Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Color Balance

Most of the time, I pass over Variations in favor of the Color Balance command (Figure 10.42) because it's available as an adjustment layer, which makes future changes much easier. Just like in Variations, the Color Balance dialog box allows you to shift the color of the Highlights, Midtones, or Shadows toward one of the primary colors; the only difference is that you'll have to look at the main screen to get a preview. Moving a slider to +15 or –15 is approximately the same as making one click in the Variations dialog box with the default setting on the Fine/Coarse slider. But because you're not forced to make adjustments in preset increments, I feel that it's much easier to be precise with this feature than with Variations.