HSL sliders (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) are found in many photo editors.
What Are HSL Sliders?
TheHue Saturation Luminancesliders are found in many photo editing programs.
Here’s what the HSL sliders do.
Still using the Reds slider, we’ll shift it all the way to the right (+100).
Saturation
Saturation is the amount of color in any given hue.
Toggling the Saturation sliders will increase or decrease the amount of color.
Let’s move the Yellows slider to -100.
And here’s the image with Yellows increased to +100.
Notice how the saturation is neither completely removed nor pushed too far?
Luminance
Luminance is the brightness of a color.
For this example, we’ll push the Blues slider to -100 to darken them.
Now, let’s change the Blues to +100 to brighten them.
The HSL sliders are a great way to make dramatic changes without going too far over the top.
For the purpose of our tutorial, we’ll approach the subject in very broad terms.
There’s nothing wrong with editing images without an overall strategy.
Sometimes, it can be quite liberating not to think about it beforehand and just edit as you go.
But if you want to have a basic strategy going in, consider a subject-orientated approach.
For the below image, you could color-correct the subject using HSL and adjust the background separately.
Instead of blending in with the background, the subject appears more natural and stands out.
But with certain genres, like landscapes, there are common scenes that the HSL sliders are perfect for.
Skies are very important to a lot of landscape photographers and many typically edit them or replace them completely.
Grasses, trees, and greenery are common scenes in many landscapes.
We can use the HSL sliders to completely alter the yellows and greens.
We shifted the greens and yellows with the Hue sliders, added Saturation, and lowered the Luminance values.
you could alsouse Luminar AI to create magical landscapes.
In the above photo, the model’s lipstick matches her outfit as well as the background color.
Keep this in mind whenever there are people in your images.
Sports and Outdoor Photos
Sports and general outdoor photos can literally contain any color under the sun.
We adjusted all the hues that are present but only slightly.
Then we increased the saturation of the blues and aquas, and lowered the luminance values of these too.
We also brightened the skin tones of the surfer to help him stand out.
you might alsocreate custom vignettes in Photoshopto draw attention to a subject.
Give them a try!
