Control saturation in individual channels

Get a moody, desaturated effect with HSL controls

- James Abott

Any image can be transformed into a moody masterpiece, although those with some kind of dark moodiness to begin with will carry a more natural appearance after a reduction in exposure and saturation adjustments. That's exactly the type of image we'll work on here, and by darkening the image and saturation control, among other adjustments, we can create an image that looks as if it's from a movie.

What you'll be using

• Basic controls
• Color Grading 
• HSL controls 
• Tone Curve 
• Masking

1 Process the RAW file Process your images as usual but without adjusting HSL, using Masking where necessary to apply localised adjustments. To add contrast, use the Medium Contrast preset with the Tone Curve - we'll use this as a starting point for applying the matte effect in a later step.