note: If the Variations command does not appear in
the Adjust submenu, the Variations plug-in module
may not have been installed. (See "Using plug-in
modules" on page 36.)
The two thumbnails at the top of the dialog box
show the original selection (Original) and the
selection with its currently selected adjustments
(Current Pick). When you first open the dialog
box, these two images are the same. As you make
adjustments, the Current Pick image changes to
reflect your choices.
Select any of these adjustments:
2
Show Clipping to display a neon preview of areas
•
in the image that will be clipped by the
adjustment—that is, converted to pure white or
pure black. Clipping does not occur when you
adjust midtones.
Note: Clipping is not the same as out-of-gamut
colors.
Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights to indicate
•
whether you want to adjust the dark, middle, or
light areas.
Saturation to change the degree of hue in the
•
image. With the Show Clipping option selected,
the image may show clipping after an adjustment.
This means you have exceeded maximum
saturation for the color.
The Fine/Coarse slider to determine the amount
•
of each adjustment. Moving the slider one tick
mark doubles the adjustment amount.
3 Adjust the color and brightness:
To add a color to the image, click the appropriate
•
color thumbnail.
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