Five Different Ways to Make Color Pop Using Photoshop

Controlling color is one of the primary skills that allows photographers to develop their own style. Learning to balance the different aspects of color in your image is one of the more important things you can do.

In this video, Photoshop Training Channel’s Jesus Ramirez gives an excellent tutorial on how to bring out specific colors in several different scenarios. Like anything in Photoshop, there are several different ways to accomplish your goals. Ramirez does an excellent job of not only explaining the many ways to adjust color but also why you would do it that way. Among the five primary techniques that he explains are using sliders to control saturation and vibrancy (as well as teaching the difference between the two), using the camera raw filter, adding a solid color fill layer, manipulating the image so that colors complement each other, and adding selective saturation. All five of these methods are beneficial and can cause specific colors to stand out from the rest.

One thing that I appreciated about Ramirez’s video that needs to be noted is that twice he says that he is using extreme examples to make his point, but that he recommends a more subtle approach in actual application. This is one of the fundamental teachings of this tutorial to be understood before applying these methods. I also enjoyed that he explained how to use Adobe Color CC to understand what colors to apply to an image to make them stand out. This video is full of excellent tips that will give you precise control of the colors in your photos.