#colorings tutorial

☆ From my picspam edit, I made a simple template so I can move around quicker as I edited all 6 pictures at once. I can attach the template with the .psd later.

☆ Okay, the reference I'm using is a picture from the trophy ceremony itself. The picture is alright, but to me it is a bit too orange-y. So I want to adjust it to something less orange. Editing someone like Jannik who is a ginger can be a little bit tricky but we can manage. Disclaimer: Other tutorials might use less layers to solve this problem but I rawdogged everything so this was the result of that haha.

☆ A tip I love to share with everyone especially beginners is that before you do your colourings, create a folder first so it will be nicely kept inside a folder and you can see the before and after more easier with that option available.

☆ Every adjustment layer I labelled with blue is a new layer on top of it. So the layer at the bottom of the folder is Color Balance and Hue/Saturation is at the top.

Colour Balance: (Shadows) cyan-red: -5, magenta-green: 0, yellow-blue: 10 (Midtones) cyan-red: -6, magenta-green: 1, yellow-blue: 4 (Highlights) cyan-red: -5, magenta-green: 0, yellow-blue: 1

This is to remove the strong orange in the picture. Adjust the settings accordingly as different picture requires different settings. If it is too yellow, add more blue, if it is too red, add more cyan and it goes on.

Selective Color (Red): Cyan: 13%, Magenta: 0%, Yellow: -11%, Black: 8%

If your subject's skin tone is still too reddish, cut it down using selective color but dont lose the color too much or else the skin colour will not look natural.

Selective Color (Yellow): Cyan: 3%, Magenta: 0%, Yellow: -2%, Black: 12%

Hue/Saturation: (Red) Hue: +2, Saturation: +6 (Yellow) Saturation: -9%

I'm still adjusting his skin tone here and since it is still reddish, changing the hue helps with colour correcting.

Selective Color (Neutral): Black: -4%

this layer is optional, i added this to make it a little bit brighter bcs as I said it before, the ceremony was quite late and the sky was getting darker. I need it to be a tad bit brighter but be careful and dont make him too pale.

Selective Color (White): Cyan: +26%, Magenta: -1%, Yellow: -23, Black: +17%

If you notice, Jannik's jacket still has that orange tone to it so this adjustment helped removing the rest of the unwanted orange especially on white-colours area.

Selective Color (Red): Cyan: -9%, Magenta: -1%, Yellow: -2, Black: -13%

Channel Mixer: (Red) Red: +100%, Green: -76%, Blue: +56%, Total: 9%. (Green) Red: +20%, Green: +100%, Blue: -38%, Total: +2%. (Blue) Red: -18%, Green: +81%, Blue: +100%, Total: -35%. Normal -> Soft Light, 80% opacity, 70% fill.

Now, adjust everything so the colours will balance out each other here. I love using channel mixer bc you can get more obvious colours if done right. With this layer it became slightly more yellowish than we wanted so you can adjust it again but i personally would just add another layer lol

Color Balance: (Shadows) Yellow-Blue: +3, (Midtones) Yellow-Blue: +2, (Highlights) Yellow-Blue: +1

So basically i am balancing out the yellow with this layer. Adjust it until the yellow doesnt look too weird on your subject.

Hue/Saturation: (Master) Hue: +2, Saturation: -3 (Red) Saturation: +11 (Yellow) Saturation: -15, (Green) Saturation: -13, (Cyan) Saturation: +26, (Blue) Saturation: -48, (Magenta) Saturation: -72

I wanted the cyan to still have some colours so i added more saturation and muted the rest of the colours that I dont want in the picture. But oh no! Jannik is still yellowish :( so, lets add another layer and adjust the huento get a better skin tone.

Hue/Saturation: (Yellow) Hue: -5, Saturation: +17

Adjust the yellow to orange a little bit so his skin colour is a lot more natural. The difference is subtle but very important.

Photo Filter: #84dad1 -> 94%, Normal -> Soft Light, 70% Opacity, 70% fill.

Add cool tone colours to make it less warm and more cool. You will notice the tone is a lot more blue than before. At this point we are losing the orange and its going well!

Selective Color (Neutral): Black: -13%

Neutral layer is entirely on you. I wanted it to be slightly brighter.

Selective Color (White): Black: -14%

Curves: I drag it down so the picture will not be too bright and weird. You can adjust it however you want and you can click on auto to get an idea how you should do it.

Levels: (Left) 0, (Middle) 1.07, (Right) 255.

Adjust as needed, I wanted it to be a litttleeee bit darker.

Color Fill: #ed54d0, Normal -> Saturation, 30% opacity, 40% fill.

I love the saturation result so i always add a colour fill layer, use bright colours to make the colours pop out even more.

Vibrance: (Vibrance) +27, (Saturation) -16%

Selective Color (Black): Black: +11%

Hue/Saturation: (Master) Saturation: 11

-fin!-

☆ if your picture is still too yellow, try lowering down the saturation for yellow or add more blue. After colouring, add your preferred sharpening settings. My sharpening settings:

Duplicate > Gaussian Blur (0.2) > Duplicate > Unsharp Mask (100, 1.0) > Duplicate > Smart Sharpen (100, 0.5-0.8)

before and after!

ask me anything if you have questions!

Freebies!