Using Photoshop curves to adjust color

Although most people who use Photoshop’s Curves want to adjust the brightness of an image, you can also use it to shift color. Along with the Hue/Saturation control set to 40%, I used Curves to create this “retro” look.

The original image.

Curves lets you brighten or darken the highlights, midtones and shadows of an image. By changing the channel to red, green or blue, you can affect the color cast overall—add red to the highlights and blue to the shadows, for example.

Curvy combinations

Blue highlights

Blue shadows

Green highlights

Green shadows

Red highlights

Red shadows