Hi Folks,
Well seeing as today marks the start of the first ever Adobe Creative Week [Link] I thought I’d kick off with a very quick Photoshop Tip.
Like most tips and techniques it doesn’t have to be complicated or long winded; and this one certainly isn’t BUT it’s incredibly easy and something I use a lot, and what we’re talking about here is a very quick way to choose a Complementary Colour.
In its simplest terms if we think of the 360° colour wheel, a complementary colour is the colour that is directly opposite and is so called because well, opposite colours just go well together
Anyway, here’s a very quick way to choose the opposite/complementary colour when using Photoshop:
1) Double Click
Double click on the Foreground Colour in the tool bar to bring up the Colour picker dialog box:
.jpg "HUE_1")
2) 360° Colour Wheel
Thinking of the 360° colour wheel, look at the section giving the H, S, B values (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) and whatever the H (Hue) value is set to, simply add or take away 180
In this example the HUE value is currently 60° so by adding 180 to get the opposite side of the colour wheel it becomes 240°. Conversely if the Hue value had been 240° it would become 60° … easy huh
Before (HUE 60°)
.jpg "HUE_2")
After (HUE 240°)
.jpg "HUE_3")
Extra Tip
One last little tip about the colour picker dialog box…
Once you have a colour selected, by moving the pointer Left or Right you can adjust the Saturation (Left = Less, Right = More) and moving the pointer Ip or Down adjusts the Brightness value (Up = Brighter, Down = Darker)
Right, that’s all from me for today so I hope that was useful
Be sure to keep an eye on the Adobe Creative Week schedule for everything that’s going on by visiting the website here [Link] Today kicks off with Creative Industry Overview.
Have a great day and I’ll catch you tomorrow,
Enjoy,
Glyn
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by Glyn
Glyn - Because that doesn’t work when you want to change the foreground or background colours in the tool bar.
Bearhawk - Why not just use the invert “CNTRL I” ?
Mpix ,000 Giveaway. Nik HDR Efex Pro 2 First Impressions. 0 Mac Upgrades.Picking A Complementary Color In Photoshop. | Photos on the Go - [...] addition or subtraction equation (hint: if you can add or subtract two numbers you can do this). Click here to learn the tip from Glyn himself, a very fine [...]
DaveT - I had used the colour picker before to pick up a colour that was already in the image but had never thought of using it this way. And that extra tip about using the arrow keys is a real bonus
Thank You
Dave
Russ Robinson - Fantastic tip…especially for those who want to avoid leaving Photoshop. However, for times when a bit more “robustness” is required, I find the following [free] site to be a great resource: http://colorschemedesigner.com/
Thanks as always for sharing your vast PS knowledge!
Russ - Thats a neat trick Glyn; a simpler version (for the primary colours, eg if you want to quickly adjust colour casts) is
Red Cyan
Green Magenta
Blue Yellow
In your screen-shots above, they are opposite each other, and so are easy to remember.