Alibony Lessons for Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, and Digital Photography

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Photoshop Elements: Quick Color Pop

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Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 7

January 3, 2009

Even your dullest photos can shine when you boost the contrast and brightness. Give your photos a quick color pop by using a Levels adjustment layer and the Soft Light blend mode. This pink bus looks a little washed out, but we'll make the color really pop with this quick fix.

Before After
Color pop Before Color pop After

To add a quick color pop:

  1. Open the image you want to improve.

  2. In the Layers palette, add a Levels adjustment layer.

    Add Levels adjustment layer

  3. To adjust the color and contrast, move the sliders in the Levels dialogue box, then click OK.

    • Move the black slider right to the base of the historgram to darken the darkest pixels.
    • Move the white slider left to the base of the histogram to lighten the lightest pixels.
    • Move the gray slider as desired to adjust brightness and contrast in the midtones.
    Levels dialogue box

  4. In the Layers palette, click the Levels adjustment layer, then select Soft Light from the blend modes drop-down list. Adjust the opacity as desired.

    Add Soft Light blend mode

Related

The Levels adjustment is extremely useful. To see what else you can do with Levels, see Improve Contrast and Color by Adjusting Levels.

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Updated on August 4, 2011