Creative Hue/ Saturation effects

The Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer in Photoshop is often overlooked, but with so many creative possibilities, it's well worth a deeper dive

James Abbott

James is a professional photographer who specialises in landscape and portraits. He's an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials.

Some controls in Photoshop can appear to produce harsh and undesirable results, meaning the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer is one set of tools that can be easily overlooked. On a basic level, Hue/ Saturation appears almost pointless, but dig a bit deeper and you'll find that it holds a huge amount of creative potential for photographers.

With control over individual colour channels, Hue, Saturation and Lightness of channels, and the ability to combine Blending modes, you might be surprised at what can be achieved. You will develop a greater understanding of how the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer works, as well as learning four creative techniques.

As always, there are many more creative techniques that can be created using Hue/ Saturation, but this gives you the perfect starting point for delving further into this useful Adjustment Layer.