Today we are going to learn a neat Photoshop trick. We are going to turn this image of an arrow into a masterpiece.

What is Saturation?

Saturation can be defined as the amount of color present within an image. The more saturated a photo is, the more vibrant the colours will become. Too little saturation [undersaturation] leads to a monochromatic photograph whereas too much saturation [oversaturation] turns the photo into a Picasso-style composition. For guidelines on terms such as this, feel free to check the Photography section of our wiki.

What about the tutorial?
Well, the tutorial focuses on the Photoshop aspect of saturation. More specifically, the colorization+saturation of an image.

Step I - The base image
I've chosen a random shot for my demonstration. Usually, you should go for simple shots such as this one. Avoid photos that have too many elements present as the effect will not stand out so much.

Step II - Colorization
This process involves accessing the Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation menu. As we are going to colour this photo into something blue, we should alter the sliders a bit. Oh, before that: make sure you tick the Colorize box. This will ensure that the image is coloured in the desired hue value.
In order to obtain blue, a value of ~220 on the Hue slider should do the trick. Also, setting the Saturation to ~40 will make the resulting image more vivid.

Step III - The final touch

Now that we have an appropriate image, we can refine it. I usually go for brightness+contrast, brightness to lighten up the image and contrast to make it even more vivid. Note that exaggerating with the contrast darkens the colours. Ok, so by going to the Image>Adjustments> Brightness/Contrast we can tune the photo a bit.

Set the Contrast to ~30. DO NOT tick the Legacy box as it pumps up the Contrast even further. After this change, our eyes hurt [well, at least mine do :P] so I recommend you darken the image. Set the Brightness slider to ~ -10.

The result

• Hue Tutorial
• Channel Surfing Tutorial