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Contrast Adjustment by Selective Colour
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Marcus on 29 March, 2008 11:44:00
 
This method is used as an alternative to the normal curves adjustment to better
control specific contrast levels in a mono image. It refers specifically to CS2
although I believe other versions of PS should follow closely.
Firstly convert your image as you would normally and then add a selective
colour layer (Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Selective Colour). At the top of the
options box that pops up is a list of colours and below that are four sliders.
Because we are dealing with a mono image the only colour channels that we are
concerned with are the black, neutral and white and the only slider we need is
the black one.
By choosing the relevant colours from the drop down box and moving the black
slider you can then control the amount of contrast within the shadows, midtones
and highlights respectively. This gives you more precise control than with a
normal curves adjustment and the effects are much easier to fine tune. It also
allows you to bias an image more easily towards either a low or high key effect,
without compromising on the rest of the image.
Once you have the effect you are after you can still add a normal
Brightness/Contrast layer to influence the overall contrast, but remember to
keep any adjustments small as any large adjustments may start to affect the
quality of the image.
Hope this helps