Adding Color

Original Image

One of the great things about the adjustment tools is that you can add color to the affect. Heck it could be the only setting you applied to that tool. I rely heavily on Photoshop’s color picker/eyedropper to help me choose colors since I have been known to have some color issues. 😀 But if you use a track pad or tablet device such as a Wacom Intous in Lightroom and you click on the color swatch to choose a color… as soon as you move your mouse out of the color palette, and try to sample a color in the image… the cursor changes to a regular one and you can’t do anything.

Picking a color from the color palette is easy, moving the eyedropper out of the palette… not so much.

The secret is to make sure that you keep pressing the mouse or stylus as you drag from the color palette and the eye dropper will follow out of the palette and let you sample any color on the screen.

Holding down the cursor and dragging out of the palette will allow the eyedropper to sample on the image

Now you can grab a section of green from the grass and use the Gradient tool to add some color to the upper corner of the image.

Pick a color and use the Gradient tool to add more color

This works great to give kind of a colorful haze to your images or add to a lens flare. (Editor’s note… You may or may not care for the color I have chosen for this image… that is ok, the end result is to show you the effect, not create the greatest image in the world… you now have the power to choose and use any color you want for your images… so have fun!)

Final image with color added