Photoshop Color Settings, Part 1: Working Spaces

Photoshop Color Settings 2

Photoshop Color Settings 1

Let’s establish this right from the start. It’s not your imagination—color management isn’t easy. It isn’t easy because your eyes and your brain and the colorful world around you are all complex. Trying to replicate the way we see and perceive is loaded with conditions and options. The world of color is certainly wonderful but it can present a bewildering mess to the uninitiated. Just try reproducing that certain shade of perfect blue in a photograph or on a lithographic printing press. But, rest assured. As much as color can be challenging, it is also ever rewarding. And the tools we have today to tame it are better than they ever have been before.

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Why Lab?

Image Before Lab Editing Image After Lab Editing

I ruin a lot of nice conversations by bringing up the subject of Lab Color Mode. It's not that people aren't interested in what Lab can do, it simply takes me too long to get to the benefits of this powerful image-editing tool. Like most color-theory discussions, there are few people who consider Lab to be cocktail conversation. One of my failings is that I'm an odd fellow who is actually entertained by color theory. So I need to be careful. Lab color theory is not something most people want to hear about. However, turning listless, lifeless, boring, or damaged photos into exciting images is a topic that many find worthwhile. So, let's start there and see where it takes us.

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Edge Masks for Better Sharpening

Image Needing Edge Mask Edge Mask for Sharpening

Image sharpening can be achieved in myriad ways. While variations are endless, the goal remains the same. We wish to sharpen and enhance desired edges yet avoid sharpening any noise or other artifacts. This can be tricky because most sharpening tools look at all edges, not just the ones we find pleasing or essential.

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Channeling Channels

Red Channel Green Channel Blue Channel

Channels are grayscale image components defined by primary or secondary colors. Well…that statement is only sort of true but we must start here before we elaborate. Sadly, it's this kind of ambiguity and qualification that can make people want to avoid the notion of channels altogether. While it is, indeed, true that our discussion of channels should start with the basic premise that they are defined by primary-color components, their actual functionality runs far deeper than that. But, begin here we must.

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The Round Trip: Why Photoshop Matters (Part 2)

In the last post I declared that Photoshop is essential to effective photo editing. Let's now explore why this is true. While parametric editing with applications like Lightroom and Aperture are efficient, convenient, and non-destructive, we often need access to the tools and capabilities of Photoshop. In fact, I'd argue that we always need them—as long as we have the time and resources to do so.

It should be noted that more and more plugins are available to be used with Lightroom and Aperture without the intervention or support of Photoshop. This drastically extends capabilities. But, it also creates a new image file, much like what we get with the roundtrip to Photoshop. So, I'd argue that we might use these plugins with Photoshop instead as it ultimately gives us much more control.

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