The BEST Way to Add Contrast and Make Images Pop in Photoshop

today I'm gonna show you the best way to increase contrast very naturally so without any further ado let's get started [Music] so here we on Photoshop and any of the photos that you see in this tutorial if you want to download them check the links in the description so first of all let us understand what the heck is contrast contrast is simply difference if you look at the literal meaning of contrast it just means a lot of difference right it can be the difference between the texture the pattern or whatever there is we can say there is a lot of contrast between the t-shirt that you're wearing and the trousers that you're wearing right so contrast can be anything between big and small anything where there's a lot of difference involved that is contrast in terms of image contrast means the difference between highlights and shadows in other words difference between brights and darks often we are in the misconception that increasing the contrast just means making the brights brighter and making the darks darker it's not just that even if the brights are bright enough and we make the darks darker we are still increasing the contrast why because we are increasing the difference between brights and the darks anyway similarly if the darks are dark enough or if you want to keep it the way it is and this is the brights you're just making the brights brighter you're still increasing the contrast because the difference is increased so always remember what is contrast it's just difference in case of an image it is the difference between brights and the darks or in other words the difference between highlights and shadows so the best way to increase contrast is ready for this curves as you guessed it but it's not just that there's a lot more attached to it we can recover that in this tutorial for example have a look at this image so let's go ahead and create a curves adjustment layer click on the adjustment layer icon and choose curves so you want to keep the darks the way they are let's zoom in quite a bit and these are the highlights that you want to brighten okay so you can use this and to now this is one of the best tools inside of curves so you can use these hand tools and click and drag this up to make this area bright if you want to darken the darks click and drag it down as easy as a pie now if you want to go more in-depth and understand what that is let us understand what that is click on this button to just make it normal now inside of the curves on the x-axis or the horizontal axis we have the brightness levels so on the Left we have the darks on the right we have the brights as we move from left to right we gradually move from dark to bright as you can see in this small little bar it's very nicely indicated in other words we can also say it that the x axis or the horizontal axis is the input okay now let's talk about the y-axis or the vertical axis the vertical axis is the resolved axis or in other words the output axis so this axis is also called the input axis the horizontal axis is the input and the vertical one is the output the horizontal axis is the target the vertical one is the result so for example you want to make the brights brighter so where are the brights on the right-hand side of the horizontal axis on this area so we'll pick it up we want to make it brighter right so this is the result the vertical slider or in other words it's the output so to make it bright as indicated in this bar we will take it up to make it dark we will take it down so our first job is to target using this horizontal axis or the input axis now once we target for example we are targeting the brights or the docks let's target the brights we have to think about the result or in other words the output you want to make it brighter or do you want to make it darker to make it brighter take it up to make it darker take it down as easy as that now you can also use the hand too if you use the hand tool it will exactly say where that high light or dark area falls into place in side of that curve so it's easier to do because again you don't have to guess it you can use the hand tool to have an exact area selected so make it a little brighter and make this area a little bit darker and that's how you increase the contrast have a look at the before and after before after but it is not just that if you have a closer look have a look at the color of the face it's getting too much saturated very saturated and we need to decrease that saturation because as you see we increase the contrast as we increase the contrast the colors are affected and it's looking ugly it's not recognized but if that looks good for you for that image please go for it it depends upon image to image but in this image the face is too saturated now how do we tell Photoshop just affect the brightness do not touch the colors do not do anything to the colors just affect the brightness which in other words is also called luminosity we will just affect the luminosity brightness or the darkness we will not touch the colors how to do that as the name suggests change the blend mode simply from normal to luminosity kaboom it just does not affect the colors have a look if it was normal see it was making the face a little red it was not looking nice if we changed that to luminosity it's not affecting the colors now for a little contrast this might be fine for a quick contrast this is great however and I must say this sometimes it can get your image a little discolored how to tackle with that let's jump to example number two so here we are in the second example and the first thing that you need to do click on the adjustment layer icon and choose curves now as you can see the brights are bright enough we don't need to brighten it anymore so we just need to darken the darts select the hand and move it over here who would have guessed the darks are over here right you would have guessed the darks are here we would have darkened this way but have a look at this and that's why this hand tool is so much more important so these are the darts it falls into place right over here because the skin color is light right so just drag it in like that and we want to make this area a little brighter and that's fine but as you can see it's getting the face very magenta ish and adding a lot of red to it and we don't like it so how do we get rid of it if we change the blend mode to luminosity it's discoloring the face and giving it a very gameofthrones kind of effect it's very discolored cold effect we don't want that to happen we want it to be vibrant at the same time we want to increase the contrast and not get the colors too saturated so change the blend mode blend mode back to normal and then add a hue/saturation adjustment layer above it click on the adjustment layer icon and choose hue/saturation now we think the red is too much so we will choose red from this drop-down list choose red and simply decrease the saturation let's move it - -20 - that looks fine for this and voila that's done have a look at the before and after before after before whoops I did something wrong so before after we increased the contrast without affecting the colors but this is so much contrast