Colour editing in iPhoto for iOS - A beginner's guide

Selective colour editing is the process of adjusting the levels of individual colours within an image. With advanced editing programs this can be a complex task, requiring lots of time and expertise. However, with iPhoto this can be done with a few simple actions. Within iPhoto there are a number of editing options grouped together. Along with a crop and straighten tool, an exposure adjustment tool, a selection of brushes and a choice of effect, you can easily find the tool to adjust the colours of your images.

Tapping on the colour adjustment tool opens up a new range of options along the base of the image. Within this toolbar is a selection of sliders, along with an options menu and a white balance adjustment tab. In this tutorial we’ll go through the finer points of these features and show you exactly what they do. iPhoto for iOS is an incredibly powerful editing tool, as you’re about to find out…

Step 1: Selecting the colour tool

Within iPhoto there are a number of main tools that can be used for editing. The colour editing tool can be found in the toolbar along the base of the interface.

Step 2: Saturation slider

The first of the four sliders is for saturation adjustment. Moving this to the right will boost the intensity of colours; moving it to the left will remove colour.

Step 3: Sky colour adjustment

The second of the adjustment sliders is dedicated to altering the blues in a photo, and is therefore ideal to fine tune the colours of a bright sky or stretch of water.

Step 4: Green adjustment

Adjusting the greens is next up. Sliding to the right will boost the intensity of the greens, and moving it to the left will simply desaturate the green areas.

Step 5: Skin tones

The final slider works in the same way, but is designed specifically for skin tones. This allows you to adjust the effect of the skin without boosting other colours.

Step 6: White balance

At the end of the adjustments bar is a simple white balance tool. From here you are able to adjust the overall white balance of the shot.

(Click on the image below to zoom in and view the annotations)