There are times when each of us wish we could adjust the saturation, luminance, or hue of a specific color in our photographs. This post will show you one way to achieve results fairly easily in our lightroom develop module. This method is quick and easy and is intended for novices, or folks who are just finding their way through Lightroom. You can click on any image to enlarge it. Use the back arrow to return to the blog post.
In the photo below we see our image in Lightroom with no adjustments. Be sure you are in the develop module and you can make any global adjustments you feel necessary. In this shot I was happy with the color in the boat and other areas. I did feel however that the sky itself lacked any punch.
To begin our selective color adjustment, left click on the letters HSL in the right tool panel as indicted below
When you click on those letters, the tool box will expand to show you your options and should look like the image shown below.
To work with the saturation in our image we will left click and release on the little circle to the left of the word saturation, as shown here. You will see the dot change with arrows up and down to indicate that it is turned on.
Now that we’ve turned on the saturation button, move your cursor over your image and it will change into a goofy looking shape with a crosshairs and dot with little arrows up and down. If you see a Magnifying glass with a + inside, you didn’t get the saturation tool turned on. Check to see that the little arrows are over and under the little dot next to the word saturation in the tool bar. Move the goofy cursor crosshairs over the color that you want to adjust. In this case, I’ve chosen a section of the blue sky.
Click and hold your left mouse button. While holding the button down, slide your mouse up or down. Sliding up will increase the saturation of that color only. Sliding down will decrease the saturation of that color. The images below show the starting file, and the file with the blue sky only adjusted. There are some small nuances in using this tool, and you will learn as you go. This technique can be used for hue, saturation, and luminance in the same way
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Dave
