Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Color Correction and Enhancement

The plug-ins in this category can spruce up or fix the color in your images and produce a startling array of special effects while they’re at it. Read on for the scoop!

Viveza

As you’ve learned in previous chapters, before you can adjust the color of a specific part of an image, you need to select that area first. Not so with Viveza. Since this plug-in made its debut in 2008, it has revolutionized selective color and light adjustments. By marking the areas you want to change with control points (the small gray circles shown in Figure 20-4), you can adjust the saturation, brightness, and contrast of those areas at warp speed. And Viveza performs its magic on a duplicate layer, so you don’t have to worry about destroying your original image. It’s available from www.niksoftware.com, bundled with the rest of their plug-ins (including Sharpener Pro, Color Efex Pro, and Viveza) for $150. (See the Note on Note regarding the current state of Nik plug-ins.)

Figure 20-4. By dropping a control point on an image (the circular gray dot near the cowgirl’s neck), you can adjust each area’s saturation, brightness, and contrast individually. Notice that in the right side of the image, the contrast and saturation of the woman’s vest has been increased while the sky remains untouched.

Color Efex Pro

If you could buy just one plug-in, this would be a darn good choice. Using ...