Adobe Photoshop CS4 Studio Techniques

Color Balance

Most of the time, you might pass over Variations in favor of the Color Balance controls in the Adjustments panel (Figure 8.41), which make future changes much easier. Just as in Variations, the Color Balance controls allow you to shift the color of highlights, midtones, or shadows toward one of the primary colors; the only difference is that you’ll have to look at the main screen to get a preview. Moving a slider to +15 or −15 is approximately the same as making one click in the Variations dialog with the default setting on the Fine/Coarse slider. But because you’re not forced to make adjustments in preset increments, it’s much easier to be precise with Color Balance than with Variations.

Figure 8.41. The Color Balance panel is ...