How to Adjust Colors in Your Photos

Digital images are rarely perfect, and they often require a certain amount of adjustments in order to reveal their true colors. Changing the values of exposure, brightness and contrast or saturation will result in more vivid images that depict colors as nature intended them. However, all of these parameters must be altered in moderation, since changing any color in the image too much can result in an unrealistic picture.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to make basic color adjustments on Mac and PC computers.

How to adjust image color in Windows?

Before we proceed any further it is important to note that there is no recipe for adjusting image colors, since every photo requires different interventions.

How to adjust image color with Windows 10 Photo app?

PC users who don't want to install any third party photo editing programs can enhance the colors in their photos with the built-in Photos app.

Step 1: All you need to do to open the photo in Photo app is to double-click on it in the folder in which it is stored, alternatively you can double-click on its desktop icon or you can launch the app from the Start menu. Once the picture you want to edit is displayed in the Photo app, click on the Edit button.

Step 2: Select the Color option, and head over to the left side of the screen to choose whether you want to use Temperature, Tint, Saturation or Color Boost options.

Step 3: Clicking on any of these icons will enable you to see a circular slider that lets you know precisely how much you've changed the original color values of the photo. The Color Boost feature allows you to select a color and boost it or tone it down depending on your current needs.

Step 4: Click on the Save icon to save a copy of the picture you just edited to your hard drive.

How to adjust image color with Fotophire on Windows?

Built-in photo editing apps like Photo app, provide a limited number of photo editing tools, which is why a photo editing software like Fotophire can be quite useful to anyone who wants to adjust colors on Windows 10.

Step 1: In order to be able to change the values of colors in your photos, you must launch Fotophire's Editor Mode. The software will ask you which photo you want to edit so you should just click on the Open menu and select the image you want.

Step 2: Once you are able to see the image you selected, proceed to click on the Adjustments tab. Temperature, Hue, Shadows or Saturation sliders can be used to change the color values in your photo, and every time you change a color value, you'll be able to see the result directly on the image.

Step 3: Click on the Save icon that looks like a floppy disk to save your photo, when you are satisfied with the results you've achieved.

How to adjust image color with the Preview app on a Mac?

The Mac's default app for viewing images is also equipped with photo editing tools that will enable you to make basic image color adjustments.

Step 1: Launch the Preview app, and then click on the toolbox icon in the app's main toolbar to open the Markup Toolbar. Locate the Adjust Color icon in the Markup Toolbar and click on it to gain access to the Adjust Color panel.

Step 2: The Adjust Color panel offers four sliders that enable you to control the lighting in the picture, so if you want to adjust the light you can use Exposure, Highlights, Contrast or Shadows sliders. Keep in mind that changing the values on each of these sliders will also affect the colors in your photos. If you don't want to adjust light or color values in your photos manually you can click on the Auto Levels icon.

Step 3: Drag the Sepia, Tint, Saturation or Temperature sliders in either direction if you want to adjust image color, but pay attention to how realistic your photo looks after you alter any of the values. If at any point you don't like the result, simply click on the Reset All button and start adjusting image color from scratch.