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Enhance your image with color balance adjustments

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  1. Photoshop User Guide
  2. Introduction to Photoshop
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    2. What's new in Photoshop
    3. Edit your first photo
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    5. Photoshop | Common Questions
    6. Photoshop system requirements
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    8. Get to know Photoshop
  3. Photoshop and other Adobe products and services
    1. Work with Illustrator artwork in Photoshop
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    3. Substance 3D Materials for Photoshop
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    5. Use the Capture in-app extension in Photoshop
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    1. Photoshop on the iPad | Common questions
    2. Get to know the workspace
    3. System requirements | Photoshop on the iPad
    4. Create, open, and export documents
    5. Add photos
    6. Work with layers
    7. Draw and paint with brushes
    8. Make selections and add masks
    9. Retouch your composites
    10. Work with adjustment layers
    11. Adjust the tonality of your composite with Curves
    12. Apply transform operations
    13. Crop and rotate your composites
    14. Rotate, pan, zoom, and reset the canvas
    15. Work with Type layers
    16. Work with Photoshop and Lightroom
    17. Get missing fonts in Photoshop on the iPad
    18. Japanese Text in Photoshop on the iPad
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    20. Touch shortcuts and gestures
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    22. Edit your image size
    23. Livestream as you create in Photoshop on the iPad
    24. Correct imperfections with the Healing Brush
    25. Create brushes in Capture and use them in Photoshop
    26. Work with Camera Raw files
    27. Create and work with Smart Objects
    28. Adjust exposure in your images with Dodge and Burn
  5. Photoshop on the web beta
    1. Common questions | Photoshop on the web beta 
    2. Introduction to the workspace
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    5. Supported file types | Photoshop on the web beta
    6. Open and work with cloud documents
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    1. Photoshop cloud documents | Common questions
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  7. Workspace
    1. Workspace basics
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    14. Place Photoshop images in other applications
    15. Preferences
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  9. Image and color basics
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    20. About color
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  10. Layers
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  12. Image adjustments
    1. Perspective warp
    2. Reduce camera shake blurring
    3. Healing brush examples
    4. Export color lookup tables
    5. Adjust image sharpness and blur
    6. Understand color adjustments
    7. Apply a Brightness/Contrast adjustment
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    9. Levels adjustment
    10. Adjust hue and saturation
    11. Adjust vibrance
    12. Adjust color saturation in image areas
    13. Make quick tonal adjustments
    14. Apply special color effects to images
    15. Enhance your image with color balance adjustments
    16. High dynamic range images
    17. View histograms and pixel values
    18. Match colors in your image
    19. How to crop and straighten photos
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    26. Adjust HDR exposure and toning
    27. Filter
    28. Blur
    29. Dodge or burn image areas
    30. Make selective color adjustments
    31. Replace object colors
  13. Adobe Camera Raw
    1. Camera Raw system requirements
    2. What's new in Camera Raw
    3. Introduction to Camera Raw
    4. Create panoramas
    5. Supported lenses
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    9. How to make non-destructive edits in Camera Raw
    10. Radial Filter in Camera Raw
    11. Manage Camera Raw settings
    12. Open, process, and save images in Camera Raw
    13. Repair images with the Enhanced Spot Removal tool in Camera Raw
    14. Rotate, crop, and adjust images
    15. Adjust color rendering in Camera Raw
    16. Feature summary | Adobe Camera Raw | 2018 releases
    17. New features summary
    18. Process versions in Camera Raw
    19. Make local adjustments in Camera Raw
  14. Image repair and restoration
    1. Remove objects from your photos with Content-Aware Fill
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    5. Basic troubleshooting steps to fix most issues
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    14. Text Engine error using Type tool in Photoshop | Windows 8
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  19. Filters and effects
    1. Use the Liquify filter
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    3. Filter basics
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    6. Use the Adaptive Wide Angle filter
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  20. Saving and exporting
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    10. Troubleshoot printing problems | Photoshop
  22. Automation
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  23. Color Management
    1. Understanding color management
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  24. Content authenticity
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  25. 3D and technical imaging
    1. Photoshop 3D | Common questions around discontinued 3D features
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    6. Essential 3D concepts and tools
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    13. Photoshop and MATLAB
    14. Count objects in an image
    15. Combine and convert 3D objects
    16. 3D texture editing
    17. Adjust HDR exposure and toning
    18. 3D panel settings

Learn how to easily adjust the hues and tones of your Photoshop document using the Color Balance and Photo Filter adjustments.

Color balance can be used to correct color imperfections in your image. You can also use color balance to create dramatic effects by changing the overall mixture of colors used in your composite. Photo Filter is another option that lets you apply a hue adjustment to your image. Photo Filter adjustments mimic the technique of placing a colored filter in front of your camera lens to adjust the color balance and temperature of the light transmitted through the lens and exposing the film. 

Applying both Color Balance and Photo Filter as adjustment layers is a more flexible method to work with them because it gives you the ability to readjust the settings, creates a layer mask to affect a part of an image, and protects the original image from direct changes.

Apply color balance adjustments

In Photoshop, you can access the color balance adjustment option from any of the following locations: 

  • In the Adjustments panel, click the Color Balance () icon.
  • Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance. Click OK in the New Layer dialog box.
  • In the Layers panel, click Create new fill or adjustment layer () icon. Select Color Balance from the context menu options.
  • You can also choose Image > Adjustments > Color Balance. However, this method applies destructive adjustments to the image layer and discards image information due to which you cannot restore the original image.

Once you select the color balance option, do the following:

  1. In the Properties panel that opens, select any of the Tone balance options— Shadows, Midtones, or Highlights to select the tonal range in which you want to focus your edits.

    Color balance properties panel
    Color balance Properties panel: Go to Adjustments panel, and click the Color Balance icon.

    color balance in photoshop
    Color Balance dialog: Select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance

  2. (Optional) Select Preserve Luminosity to prevent changing the luminosity values in the image while changing the color. By default, this option is enabled to maintain the overall tonal balance in your image.

  3. Move the Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, or Yellow/Blue slider toward a color that you want to add to the image; drag the slider away from a color that you want to subtract from the image. The values displayed above the sliders, show the color changes for red, green, and blue channels. These values can range from ‑100 to +100. You can directly view the adjustments being applied to your image while moving the sliders.

Apply color balance adjustments
Move the color balance sliders to view applied adjustments to your image in Photoshop.

Change color balance using Photo Filter

You can access the Photo Filter option from any of the following locations: 

  • In the Adjustments panel, click the Photo Filter icon () icon.
  • Choose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter. Click OK in the New Layer dialog box.
  • You can also choose Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter. However, this method applies destructive adjustments to the image layer and discards image information due to which you cannot restore the original image.

Once you select the Photo Filter option, do the following:

  1. In the Properties panel that opens, you can either choose a preset filter or apply a custom color filter:

    • Filter: For a preset filter, select the Filter option and choose one of the presets from the drop-down list.
    • Color: For a custom filter, select the Color option. Click the color square, and use the Adobe Color Picker to specify a color for a custom color filter.
    Photo filter

  2. To adjust the amount of color applied to the image, use the Density slider, or manually enter a percentage in the Density box. A higher density results in a stronger color adjustment.

  3. (Optional) Select Preserve Luminosity to prevent changing the luminosity values in the image while changing the color. By default, this option is enabled to maintain the overall tonal balance in your image.

  4. Enable Preview to view your edits on your image. Click OK to apply changes and Cancel to exit the Photo Filter dialog.

Apply color balance using Photo Filter
Apply preset photo filters or adjust settings for custom color filters to enhance your image using the Photo Filter adjustment.

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