Free Tutorial

As I have explained in my earlier post that through the command named Desaturate you can transform a colored picture ( RGB, CMYK or Lab) into something look like a Grayscale image. The difference between desaturated RGB, CMYK or Lab images and  Grayscale images is that we can add different colors in desaturated images  using different tools and commands, but in case of Grayscale images , there is no way to add any color other than black white and different shades of gray in the image . It is extremely simple to transform a colored image whether it be a CMYK , RGB or Lab image into black and white by applying the command named Desaturate upon it.  All you need to do it to open the image in Photoshop and hit CTRL + Shift +U on the keyboard. As soon as these keys will be pressed, the image will lose all the color information  and turn into black and white. In case you forget these short cut keys, then simply click the image tab on the menu bar of Adobe Photoshop to open Image Menu. Then select the option named Adjustment to open the Adjustment Menu containing various commands. Out of those commands select Desaturate by clicking on it and just one click will discard all the information regarding colors and transform the image into black and white.

Give awesome look to different images

Having converted the color mode of the image into 8-bits RGB, the next thing which is supposed to be done is the creation of  a duplicate of the locked background  layer. In order to create a duplicate of that layer hit CTRL + J on the keyboard . As soon as you will do so, there will be appeared another thumbnail  containing the same image in the layer palette right above the background layer according to the picture below.

After that, desaturate the image on the duplicate layer either by hitting Shift + CTRL +U on the keyboard or by selecting the command named Desaturate given inside the Image Menu’s option Adjustment’s side menu according to the picture below.

Option name Desaturate given inside the Adjustment Menu

As soon as you will select that command,  all the colors in the selected layer will be transformed into black, white and different shades of gray according to the picture below.

Image showing no color but black, white and different shades of grey

Having desaturated the selected layer, make selection of any part of it using any selection tool (as I have decided to add color in the lips only and keep rest of the layer black and white so I’ll make selection of lips using Polygonal Lasso Tool).  So select Polygonal lasso tool by clicking on it in the tool panel according to the picture below.

Polygonal Lasso Tool  in the Tool Panel

As soon as the Polygonal Lasso Tool will be selected, pointer of your mouse will assume the shape of Polygonal Lasso Tool icon and the setting options of the same tool will be appeared in the option bar that can be seen usually right beneath the menu bar. Out of those options select  New selection as selection type , set Feather equal to 0 px and put check inside the check box named Anti-aliased to keep the edges of the selected area smooth and appealing according to the picture below.

Set the Selection Type and Feather and put check inside the check box named Anti-aliased

Having done that setting, zoom the picture in by hitting  CTRL + + on the keyboard once or twice to make selection easier. Having zoomed the picture in, put the Polygonal Lasso Tool shaped pointer of your mouse on any point at the edge of lips’ outline and click the left button of your mouse once.  As soon as you will do so, selection thread will be stuck to that point according to the picture below.

Selection is being started

Then trace the outline of lips by dragging your mouse and clicking the left button of it every time you feel any need to change the direction of selection according to the picture below.

Clicks on different places while making selection

Then end the selection of lips at the same point you started it by clicking the left button of your mouse on the same point according to the picture below.

End the selection of lips on the same spot you started it

Having finished the tracing , hit Enter to complete the selection.  As soon as you will hit Enter, the selection thread will be vanished and the edges of selected area will begin to glimmer according to the picture below.

Glimmering edges around  lips are indicating that this  part of the layer  is selected

Then, in order to add some  color inside the selected part of the layer through Hue/Saturation dialogue box you need to create a new Adjustment layer.  To create that layer click the small icon that can be seen right beneath the layer palette and says Create new fill or adjustment layer every time having been hovered over.

Icon named Create a new fill or adjustment layer

 As soon as you will click that icon, there will be appeared a menu containing various options including Hue/Saturation. In order to create a new adjustment layer, and to open Hue/Saturation dialogue box , select  the option Hue/Saturation by clicking on it.

Adjustment layer menu

As soon as you will select that option, the glimmering edges of the selected part of the layer will be disappeared  and there will be appeared two thumbnails  in the layer palette right above  layer 1, representing newly created adjustment layer and a layer mask. Further, along with these two thumbnails in the layer palette, there will be appeared a dialogue box named Hue/Saturation according to the picture below.

Newly created adjustment layer and layer mask in the layer palette along with dialogue box named Hue/Saturation

In the dialogue box named Hue/Saturation, you can see a drop-down menu named Edit, three sliders under the heads of Hue, Saturation and Lightness,  three inactive Eyedropper Tools and two small check boxes named Colorize and Preview along  with some buttons.

