Tutorial #4 - Playing with Color

Play around with the hues, saturation, and brightness of your images.

Chameleon orange background

Step 1

1. Right click on the image of the Chameleon shown above and then click "Save Image As" to save it on your computer.

2. Go to the downloads folder on your computer, and drag the image into your Photoshop document.

Hue/Saturation window Photoshop

Step 2

Next, either click the Control and U buttons together on your keyboard or go to the top of the screen where it says "Image" and then "Adjustments" and then finally click on "Hue/Saturation". This will open up a screen that looks like what you see in the image above.

Hue slider Photoshop

Step 3

1. Make sure you move this new window to the side so that you can still see the image behind it.

2. Try sliding the arrow on the bar that says "Hue". You'll notice that all the colors on the Chameleon change dramatically. The Hue slider lets you choose the overall color scheme that you would like for your image.

Saturation slider Photoshop

Step 4

Next, drag the "Saturation" slider in either direction. You'll notice that if you drag it to the left, the colors become a lot duller. Setting your saturation to -100 will make your colored image into a black-and-white one. Increasing your saturation will make the colors more intense and vibrant.

Lightness slider Photoshop

Step 5

Finally, move the slider that's labeled "Lightness" in either direction. You'll notice that the overall image becomes lighter when you move it to the right and darker when you move it to the left. If you move the slider all the way to the left, the image will become completely black, and completely white if you slide all the way right.