Technique 44. Color TintVersion 2 | Photoshop Finishing Touches

Technique #44. Color TintVersion 2

Here we'll use a Solid Color adjustment layer and different blend modes to experiment with tinting a photo.

key concepts:

adjustment layers

blend modes

My original shot looks like this.

Step One.

Click on the Create New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette, and from the pop-up menu, choose Solid Color. Pick the color you want from the Color Picker. (Initially, the layer will cover up the photo but we'll fix that next.)

Step Two.

Change the layer blend mode to…actually I can't tell you which one to use because it will depend on your image and the look you're going for. Here are the results of some of the more common choices for blend modes.

Using Overlay layer blend mode

Using Soft Light layer blend mode

Using Hue layer blend mode

Using Color layer blend mode

Using Color layer blend mode at 50% opacity

One of the advantages of using a Solid Color adjustment layer is that at any time you can double-click on the layer thumbnail to open the Color Picker and choose a new color. As you choose a color, the results can be seen immediately on the photo.

Variations

In this example, I Control-clicked (PC: Right-clicked) on the adjustment layer to access the Blending Options and then played with the Underlying Layer Blend If sliders to allow portions of the original colors to show through. (Check out the Blending Options section in Key Concepts for more information about these sliders.)

Variation 1

Here, I added a Channel Mixer adjustment layer and moved the Source Channels sliders in each of the Output Channels in the pop-up menu at the top of the dialog (with no real plan in mind, I just dragged sliders until I liked what I saw. Seriously). Then I changed the blend mode of the Channel Mixer layer to Color.

Variation 2

Variation 3

After selecting both adjustment layers, I pressed Command-G (PC: Control-G) to put them into a Group, added a layer mask, pressed G to get the Gradient tool, and used a Radial gradient (the second icon from the left in the Options Bar) to hide the effects of the adjustments around her face.

Variation 4