Photoshop Tutorial: Magazine vivid photos

Browncoat

Senior Member
No, it's not just your eyes deceiving you, those photos you see in magazines are more vivid and colorful. Here's a quick 10-step tutorial that will walk you through how they do it. I should also note that this is a non-destructive method.


Here we have an HDR photo of a bridge. Because it's HDR, it already has a bit more "pop" to the colors, but we can do even better than this.

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First, make a duplicate layer of your original image. The easiest way to do this is CTRL+J on the keyboard (Windows). You can also rename this layer if you want. I chose "Lab Brighten".

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Next, we're going to change our image mode to Lab color. To do this, select Image > Mode > Lab Color from the menu.

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A notification will pop up, asking if you want to flatten the image. Choose "Don't Flatten", because we want to work with individual layers in Photoshop whenever possible. Also, it will be easier to edit the vividness later on.

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Now for the color adjustments. Go to Image > Adjustments > Curves.

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A new dialog box will open. We are going to be adjusting the A and B channels, so select Channel A first. There's no need to change Lightness.

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Here is where the magic happens. Notice the grid on the histogram. Select the tone curve line at the top right corner, and move it to the left so that it is roughly in the top/middle of the square. Do the same with the tone curve line at the bottom left.

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Change the channel to B and make the same adjustments as above.

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Now take a look at your photo and notice how much brighter it is. Chances are, it's going to be a little too vivid. Because we are working with layers, the best way to fix this is to go to Layer > Layer Style and adjust the opacity. This will dull down your Lab color adjustments to more realistic levels.

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Once you're satisfied, be sure to change back to RGB mode and flatten your image.
 
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AxeMan - Rick S.

Senior Member
I would assume that if I was working with RAW files ones workflow would be Lightroom first but, if I am also using CS5 for "High Pass Filter" I would guess that this process would come first, then High Pass Filter seeing how the High Pass Filter deals with sharpness correct? Or is the high pass filter going to hurt this process?

Workflow:
Lightroom - Basic adjustments for RAW & (Color & Vid ???)
CS5 - Magazine look
CS5 - High Pass filter

BTW great detailed post thanks for sharing!
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
Workflow:
Lightroom - Basic adjustments for RAW & (Color & Vid ???)
CS5 - Magazine look
CS5 - High Pass filter

You are correct, sir.

I've even found that Lightroom does a better job of sharpening than the high pass filter. The truth is, I don't use Photoshop for much anymore except major edits like cloning out power lines. It's hard to beat CS5's new Content Aware system with the spot healing brush and cloning tools for stuff like that. Honestly, I think the high pass filter is overrated and it's too destructive in many cases.
 
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Vermontster

New member
Anthony, I find this tutorial informative. If I decide to revisit this post in a month, where would I go to find it? There have been numerous informative posts that I do not where to find them. Your help would be appreciated.
 

Browncoat

Senior Member
The easiest way would be to just subscribe to the thread, which can be found under Thread Tools in the gray bar at the top of the page. You could also use the search feature found at the far right of the main yellow menu bar and just type in something like "photoshop tutorial".
 

Mike150

Senior Member
Great job Anthony.

For me, I never noticed the trestle bridge in the foreground until you finished brightening it up.
 
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