Color Looks

I have been experimenting with various ways to, well, I’m not really sure what the correct word is…enhance, display, or alter color to get a somewhat stylized and slightly muted appearance. After experimenting, I came up with a variant of a technique that I had previously seen demonstrated. This is the look:

Stairs © Howard Grill

To achieve this appearance, I made both a color and a black-and-white version of the image and then moved the color version to a layer on top of the black-and-white version. The trick was then to switch the blending mode of the color layer to ‘color’ instead of ‘normal.’ This applies the color in a mathematical algorithm that applies the hue and saturation of the color layer (while ignoring its brightness or luminosity) to the black-and-white layer, preserving the brightness data of the black-and-white layer.

What I then experimented with was putting various types of adjustment layers between the black-and-white and color layers. These adjustment layers affect the result of the color blend mode since they are underneath that layer. It was a bit hard to predict exactly how it would affect the color, though I am sure there is a way to do so. It seemed more fun to experiment with what could be placed under the color layer and see if the results were satisfying or not. Of course, further typical adjustments can also be made in the more traditional fashion using adjustment layers on top of the color layer.

Give it a whirl and see if you like the result. I may make a video about the process at some point.

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