Photoshop Colour Accent Effect

Photoshop Colour accent is one of the most popular digital effects. It is very easy to apply and can be used with a variety of photos. In this article I show you how easy it is achieve several different colour accents using layers and masks. One of the main advantages of using layers and masks are that you control how much of the effect you want to apply to a particular part of the image.

If this is something you’d like to learn more about, we are going to have a Photoshop Layers and Masks class on November 18 and 19. This two part workshop is dedicated to skills for using layers and masks in Photoshop.

Example 1:

Colour Accent effect in Black and White picture

1-Open an image in Photoshop

2-Go to adjustment layer and select Black and White adjustment

3-This adjustment turns the whole image to a Black and White photo. Now select the mask icon next to the image thumbnail in the layer panel. (When you select the mask you see the brackets [ ]).

You will notice the whole mask is White which means the adjustment is applied to the entire area. If you want a part of the image without this adjustment (in our example Black and White) simply select the Brush tool and then press the letter D on your keyboard to make the default background and foreground colour to black and white. Then select the black colour and start brushing the parts of the image that you don’t want to apply the adjustment.

4-If you make a mistake or change your mind, simply switch the brush colour to White and start applying white to those areas to bring back the effect again.

 

 

Example 2:

Surreal Colour Accent

1-Open an image in Photoshop and go to Adjustment layer and select Hue/Saturation adjustment.

2-Start adjusting Hue and Saturation until you like the effect. Select the Mask and select the brush tool. Pick up the black colour and start brushing the areas where you don’t want to apply the adjustment.

Example 3

Using Photoshop Filters and Mask as an advanced effect:

1-Open an image and duplicate the picture (in Mac Common+J, in PC Control+J)

2-Select the top layer and go to Filter>Blur> and choose Motion Blur. Adjust the amount of blur according to the image. This makes the entire photo blurred.

3-At the bottom of Layer panel click on ADD LAYER MASK

4-Now that you created the Mask the rest is quite easy: select the brush tool and black as the colour and brush out the areas that you want stay sharp in the image.

 

There are many uses for Layers and Masks in digital photo editing. I will cover more of these effects in the near future. Stay tuned and consider registering for the Photoshop Layer and Mask workshop.

Enjoy Photoshopping!

Ted and the Omnilargess Team

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