Pump up the Colors with Hue and Saturation

One of the first tools that people gravitate toward when they first use Photoshop or Photoshop Elements is the Hue and Saturation tool. It's a very simple tool to use (you just play with sliders to adjust both hue and color saturation) and you can create some dazzling effects. The availability of a saturation tool has created a world of over-saturated photos in online galleries and photo-sharing sites and while they're fun to look at you should be aware those colors don't always print quite so vividly.

Still, there are times when you might want to oversaturate colors just for the heck of it--especially for online use--and that's exactly what I did with this shot of an oil slick (photographed in a motel parking lot on a rainy day). The image came out of the camera far more dull than I had hoped (or than it looked in real life) so I started to pump up the saturation--a little at first and then a lot! The version here is actually only a moderately saturated version, I also have what I call a Peter Max version that is even more intense.

Most image-editing programs have a saturation control and, as I said, all that you have to do is call up the image, open the tool and then start saturating. You can also saturate invidual colors (or parts of an image) and I'll talk about doing both of those things in future postings. For now, call up and image that you think is too dull and pump up the volume!