A Dash of Purple in the Night Sky
Enhancing Evening Hues of your Photos
Dusk, nightfall or nighttime are genres that are often neglected by the photographer.
Although the colors of the coming of the impending darkness are simpler and have pastel variations, they are still very beautiful and make some beautiful photos.
This website is a collection of some of my own photos, which have been slightly enhanced to emphasize the various shades of purple. This can be done easily using Photoshop and I have included a mini-tutorial below.
I live in Arizona and the evening sunsets, on many nights, have these shades of color. My own backyard is a canvas that changes, depending on the weather and the atmosphere.
I hope you enjoy this trip down lavender lane.
"Daddy, why is the Sky Purple?"
That is actually a very good question!
I would much rather answer that question than any about the facts of life. In fact, if you are asked about babies, just look up to the sky and say, "Wow, look at that purple sky; do you want to know why?"
The answer is "scattering." While the atmosphere does not absorb light, the molecules scatter it. Actually, the sky is more violet than blue and putting it simply, blue is easier for us to see.
The spectrum that we can see is covered by the colors of the rainbow. There are other colors, we just can't see them. Green has a low frequency, which makes it easiest for us to distinguish. Blue also appears easily to us. Violet colors are a little more difficult for us to discern.
I believe that many people love violets and purples because they are not as common to us and we love to see things we are not used to seeing.
Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix - A little mood music to play as you browse
Get "Purple Haze" Here - Download in MP3 Format
Magnifying the Colors in your Photos using Photoshop
There are various ways to enhance or emphasize colors in your own photos using Photoshop.
I am going to emphasize one simple way to do this and you can do this for your own photos.
First, use your eyedropper and click on the color that you want to emphasize in your photo. For instance, if you want to use green, click on a nice green color in your photo.
Next, go to the MODE drop down in Photoshop and select the "black and white" setting. This will make your photo black and white.
Click on the "color replacement" tool and paint over the features that you want to replace with green color and any other features that you want to have a green tint. I leave the rest of my photos as black and white. This technique draws the eye to the color enhanced features.