Simple COLOR GRADE Trick To Make Your Photo "Pop" (Look MORE 3D!)

in this video i'm going to show you a simple color grading trick that you can use to make your photos pop and look more 3d using photoshop we're going to be using some of photoshop's simple automation tools to apply separate color grading effects to both the background and the model in doing so will help to make the model stand out or pop from the background and look more 3d you will also learn a ton of helpful tips and tricks along the way including the four subject separation techniques which you can use to transform any photo from flat and boring to 3d and engaging so without further ado let's go ahead and get started with the video [Music] [Applause] so here we are in photoshop and as you can see we have a portrait photo of francesca which comes from a recent indoor natural lighting photo shoot so let's get right into the edit here by making a copy of our original photo by creating a new blank layer and then hitting shift plus command plus option plus e and then opening this layer in camera raw filter to do some crucial color correcting adjustments and so the first thing i'm going to do is remove a bit of this green tint coming through by shifting the tint away from green and towards magenta and then coming down to the green channel on the curves tab and using the target selector to click onto our subject's skin and using the downward arrow key to reduce the greens in our photo by a couple notches let's also go ahead and click into our basic adjustments tab and increase the exposure to about 0.25 hit ok and let's return to photoshop now guys it's time for a very important step we're going to be using some powerful subject separation effects to separate the model from the background subject separation simply means to create visual differences in color and tone between the model and the background so that they both stand out from one another this will create the illusion that the model is popping out from the background thus making our photo look much more 3d now when it comes to subject separation my preference is to begin with the background so let's go ahead and do that now by clicking into select subject to make a selection of our model from here let's create a brightness slash contrast adjustment layer and automatically our selection will be loaded into the layer mask click into this layer mask and hit command i to invert it so that the background is now selected remember on a layer mask white reveals black conceals so where you see white is where this layer's effect will be visible on our image now we need to clean up this layer mask a little bit to ensure that only our background is selected and to do that let's use a soft black brush and paint away the white in some of these areas [Music] let's also go ahead and increase the feather slightly to soften the edge of our selection let's click out of this view click back into the adjustment thumbnail and now we're ready to decrease the brightness of our background in doing so we're taking advantage of the brightness subject separation effect from here let's also go ahead and decrease the contrast to create a difference in contrast between the model and the background thus taking advantage of the contrast subject separation effect next up it's time to create a hue and saturation adjustment layer let's copy over the layer mask from down below by holding alt and clicking and dragging it over and onto our hue and saturation adjustment layer from here let's simply go ahead and decrease the saturation thereby creating a difference in color saturation between the model and the background we can also reduce the lightness so as to further build on the brightness subject separation if you think this effect is too much you can always drop the opacity let's go ahead and add one more effect by creating a curves adjustment layer and don't forget to copy over your layer mask then clicking into the mid tones and dragging this point down slightly to darken the background and then flatten or fade the blacks by raising the black points slightly to reduce the contrast group these effects together and rename to background separation so we're making good progress so far but let's continue building on these depth enhancing effects this time on the model herself but before we make any color grading changes to the model we've got to ensure that the model's skin is properly cleaned and retouched now for the sake of this video i won't be going into my skin retouching process today but i do have a separate video on the topic which i'll link on screen now so with the skin looking clean now it's time to make the model pop and to do that all you need to do is create a new blank layer and then press shift plus command plus option plus e to create a stamp of all visible underlying layers like so once done hold command and click on any one of the layer masks below to make a selection then hit shift plus command plus i to invert your selection and hit command plus j to make a copy or cut out of your model okay guys now the fun part begins right click on the cutout of your model and select convert to smart object and then proceed to click into filter camera raw filter now it's time to add some subject separation effects to the model and this will be as easy as shifting around a couple sliders so for starters let's go ahead and bump up the exposure to brighten the model remember earlier we darken the background so by brightening the model we are creating an even bigger difference in brightness between the model and the background let's also go ahead and increase the shadows and decrease the highlights so as to reveal more detail in our subject making it possible to then go ahead and increase the contrast in our model by raising the whites and decreasing the blacks doing so will further add to the contrast subject separation effects we already applied to the background next let's subtly increase the vibrance and color saturation sliders so as to further increase the difference in the color saturation between the model and the background before we return to photoshop let's also warm up the colors on the model by shifting the temperature to a warmer plus two this will help to create a subtle color temperature difference between the model and the background thus taking advantage of the complementary color subject separation let's hit ok and take a look at the results so this is looking great so far but we are not done yet now it's time to make some crucial and specific color adjustments to our image to really make the model pop and boost our photos depth and the first thing we're going to do is target this shadowy region on francesca's body so let's go ahead and create a curves adjustment layer click on the layer mask and invert it from here let's use a soft white brush and paint over the model's body so as to isolate this brightening effect in this shadowy region alone next using the handpicker tool click into this shadowy region and drag upwards to brighten this area to make the model's body pop let's also click into the black point and shift this to the right slightly so as to maintain high contrast in this area now speaking of shadows let's go ahead and add another curves adjustment layer this time let's select the reds and use the hand picker tool to click into the shadows and tap upwards on your directional keys this will add in some subtle warmer tones to our image from here let's create a selective color adjustment scroll down and hold alt and click and drag a layer mask from down below over and on to our selective color adjustment don't forget to hit command i so that our model is selected let's click into the reds to target the skin and then pump up the vibrancy of these skin tones let's create yet another selective color adjustment this time clicking into the blues to make the colors in the model's outfit pop remember the key thing here is to create and build upon many small subtle adjustments to create the most natural color grade possible now creating a 3d pop to your image would be incomplete without a boost in the color of the lips and to do that all you have to do is create a selective color adjustment and invert the layer mask then using a soft white brush let's paint over the lips to isolate this color boost in this area alone once done simply come up to the reds and then increase the magentas and blacks to successfully create a richer colour pop to the lips let's group all these effects together and take a look at a before and after before and after [Music]

Channel: Justin Laurens

Views: 1,470,127

Keywords: photoshop, photoshop tutorial, photography, photoshop tutorials, photo effects, photo editing, how to make your photos look better, photoshop effects, photoshop tutorial photo editing, portrait, portrait photography, photoshop editing tutorial, portrait editing tutorial, make photo look 3D, boost photo depth, portrait photoshop tutorial, dimension, photo dimension, make colors pop, improve your photos, better photos, make photos pop, how to make colors pop, make image pop, depth

Id: eO8NNJMhLFM

Length: 9min 9sec (549 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 02 2022