Step 3 - Change the image mode to Lab color

To use this Photoshop technique, we need to switch the image mode to Lab Color. Why the Lab color mode? Because it has channels that separate the colors from the tonal information in the image, hence the channels:

• Lightness - Hold the tonal information
• a (also known as Chroma A) - Holds the first half of the color information
• b (also known as Chroma B) - Holds the other half of the color information

Some people say that switching image modes will change the colors and it's true, but if you're changing from RGB color to Lab color or vice-versa, the difference is so little it's unperceivable. Now if you ask about this in a Photography forum, some elitests may argue that it's a big difference and you only don't see it because you have untrained eyes. Don't listen to those people because they are wrong and they're only on the forums to act professional. If you can't see the difference, most people can't.

So now that we're on Lab Color mode, go into the Channels palette and have a look at the channels. They're not RGB (Red, Green, Blue) anymore; they're Lab (Lightness, a, b).

Step 4 - Select the first color channel

Here's what we're going to do. We're going to work directly on the color layer and not touch the tonal information in the Lightness channel. That's the secret to this astonishing color boosting effect. In the Channels palette, select the a channel.

Once you selected the a channel, you'll see just the grayscale contents of the channel. Right now, you're probably asking, "How are we going to edit the colors if we can't even see any colors? ". You're right and a simple way to make sure that you can see the colors. In the Channels palette, click on the box to the left of the Lab color. An eye icon should appear meaning that all the channels are visible. Now we can see all the colors.