need to brighten colors

[mimi4725]

I'm having trouble with brightning dull colors. I don't want to lighten the photo, just make to solid colors more vibrant. Is there anything other then increasing the saturation that i could try?

[Taejien]

use the dodge tool. be careful of how u use it though.

blow up the picture to like 200-300 percent until u sort of see pixelations.

and sort of as a note... dont go over the same place twice. if u do, some areas look brighter than some. what can easily help u on this is the select that portion of the image of that color u want to brighten up with something like the polyganol tool, then use the dodge tool with a big enough brush to cover the whole area and click once (repeat if necessary) to brighten i tup.

[profeivan]

I discovered that one of the best methods to do this is to convert the image to Lab Color. Then, add a curves Adjustement layer an switch to the a channel, drag the extreme points of the curve toward the center, let´s say about two or three squares on the curves grid, and do the same movement on the b channel.

[Waffles]

Hi, if I switch to "Lab Color" to brighten dull colors can I later reconvert the file to CMYK? That file format is spec for a project I'm working on.

Sorta related - Is there anyway to brighten the Pantone set as a default but not increase the overall "brightness?

thanks in advance

Waffles

[profeivan]

Yes of course you can, just make sure to click on the button Flatten in the warning dialog box. Take into account that based on the profile you have set in Ph you´ll loose some colors.
About the Pantone: yes you can. If you make a new layer, set it to Color and paint with any painting tool (all this in mode Lab) if you look at the info palette you´ll see that the a and b channels values are exactly the same as those defined for the Pantone you choosed. Remember that Lab works the Luminosity on a separate channel so you can handle just the Brightness on this channel.