12 Replies Latest reply: Aug 6, 2014 2:01 PM by Georgina Ettridge RSS

    Give me back my Color Variations!

    Tanavino

      I'd like to add my voice to the many protesting at the loss of Color Variations in Photoshop Elements 12. For me this was by far the easiest and most effective way to correct colour bias in scans of old photos and slides. The suggested 'alternatives' of Remove Color Cast and Auto Smart Tone simply don't do the same job. The first sets white, black or grey point but doesn't necessarily remove colour bias due to fading. The second has nothing to do with colour.

       

      I have tried to achieve the same results using other tools such as adjusting levels or hue and saturation, but they all take longer, are more fiddly and don't achieve such good results, with my limited levels of skill and patience.

       

      In short, Elements 12 has added nothing useful over Elements 11, and removed a tool I found invaluable. I've gone back to using Elements 11 and feel cheated by the purchased upgrade. Adobe, I would really, really appreciate a free update to restore Color Variations to Elements 12!

        • 2. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
          Tanavino Community Member

          Thanks for this suggestion. I agree it's perfectly possible to achieve the same results as Color Variations using adjustment layers and playing with the sliders - it's just that when I'm dealing with a pack of scanned photos, Color Variations enable me to adjust each image so much more quickly, with just a few clicks. Reduce blue on midtones by two levels, increase red on highlights by one level... done!

           

          And I don't find 'Quick' mode to be any quicker than 'Expert' - you're still faced with playing the sliders.

          • 3. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
            Peru Bob Community Member

            If you read post #4 in my link, it tells you how to add Color Variations to PSE12.

            • 4. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
              Tanavino Community Member

              Apologies, I didn't read the posts carefully enough.

              However, I couldn't make this work in PSE12 on Mac OSX 10.9. In PSE11, I couldn't find a Variations plug-in. In PSE8 I did find a plug-in - Variations(PSE).plugin - and copied it into PSE12, in /Applications/Adobe Photoshop Elements 12/Support Files/Plug-Ins/Filters (having created that last folder, Filters). But on launching PSE12, Variations didn't show up in the Filters menu (or anywhere else).

              • 5. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
                Barbara B. CommunityMVP

                No, this won't work in the mac version because of the transition from 32 bit to 64 bit.

                • 6. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
                  Tanavino Community Member

                  Ah, thank you for that. I suspected something fundamental had happened. So I'll just have to go on waving my protest banner ;-)

                  • 7. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
                    Tanavino Community Member

                    And by the way, in case anyone else happens upon this thread - I've found the easiest way to correct colour bias or fading in scanned photos, using PSE 12 on the Mac, is to use levels. Enhance menu > Adjust Lighting > Levels. Adjust Master (RGB) levels first - left slider for shadows, right slider for highlights - then R, G and B individually. It's quick, easy and effective. With apologies to all those power users for whom  this information is trivially obvious.

                    • 8. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
                      MichelBParis Community Member

                      Thanks for your feedback.

                      I agree your method is much better suited to correct faded scans than correcting white balance or color casts.

                      If you are in a hurry, you can use the 'auto levels' option in the enhance/lighting menu. It does about what you are doing step by step.

                      • 9. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
                        dean.p Community Member

                        Just FYI, I've been in Pre-press for over 9 years and graphic design for another 10 so been using Photoshop for a while. Variations (being now dropped in CC 2014) was hugely useful as it was a very quick (and had instant visual que) for adjusting your Hi and Low color channel percentages. You would get a visual que that your percentages were in fact 100 or 0 percent when adjusting single color channels (very useful to know especially in preparation for flexo printing).

                         

                        Yes I can use levels, curves, but adds a few more steps and no real visual que. Then of course there's color variations, which can be done with Photo filter or Select Color, but in some cases with able to select amount, dark, mid-tones and highlights, Variations was again faster and easier to get quick results.

                        • 10. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
                          Georgina Ettridge

                          Hi,

                          Can anyone help me?  I have recently switched from using a PC with PSE 8 and have now downloaded the trial version of PSE 12 on my mac only to find that one of the features (colour variations) I use the most is missing.  I understand that this can be rectified if you are using Windows but it is not possible on the Mac.  I am now looking to purchase PSE 11 assuming that that version has the 'colour variations' feature?  Can anyone tell me if it does have this feature?  I am going to be stuck without it!  Many thanks.

                          • 11. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
                            Peru Bob Community Member

                            PSE 11 has the color variations feature on Windows, so I assume it will have it on the Mac version.

                            • 12. Re: Give me back my Color Variations!
                              Georgina Ettridge Community Member

                              Many thanks for your help it is much appreciated.  I find it strange that such a useful feature has been removed from PSE 12. Oh well I will hunt for a copy of PSE 11.  Thanks again Peru Bob.