Adobe Photoshop Unmasked: The Art and Science of Selections, Layers, and Paths

Chapter 5. Adjustment Layers

This chapter looks at using adjustment layers to apply the big guns of tonal and color correction, Curves and Hue/Saturation, to “select” parts of an image by sampling brightness values or colors. While Curves, Hue/Saturation, and other adjustment options are not selection tools per se, they let you target specific tones and colors; often they are more effective (and much faster) than actually making area selections. For example, to increase the contrast in an area of sky, you may need only to apply a Curves adjustment that targets the specific tones of the sky. To change the colors of the subject of an image, perhaps you don’t need to select it first, but can instead sample the colors and make a Hue/Saturation adjustment. ...