Getting the colors to pop in your photos can really make a difference. The color in your photo can really make a good photo and give it that WOW factor! There are many ways to make the colors in your photos pop. Keep reading and I’ll show you 3 easy ways to get eye catching, popping color in your pictures!

Do you learn better by listening? Check out this color popping episode of THE STAY FOCUSED PODCAST!

Complementing Colors

The most important way to get the colors to pop in your photos happens before you even open up Lightroom or Photoshop. Understand complementing colors and use that knowledge when setting up the photo. Look below at the color wheel. Colors that are across from each other on the color wheel complement one another.

When setting up your photo, place complementing colors next to each other. For example, yellow and purple are complementary. If your subject is wearing a purple shirt, place them next to something yellow- like flowers. Another example are the complementary colors green and reds. If you know you are going to be shooting near trees, advise your subject to wear reds or pinks.

Using complementing colors before you even press that shutter will create color a very pleasing and eye catching color scheme that will pop with little editing!

Vibrance

If you want to make your color pop using Photoshop, there are ways to do that too! The first way is pretty simple and will give a subtle, overall pop to all the colors in your photo. To do this create an adjustment layer and choose vibrance. Move the vibrance slider over to the right until the colors pop to your liking.

(Colors popped using vibrance, but also notice out the shirt and grass in background are complementary!)

Selective Color

Another way to make colors pop in Photoshop is by using selective color. This way is a little more advanced, but will really target in on certain colors that you want to be bright and bold.

To try this technique create an adjustment layer and choose selective color. From here you want to select the color you are looking to target on the drop down menu (make sure to view the short video below if you are having trouble finding this). Use the selective colors sliders to add in that extra color you want! For example, if you have yellow flowers in you photo that you want to pop out more (like in the first photo above) Choose yellow from the selective color drop down menu . Next, move the yellow slider to your right. This will target the yellow in your photo and pop it even more!

Now you try! You can use one, two or all of these methods to really start popping the colors in your photos!

Let us know in a comment below what worked for you or what you do to make your colors pop!

For even MORE photography and editing tips, visit the Photographers page!

To see the Photoshop color popping tricks in action, view the short tutorial below!