How to Make Grass Green in Photoshop

Making the grass greener can bring a touch of liveliness to an image. Well, yellow grass just doesn’t look good especially when you’re trying to use the image to sell. Take a minute or two to retouch your image and you’ll see a better result. 

A minute or two? That quick? Actually yes, you can but it depends on your image. I have a couple of examples in this tutorial that will show you two easy ways to make grass green in Photoshop along with some useful tips.  

What’s your solution?

2 Easy Ways to Make Grass Greener in Photoshop

Depending on your image, you can turn brown or yellow grass into green grass using the Brush Tool or adding an adjustment layer to adjust the hue/saturation. 

Note: The screenshots are taken from Adobe Photoshop CC Mac version. Windows or other versions can look different. 

Method 1: Hue/Saturation

This is the quickest method to make the grass green. Let’s look at an example of how to turn burnt leaves into fresh green grass. 

Step 1: Open the grass photo in Photoshop. 

Step 2: Add a new adjustment layer and select Hue/Saturation

You’ll see the adjustment setting in the Properties panel. 

Step 3: Change the Master color to Yellows. Yes, we are adjusting the yellow hue to make the image green. 

Move the Hue slider to the right side and you’ll see the grass getting greener. I moved mine to about +45. I also slightly adjusted the Saturation to +25 and Lightness to +10. 

If you’re happy with the color, that’s it.  

Or you can adjust the Greens hue/saturation as well, simply click on the color selection area and change Yellows to Greens.

Method 2: Brush Tool 

You can use this method when the grass image is simple and doesn’t have many objects on the grass. For example, this image is quite simple because it only has two main objects, the rabbit and grass background. 

Step 1: Open the photo in Photoshop. 

Step 2: Create a new layer and set the blend mode to Soft Light

Step 3: Select a green foreground color from the color picker. 

Step 4: Select the Brush Tool from the toolbar and set the opacity and brush style at the top of the document window. 

Step 5: Start brushing on the grass area. 

Keep brushing until you’re happy with the grass color. When you paint near the rabbit, set the brush size smaller. It’s ok if you accidentally brushed on the rabbit, simply use the Eraser Tool to clean it up. 

Tips: The reason you need to adjust the opacity and set the blend mode to soft light is to create a natural look. See? You can barely notice the brush area. 

I think it looks pretty good like this. 

It’s not recommended to use this method when there are complex objects on the grass because you might change the color of the objects by accident. 

For example, if I used the Brush tool for the image from method 1, I would have to skip a lot of object areas which will be very time-consuming. 

Conclusion

It’s super easy to make grass green in Photoshop. Using the right tool and method is the key. In short, use the Brush Tool if you have a nice clean grass background without complex objects on top. If you have a complex image, adjusting the Hue/Saturation would be a better choice.

About June
June is an experienced graphic designer specializing in brand design. Photoshop is the essential tool that she uses every day along with other Adobe programs for her creative work.

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