Photoshop: Selective Color Adjustments

This tutorial explains the function of the Selective Color adjustment, as well as an example of its use.

The Window

To create a Selective Color adjustment layer, either apply it via the Layers palette go by going to Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Selective Color. You can also apply Selective Color directly to the image by going to Image - Adjustments - Selective Color.

  • Colors - Select the primary color to alter.
  • Cyan - Increase / Decrease the Cyan component.
  • Magenta - Increase / Decrease the Magenta component.
  • Yellow - Increase / Decrease the Yellow component.
  • Black - Increase / Decrease the Black component.
  • Relative - Changes the existing amount of cyan, magenta, yellow, or black by its percentage of the total.
  • Absolute - Adjusts the colors in absolute values.

Understanding Selective Coloring

Selective Coloring uses CMYK colors to alter an image, but can also be used with RGB images. By using Selective Coloring you can alter the amount of a process color in a primary color selectively. Unlike the other Adjustment Layers it also gives you the option to alter neutral / black / white colors.

Selective Coloring can be quite hard to understand, so I will make an example. Imagine you'd like to alter the Blues and Cyans of the sky of the picture below. But you'd desire to alter a specific component of both, such as Magenta. By setting the Magenta in both Cyans and Blues to -50%, the sky turns green. Why? This is because colors aren't always pure. It's possible to have components of Magenta inside of Blues for example.

In other words, you can alter the Magenta colors inside of the Blues and Cyans if you wish, without affecting the, for example, Yellow components at all. You're altering the amount of a component of a primary color, or rather, altering a color inside of another color.

For further understanding, the following quote was taken from the Adobe Photoshop help files:
"In the CMYK mode, each pixel is assigned a percentage value for each of the process inks. The lightest (highlight) colors are assigned small percentages of process ink colors; the darker (shadow) colors higher percentages. For example, a bright red might contain 2% cyan, 93% magenta, 90% yellow, and 0% black. In CMYK images, pure white is generated when all four components have values of 0%."

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