color pop tutorial

I am going to show you how to brighten up the colors in your photos using Photoshop Elements. I have version 6 but the steps I use should be the same or very similar in other versions. This is something I do to all of the photos I post on my blog or print or email. Basically, any photo that I think deserves a second look is going to go through this process. It is much easier than it seems although I know this will be a lengthy post. I have gone into as much detail as possible so that hopefully you will not wonder how in the world did I do such and such.

Open your photo. Save it with a new file name so that you will always have the original untouched just in case you need to start over or perhaps you will want to make other changes for another project.


Under the Elements tab select Adjust Lighting and then Shadows/Highlights. If the automatic adjustments look good to you click OK. Otherwise you can adjust the sliders according to your preference.


Under the Layer tab select Duplicate Layer. A box will pop up asking you to name this layer. I usually don't name any of my layers for this process. Click OK. You will now have 2 layers (or copies) of your photo shown in the lower right hand corner of your screen.


Under the Enhance tab select Adjust Color and then Adjust Hue/Saturation.


A box will appear. Adjust only the Saturation slider. I have adjusted mine to +8. I rarely adjust more than +10 for any of my photos. Be extra careful in adjusting the saturation for photos of people because it is very easy to overdo it.


Make another duplicate layer by going to the Layer tab and selecting Duplicate Layer. Click OK. You should now have 3 layers of your photo shown in the bottom right hand corner of your screen.


In the right hand corner of your screen you will see a box that says Normal with a downward pointing arrow. Click on this box. A selection menu will appear. Select Soft Light.


Your photo should suddenly appear much brighter. To the right of the Normal box you will see a box labeled Opacity with a downward pointing arrow. Click on the downward arrow. A slider will appear so you can adjust the brightness. I have set mine at 85 percent.


Under the Layer tab select Flatten Image. This will make all three of your photo layers into one layer.


Under the Enhance tab select Unsharp Mask. Despite what it seems this will actually sharpen up your photo.


The Unsharp Mask box appears. You can adjust the sliders to your preference. Here I have set the Amount to 80, the Radius to 8.2, and the Threshold to 1.


If you would like to crop your photo, go to the Image tab and select Crop.


A dashed box will appear over your photo. You can click in the center to move it wherever you like. Click and drag the arrows on the sides to change the size of the box. I want my photo to be exactly 4 inches by 6 inches so I entered those dimensions in the Width and Height boxes above the photo. When you are happy with the size and selected portion of your photo, click on the green checkmark in the right hand corner of the dashed box or press the enter key on your keyboard.


Save the photo once more.

Here is the Before and After of my photo. Have fun!