Applying Selective Color to Photos

Everyone likes a makeover once in a while. It’s a good idea to bring in a pleasant change in one’s appearance. You don’t always have to go to a beautician for a makeover; you can get one through Photoshop, at least for your photographs.

Let’s learn about the virtual makeover through which you can enhance yours picture’s beauty and improve your portfolio. Virtual Makeover is very easy, you just have to concentrate on the steps below and after that feel free to practice and experiment with different techniques in Adobe Photoshop CS or any other image enhancing software that you prefer. In this particular tutorial, we will learn how to add lip stick & blusher to an otherwise dull portrait image.

Requirement: Adobe Photoshop CS & Better skills of using Pen Tools.

Process:
First, load yours image for virtual make over. Press “CTRL + O” and then open the image where you want to apply the makeover.

Step 1:
Let’s start with the lips and apply red color. Select your “pen tool” and draw around the lips. Now create a new layer then copy and paste the selected part to a new layer, “CTRL + C then CTRL + V”.

Step 2:
Rename the new layer as “lips” and then go to “image > adjustments > hue/saturation” or press “CTRL + U” use settings below.

Step 3:
Once the color is applied, set your “lips” layer to “soft light” and opacity to about 80% depending on how red you want the lips.

Step 4:
Now create a new layer and name it “blusher”, select your brush tool and select a soft brush with a size of about 100pixels.

Now select your color picker and select a color. Brush the cheeks area gently, then set layer mode to “soft light”.

Step 5:
Now select your pen tool and draw around the eyes. Then copy/paste onto a new layer, select your “burn tool” with a brush size of about 15pixels and just burn around the eyes. If it’s too dark lower the opacity to suit your requirements.

Other Steps:
You can do some other tricks as well like coloring the hair.

These are the most simple techniques and tools of Photoshop to use but can make a big difference in any kind of portfolio, snapshots, family photos or wedding photos. Using the pen tool might not be very easy at first, however, practice can make it perfect.

Category: Articles