


Today’s Question: I’ve been reading about a new adjustment layer in Photoshop apparently called “Color and Vibrance”, but I can’t find it anywhere. How to I access (and use) this adjustment?
Tim’s Quick Answer: The new “Color and Vibrance” adjustment is currently available in the public beta version of Photoshop and is not yet available in the current general release version. This adjustment combines Temperature and Tint sliders for adjusting overall color balance along with Vibrance and Saturation sliders for adjusting color saturation.
More Detail: The new “Color and Vibrance” adjustment layer doesn’t actually add any new functionality that wasn’t in Photoshop previously, but it does provide a more efficient way to apply the most common basic color adjustments to an image. In effect, Color and Vibrance will enable you to use one adjustment layer to take the place of both Color Balance and Vibrance adjustment layers.
If you would like to try out the new adjustment before it is added to a general release of Photoshop, you will need to install the public beta version of Photoshop. To do so, go to the Creative Cloud application (the same application you use to install updates to other Creative Cloud applications), go to the Beta category, and install the Photoshop beta version.
Once you’ve installed the public beta version of Photoshop you can open an image and then on the Layers panel click the “Create New Adjustment Layer” button (the half-black/half-white circle icon) and choose “Color and vibrance” from the popup menu. Then on the Properties panel you can adjust the Temperature and Tint sliders to shift the color balance between blue/yellow and green/magenta, respectively. The Vibrance and Saturation sliders are also available for adjusting overall saturation for colors in the image.
While the new Color and Vibrance adjustment layer doesn’t add any new adjustments to Photoshop, it does provide a more convenient option for adjusting overall color in an image. I’m therefore grateful to see that it is being added to Photoshop. And keep in mind that by virtue of being an adjustment layer you can also use a layer mask to focus the adjustment only affect specific areas of an image.