Color Mute For Portraits

If you like it here's a beginning to either finish or experiment. If you'll notice the strip in the photo, it shows before the process.

 

1. Duplicate background layer twice (command/control + j twice will do it).

 

2. Click, choosing "Layer 1", and go Image > Adjustment > Desaturate (Or make it black and white anyway you want to).

 

3. Click and choose "Layer 1 copy" and put that in "softlight" blending mode using the Layer Pallet drop down menu.

 

4. Go to the Channels Pallet and command/control click the RGB channel, getting a highlights selection.

 

5. Go back to the Layer Pallet and "Layer 1 copy" should still be chosen ( You can tell it's chosen because it'll be highlighted with some color), and again do command/control + j. This creates "Layer 2" from your selection and it's in "softlight" blending mode.

 

6. Go back to Channels pallet and command/control click the RGB layer, getting the highlights selection again. Invert the selection by either going to Select > Inverse or use the keyboard shortctu of command/control + shift + i

 

7. Add a hue/saturation adjustment layer and set the saturation to +50 and Lightness of -10.

 

I've created an action at www.allangengler.com/my_actions if you're interested. BUT do it manually first so you can see the effects and maybe try creating your own action.

 

 

Done