Color terms: Hue Saturation Value
Hue: the name of the color (or in digital photo, the numbers) Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet
Saturation: the brightness or chroma of the color, how much grey versus how much pure hue. Especially vivid colors tend to be highly saturated.
Saturation: the brightness or chroma of the color, how much grey versus how much pure hue. Especially vivid colors tend to be highly saturated.
Value: the lightness and darkness of the hue. A black-and-white photo uses no hue, and only relies on value.
Warm vs. Cool Colors: a Warm Color is in the red-orange-yellow range, such as fire. a Cool Color is in the blue-green-black range. For example, the right block is said to be cooler than the left warm gray:
RGB and CMYK. Cameras and printers rely mainly on RGB (Red Green Blue) systems to describe color, and sometimes on CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black). RGB refers to what happens when you mix Red, Green, and Blue lights together. If you look closely at the pixels on your computer monitor, you’ll see that they are tiny groups of red green and blue dots. CMYK is mainly used as a color model for printing colors, and is increasingly uncommon.
RGB and CMYK. Cameras and printers rely mainly on RGB (Red Green Blue) systems to describe color, and sometimes on CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black). RGB refers to what happens when you mix Red, Green, and Blue lights together. If you look closely at the pixels on your computer monitor, you’ll see that they are tiny groups of red green and blue dots. CMYK is mainly used as a color model for printing colors, and is increasingly uncommon.
RGB Color and How to Number the Colors. Each range of Hue in this model is assigned a number, usually from 0-255. So, zero Red and zero Green and zero Blue combined – no color at all – equals black, where 255 Red and 255 Green and 255 Blue is white. All the other colors are a range between these extremes. Check out the numbers within this menu box, which is the 'Color Picker' (the little eyedropper tool), from Photoshop:
You can of course move the slider arrows up and down, and see how the numbers move along with you through the spectrum. If you click on 'only web colors' then you'd see a chunky chart showing a more limited range of colors. In GIMP these controls are similar.[if you'd like to learn a lot more about RGB color, then click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB_color_model ]
Here is probably the easiest way to change all of the colors in your photo at one time: the Hue/Saturation control (under Photoshop menu Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation)
The image unchanged, from a photo of a sun dog:
The image altered severely with the H/S controls, same photo:
This is now extremely saturated, the Hue was shifted down, and the image was darkened. For almost all photos, I find that I rarely alter the Hue, and tend to use the LEVELS controls for lightness/darkness. Thus this control is used mainly for saturation, about which I find that increasing the saturation above the number 18 is just way too much for naturalism, and becomes expressionistic instead.
Another basic color control is the Color Balance menu. (in Photoshop it's under Image --> Adjustments --> Color Balance). It looks like this:
Here I simply slid the balance far more into the red, making the entire image a lot pinker. If you're curious, here is the photo I was toying with to show you these color controls. I hope you'll agree that it's a pretty picture:
Watch for sun dogs like this in the Berkshires... they happen here all the time thanks to the mountains, the moisture in the air, and the angle of the sun at sunrise and sunset.
As far as thinking about color goes, I think it's good to keep in mind the variables involved. Some basic Color Design Questions can be
Here is probably the easiest way to change all of the colors in your photo at one time: the Hue/Saturation control (under Photoshop menu Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation)
The image unchanged, from a photo of a sun dog:
The image altered severely with the H/S controls, same photo:
This is now extremely saturated, the Hue was shifted down, and the image was darkened. For almost all photos, I find that I rarely alter the Hue, and tend to use the LEVELS controls for lightness/darkness. Thus this control is used mainly for saturation, about which I find that increasing the saturation above the number 18 is just way too much for naturalism, and becomes expressionistic instead.
Another basic color control is the Color Balance menu. (in Photoshop it's under Image --> Adjustments --> Color Balance). It looks like this:
Here I simply slid the balance far more into the red, making the entire image a lot pinker. If you're curious, here is the photo I was toying with to show you these color controls. I hope you'll agree that it's a pretty picture:
Watch for sun dogs like this in the Berkshires... they happen here all the time thanks to the mountains, the moisture in the air, and the angle of the sun at sunrise and sunset.
As far as thinking about color goes, I think it's good to keep in mind the variables involved. Some basic Color Design Questions can be
- (Value) Should this image, or part of it, be Lighter or Darker?
- (Hue) Should this image or part of it be Warmer or Cooler?
- (Saturation) Should this image or part of it be More Vivid or More Grey?
Some Simple Ways to Alter Color Relationships:
- Levels (you already know about this... and maybe you also found the Color Histogram)
- Hue/Saturation control (the best!!)
- Color Balance control
- Apply Color Photo Filter (easy)
- Apply Color Photo Filter (easy)
- Create a new Layer, Paint it with a color, and then set the Layer to mainly transparent (fun)
13 comments:
I've definetly have taken pictures of sun dogs. If you are heading east on rt 2, driving to Willamstown, I always see them over the mountains. I haven't played around with the color hue on the sun dog photos but I've done it with other photos.
I was actually playing with the color balance adjustments over the weekend. I totally love it. I've found that it gives a rather wide range of control over adjusting the picture.
I've also always sort of wondered why there's even the option to super saturate photos like that in photo editing programs. Saturating it to the point that the image degrades seems rather counterproductive. Someone's probably found a use for it, though.
Hi A and N. Nicole: sometimes it's useful to supersaturate something in one layer, and then blend it into other layers... for instance if you wanted to you could make someone's skin look like paint chips by layering a saturated photo of paint chips over their face.
The only time I mess with the saturation is if I want a crazy effect. I took a photograph on top of the MET and adjusted it so it looked abstract. I find this tool helpful when I am doing projects in Graphic Design. I tend to stick with brightness and contrast to adjust my photos.
I have honestly never heard of a sun dog or seen one?? Is it a tiny rainbow??
Yup, a tiny rainbow. See link at
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/parhelia.htm
for all sorts of atmospheric effects.
The Berkshire sky "sun dog" visuals are terrific. Color balance is nice to play with.
I think that it is definately fun to play around with these different editing effects, because even when brought to the extreemes like this, there is always potential for great things to come from them.
Also, I like that website, there is a lot of interesting things that they talk about on there, and the visuals are nice
I like fooling with the settings I can see what works and what does not. keep in mind . what the colors look like on your screen ( brightness and darkness) may not always be exact. your paper can also play a role in this
@Barbara -- the sun dog is a great example, actually of how wrong color balance can distort the image, losing the look of a rainbow. Too much post-processing kills the rainbow!
@Alex did you mean wikipedia or the atoptics website?
@steph -- yup, yup. Paper... we'll deal with printing issues later in the course, of course. ;)
i love playing with the color balance, its one of my favorite tools. but i usually use it subtlety so it still looks natural.
& ive never heard of a sun dog before either? hmm, something to look out for! :)
i did not know they were called sun dogs
Sun dogs? I've been going to school here for a year and a half, and I haven't ever heard the term before. And I've seen one of those little rainbows before, but I didn't know Berkshire County is known for them.
And as for color effects, photoshop has a very wide variety of effects, once you utilize all the possible combinations of effects, and layering. It's a lot of fun to play around with.
Photoshop has so much to offer
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