Saturation and Gaussian Blur Trick

Sometimes it may turn out that the photo you took at the seaside or some other photo looks too bland. There is an easy way to pump up the colors without having to spend too much time. You can also do this in any version of Photoshop.

I will be using this free stock image. You will find it here

It belongs to Little-Ninja-Owl

This is the effect you can get after a few simple steps.

Step 1 : Duplicate the Background Layer by pressing CTRL+J. Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button.

Step 2 : Click on Hue/Saturation from the popup menu.

Step 3 : In the Hue/Saturation dialogue type 75 in the Saturation box. This is not absolute. If you find that the effect needs the Saturation to be tweaked further by increasing or decreasing the Saturation then use those values. A rule of the thumb is to drag the Saturation slider till faint pixelation appears. Or drag the slider till you are satisfied with the effect.

The image looks like this. It no longer looks flat.

Step 4 : Click on Layer 1.

Step 5 : Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.

Step 6 : In the Gaussian Blur dialogue box apply a slight blur to make the pixellation go away. Click OK.

Step 7 : Change the Blend Mode of Layer 1 to Color.

Step 8 : Lower the Opacity just a tad or to taste.

This is the finished image.

This is another free stock image.

The same image after processing with the same steps.
Other photoshop tutorials are here