In order to add color in the formerly selected part of the image through this dialogue box , first of all, put check inside the check box named Colorize. As soon as you will do so, the formerly active drop-down menu named Edit will get inactive. After that all you need to do is to put check inside the other check box named Preview  so that you could watch the preview of different settings of hue, saturation and lightness and to move the sliders from left to right or from right to left to achieve desired color with desired intensity for the formerly selected part of the image. For instance if you set the slider named Hue at the position of 0, slider named Saturation at the position of 100 and the slider named Lightness at the position of 0 the result will be the bright red color inside the formerly selected part of the image according to the picture below.

Hue, Saturation and Lightness have been set at the positions of  0, 100, 0 respectively

In case you set set the slider named Hue at the position of 310, slider named Saturation at the position of 81 and the slider named Lightness at the position of -67 the result will be the dark purple or magenta color inside the formerly selected part of the image according to the picture below.

Hue, Saturation and Lightness have been set at the positions of  310, 81,- 67 respectively

In order to apply any setting finally upon the image click the button named OK.

Image looks completely black and white when you hide the layer named Hue/Saturation

Visible Background layer containing image in its original aspect

Image with layer 1 completely invisible

Invert is a command that is not very commonly used in Photoshop. In order to understand the functionality of Invert in Photoshop it is necessary to understand the three different sectors in which any image is considered to be divided.  These sectors are referred as Shadows, Highlights and Midtones. Whenever we cast a glance over a picture we notice some parts of it noticeably darker than the rest. All such part  are fell into the category of Shadows. Some parts of the same image shows very light shades of different colors which seems almost equivalent to white, all such parts are referred as Highlights. While all the parts of the image containing different shades between the lightest and the darkest shades are referred as Midtones. For instance in the image given below you can see my favorite actress Resham in her fancy white outfit.

 In this image Shadows , Highlights and Midtones  all are quite obvious and easily noticeable. You can consider her hair as Shadows, her dress as Highlights and her skin and background as Midtones in the image.

Invert is used only when you want to convert the darkest parts of the image into the brightest parts (transform Shadows into Highlights) or if you want to convert the brightest parts of image into the darkest parts (transform Highlights into the Shadows) and at the same time reset the Midtones accordingly. Further, while working with RGB color mode, you notice that the Invert command transform different shades of green into different shades of magenta, different shades of red into different shades of cyan and different shades of blue into different shades of yellow, and so it does with the other color modes.

How to apply Invert command?

In order to understand how this command works follow the steps given below:
First of all  open a picture in Photoshop preferably with the extension  JPEG,  either by getting  inside the File Menu and selecting  the option named Open or by hitting CTRL + O on the keyboard.

Image before being inverted

Having opened the image  in Photoshop, select the image tab in the menu bar by clicking on it. As soon as you will click the tab named Image, there will be appeared a menu containing various options. Out of those options select none other than Adjustment. As soon as you will select the option named Adjustment , there will be appeared it’s side menu containing different sub-option. Out of those sub options, selectInvert either by clicking on it in the menu or by hitting CTRL + I on the keyboard.

Command referred as Invert given inside the sub menu of Adjustment

As soon as you will select the option named Invert, the Shadows (darkest parts in the image) will be transformed into Highlights (brightest parts) and the Highlights will be transformed into Shadows. Further, Midtones too, will changed themselves accordingly, meaning darker parts of the image will turn less darker while the brighter parts of the image will turn less brighter and the image will assume the aspect of a photographic negative according to the picture below.

Under the impacts of  Invert image assumes the features of  photographic negatives

As I have explained earlier that the Invert command transforms the different shades of red into different shades of cyan, you can observe the transformation of the red component which was obvious in the skin of the actress, into cyan in the image given above.

In order to observe the impacts of Invert on different colors you can apply that command on any image containing a number of colors for instance the image given below.

Image containing Red, Green, Blue and Cyan, Magenta, Yellow

As soon as you will apply  the command named Invert on the image given above, the same image will be transformed into the image given below.

Impacts of the command named Invert on the different colors

 As in this image there were no noticeable highlights and shadows before inversion and all the color shades had the same intensity so there is nothing look like a photographic negative in this image after inversion.
As you can transform a colorful image into something look like a photographic negative by applying Invert command on it, you can convert a photographic negative into a colorful image by inverting its features too. For instance the following image can be transformed into a perfect colorful photograph if you apply Invert command on it.

Image ready to be transformed into a perfect colorful photograph

After applying Invert command

I am certain, this tutorial will be proved helpful to all my readers. In order to put forward any question, complain or suggestion for further improvement, kindly don't forget to subscribe your comments.