Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition

Correcting and Enhancing Color

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. 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 19-4), 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.google.com/nikcollection, bundled with the rest of their plug-ins (including Sharpener Pro, Color Efex Pro, and Viveza) for $150.

Color Efex Pro

If you could buy just one plug-in, this would be a darn good choice. Using the same control points as other Nik Software plug-ins, Color Efex Pro lets you selectively apply up to 55 enhancement filters to your images—all nondestructively. You can use them to enhance images in creative ways, as well as to fix color casts, smooth skin, and so on (see Figure 19-5). Drop as many control points as you want and use them to set the effect’s opacity in certain areas of the image, or click the Brush button to paint the effect where you want it. This plug-in is included ...