Tutorial: Warm It Up | Photoshop Techniques and Tricks

In this Photoshop tutorial, we will be sharing how to take a photo and giving it a natural warm color tone.  This is great for photos taken on cloudy days or in the winter that seem a little drab or blue-casted.  Adding a touch of warmth can really change the feel of the entire photo!

STEP 1
Below is the image that needs a bit of warmth added.   We are going to start by adding a new adjustment layer.   There are many ways of doing this, we are going to go to our menu bar.  Choose Layer>New Adjustment Layer> Hue Saturation.  When asked to name your layer just hit OK.  Your new adjustment layer menu will be open.  We are going to move the Saturation slider to approximately +10-15. I chose +13 for this photo.

STEP 2
We are now going to add another new adjustment layer.  Go to your menu bar.  Layers> New Adjustment Layer> Curves.  We are going to click on the RGB curve and pull the center part of the line "up" just a tiny bit, we are also going to pull the bottom end of our curve just slightly to the left.  This will brighten up our midtones and darken up our blacks.  (see the curve in the image below)

STEP 3
Another adjustment layer (do you see a pattern here :)).  Go to your menu bar, choose Layers> New Adjustment Layer> Curves.  ***you could technically use the same adjustment layer as Step 2, however keep them separate allows for more editing or adjustments if you are not pleased with your results. ***  In the drop down menu that defaults to RGB, switch it to Blue.  We are now going to adjust our "blue" curve.  Pull your curve down just a little bit below the top of the curve line.  Once you have pulled your curve line down a bit, add another curve point (by simply clicking on the curve) and pulling up toward the center line.  (see image below and try to replicate the shape of the curve.)

STEP 4
Next we are going to add a fill layer.  From your menu choose Layers>New Fill Layer> Solid Color.  I choose the color #E8d38b.  Hit OK.

STEP 5
We are going to change our fill layer to Soft Light on the layers palette and to an opacity of around 15-20%.

That's IT!  Save your new warmed up image and you are ready to roll!!!

Here is a sample of the before and after images:

And here is a sample after a quick Eye Pop edit and Texture applied.  We use textures that we create ourselves and are sold at Digital Scrapbook Place, Inc.  The texture applied here is from The Photographer's Toolbox - Natural Spice Overlay Set.

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