Photoshop How To

Unless you shoot in black-and-white, the effective use of color can make or break a photo. Having a good eye certainly helps, but a basic understanding of color theory can make all the difference.

The eye-opening tutorial below comes to us from Nucly, an instructional YouTube channel dedicated to helping photographers improve their imagery with very helpful tutorials on photo retouching and other Photoshop techniques. This 30-minute episode is a bit longer than most, but it imparts some valuable information that will help elevate your skills

Instructor Rikard Rodin is an accomplished author, photographer, and Creative Director currently based in Los Angeles. He has two goals for this important tutorial, the first of which is explaining how the Color Wheel works. Then, with that knowledge under your belt, he demonstrates how to use “Color Harmony” in Photoshop to create the most pleasing images possible.

As you’ll see, there are actually different types of color harmony, that include Complementary Harmony, two types of Split Complementary Harmony, Analogous Harmony, and what’s known as Triadic Harmony. Less important that the terminology is how these color styles can be used to advantage with a few basic tools in Photoshop.

As Rodin notes, “We’re going to take five images, and for each determine the key color, decide on a harmony, and then adjust the colors of the image in Photoshop to achieve our chosen harmony.” It’s a unique form of color enhancement that we haven’t discussed before.

Make sure you check the description beneath the video where you’ll find three helpful links you’ll want to explore. The first two direct you to the color wheels used in this tutorial, just in case you wish to purchase them for yourself.

The third link is for photographers interested in a more comprehensive discussion of these matters, which you’ll gain by watching Rodin’s online Color Grading Masterclass. There’s also much more to learn by paying a visit to Rodin’s interesting YouTube channel.

We also recommend you watch the tutorial we posted from another pro earlier this month, demonstrating what he says are “five basic landscape photography tips every beginner should know.”