Level: Easy

Here’s a very simple way to make colors come alive in almost any photograph using Photoshop. I use it in many of my outdoor photos where there are vibrant, solid colors in the background that will complement the entire scene if the bold colors are part of the composition.

Choose an image with big patches of colors and open it in Photoshop, then let’s get started.

Here’s our original image.

1) Create a Curves Adjustment Layer and right-click on the newly created Curves layer and select “Blending Options” to open the Layer Styles window.

2) Change the layer’s blend mode to “Soft Light”, then reduce the opacity to about 80%.

3) Now go to the Advanced Blending section and reduce the Fill Opacity to 80% as well.

4) Proceed to the Blend If section and hold the ALT key and split the right-half part of the black slider until the amount indicates “0/50″. Refer to the image in Step 2 for reference.

5) You can now adjust the actual curve of the adjustment layer to taste.

Here’s our before and after.

There you have it. One adjustment layer and you’re done. Not only is this technique quick, it’s also very light on computer resources, so you can run a large batch of images without bogging your system down too much.

Here’s another example with human subjects. The only difference is I masked off the skin so it won’t be affected with the saturation change.

Try it out! I’ve created a simple action set for you to download, click here!

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