again make a group of both of these ctrl or command G select both of them ctrl or command G and then decrease the opacity this contrast is fine have a look before and after before after makes a difference now let's jump to example number 3 where we get more advanced into color correction because in this case all over the face and the body the red was so much not any other colors but what if on applying that contrast apart from red or just one color a lot of colors are taking place and we need to remove a lot of colors like reds and the yellows and so many more colors so how to tackle them let's jump to example number 3 so here we are an example number 3 and as you can see the face is very flat it's a backlit portrait and the face has gone a little flat and we need to add a little contrast to just the face we will learn one more thing in this section so all you have to do as we did before adjustment layer icon and choose curves and similarly select the hand take it all up and dharak stick it down this adds a pretty nice contrast to the face but we want adjust to the face select the mask press ctrl or command I this inverts the mask now take the brush make sure the foreground color is white because white shows and black hides right now the mask is completely black which means you cannot see the layer or the adjustment layer or any kind of effect inside of the image so we need to paint white in the areas where we want to see it so let's paint white over her face just like that and that looks pretty good again you don't have to be super accurate here but see that hairs are shining so much so take it away from the hair and that's fine now it's affecting the color so very much it's adding magenta it's adding yellow and it's not looking nice so how do we take care of that add a hue/saturation adjustment layer okay and clip it just to this now what do we mean by that well if you change the saturation it affects the whole image if you change the hue it affects the whole image if you clip it to the curves it will just affect that particular area inside of the mask so click on this button it will clip it now if you decrease the saturation it only affects this particular area let's get it back to normal now all you have to do make a selection of that particular red or magenta color and then yellow color and do that separately so inside of hue/saturation there's another hand tool so click on the hand tool click here once now we need to narrow it down okay so take the hue all the way to the right increase the saturation just for indication purposes make this narrow the slider that you see the top shows the color spectrum of the complete image the bottom one is the result so for example we are affecting this whole area have a look at this if I change the hue on the bottom is changing see on the bottom doesn't happen anything on the top because stop is the target the bottom-1 is the result so we are targeting that area from red to a little bit yellow of the color spectrum you get the idea now we need to make it narrower and just affect this particular area this color area so take the hue all the way to the right and the saturation to see which area is it affecting say we want to affect this particular area now we will expand it a little bit like that and using the outside slider make the selection or the target smooth similarly do it with this we don't want to affect the lips so stay away from the lips okay that's pretty good bring it back to normal zero this one to zero now let's decrease the saturation let's move it a little up and decrease the saturation it must be fine Wow just decreases the saturation of that particular area you can also change the hue make it a little bit more yellowish or stuff I'll go with +3 that's fine have a look at it before and after before the red thing after it's gone but there's one more thing which is disturbing the yellow thing so we will add one more hue/saturation adjustment layer or you can do it in the same one so click on the yellows and then make it narrower take the hue all the way to the right and then just target this particular area make it a little more wide the selection it's pretty good and bring it back to normal and then decrease the saturation let's move and let's see what kind of an effect it has wonderful it looks wonderful you can also change it a little bit magenta ish and that's fine have a look at this so before after before after now that's an advanced hue/saturation color correction let's have a look at the complete before and after so this is the after and this is the before flat after before after if you want make a group of both of these and decrease the opacity this one is fine and you can change the contrast at any point you come back to the curves and you want lighten it a little bit and darken this a little bit again you might have to decrease the saturation inside a few saturation let's go to the Reds and decrease the saturation even more let's go to the yellows and decrease the saturation a little bit so they go that's one of the best ways to increase contrast in Photoshop just to sum it up create an adjustment layer called curves then using the hand to click and drag on the bright area up on the dark area click and drag it down if you need to only if you need to if the brights are bright enough you don't have to touch them if the darts are dark enough you don't need to touch them just make sure that you increase what the contrast or in other words the difference as simple as that first create a curves adjustment layer increase the contrast if it's affecting the color and you don't like it you can change the blend mode to luminosity now luminosity is a blend mode which tells Photoshop that you just affect the luminosity and do not touch the colors or if the luminosity is discoloring your image you can add a hue/saturation adjustment layer select the color that you want to reduce for example we did the red color in the second example we chose red and we decreased the saturation in third example we saw that yellow and red both of the colors were little disturbing so we added a hue/saturation adjustment layer specifically selected that particular shade of red by clicking on that using the hand tool again inside a few saturation and then narrowed down the slider and just decrease the saturation of that then we moved to yellows and decrease the saturation of that and that's how we did it in a more advanced manner this video helped you and if it did make sure to give us that I can also don't forget to subscribe and not just subscribe ring the bell so that you my friend thing I would like to take this moment to thank all these nice people for supporting this channel on patreon and helping keep Vic's imperfect free for everybody forever thank you so much for watching I'll see you guys in my next one till then stay tuned and make sure that you keep green [Music] you [Music]

Channel: PiXimperfect

Views: 108,563

Keywords: add contrast in photoshop, contrast, curves, hue and saturation, color correction, make image pop, dramatic portrait, colors pop, photoshop tutorial, piximperfect, unmesh dinda

Id: C98ZB-0C0_w

Length: 15min 32sec (932 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 08 2018