Infinite Color for Infinite Tools is a color correction plugin for Photoshop. We put it through its steps.
The great thing about photography is that it is so diverse. We all photographers have different preferences and skill sets. Color grading is one of those things that some people do and others don’t. I appreciate it when it’s well done, but I’ve never gotten my hands on it with any seriousness. There are three reasons for this and I doubt others will have the same experience. Firstly, my photography style and ordinary subjects are not suitable for this technique. Second, I don’t particularly enjoy spending hours in front of a computer processing photos.
The third reason is that I don’t have time to learn the skills. If I’m learning to do something, I want to do it well, and color grading seems like it’s going to take time to learn. In the past, I have scoured the Internet for high-quality video tutorials, but the content is limited. I’ve seen some excellent color grading work with some nice tutorials, but they’re always complicated processes. Furthermore, the instructor’s settings rarely worked well with my images.
So when given the opportunity to review Infinite colors from infinite tools, I raised my hand and volunteered to do it. I had it before Reviewed Infinite Black and White and was impressed with how easy it was to be able to create decent black and white transitions in Photoshop. Is applying tones so simple for a beginner?
Installation is very easy. After downloading the file, you install it in C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions on your Windows computer or (your username) > library > Application Support > Adobe > CEP > Mac extensions. Restart Photoshop and the plugin should appear in the Plugins menu. Then you enter the license key. Infinite Color Suite will open and be ready to use. As far as possible.
I am lucky! I am fortunate to be able to handle software quickly and find most programs intuitive. The best way for me to understand new software is to get to work; I learn from my mistakes. With Infinite Black and White, the first click on the Create button produced pretty good results and it was just a matter of tweaking them. It’s definitely going to be the same as Infinite Color, isn’t it?
On the screen is a plugin panel with a large Create button, prompting me to click it. Me too. My reaction was, “Yuck!” I pressed it again, and the result was equally annoying.
To illustrate that, the before and after frames above show an image straight from the camera and the same image with the default setting of Infinite Color applied. It’s subjective, but this is not my preference. Did I do something wrong? To cut a long story short, yes, I did. The trick is to drag the Intensity slider to the left. Suddenly, the resulting image is quite pleasing.
When you press the Create button, the program creates five adjustment layers in a group and applies the setting to each layer.
Each click of the Create button triggers an action that creates adjustment layers and applies a set of semi-random adjustments to them. While seemingly limitless combinations of these settings exist, they are designed to work within the set parameters. Those parameters are made by the designer of the program using his color levels.
For learners, pressing the layer shuffle button changes the result and provides a different, often pleasing effect. If you decide that you prefer a previous version, rolling back using Photoshop’s history panel allows you to go back to that version. Of course, people au fait with color grading in Photoshop it is possible to use the layers panel to make individual changes to adjustment layers. This plugin will also suit them as it speeds up the entire editing process. Furthermore, the modifiers can be saved and reused on subsequent images.
Infinite Color doesn’t stop there. Each layer can be turned on and off in the tool. That allows you to see the impact those adjustments have on the image. One can then shuffle the settings of each individual adjustment to find something that matches the look you want — a great learning tool and a quick way to achieve great results. .
So what are the layers that Infinite Color generates? There are five of them, and here is a short and simple explanation of each one:
Color Lookup applies different looks to photos, simulating the look and feel of a variety of movies and effects.
Gradient maps allow you to apply different colors to different tones in an image. For example, you can add blue to the shadows and orange to the highlights, with a gradual shift between them.
Selective Color works by selectively modifying the amount of a single primary color, and it does that without changing the other primary colors in the image.
Color balance was originally designed to correct the full color of light when photographing, allowing photographers to make white appear white. The colors of the rest of the image are similarly altered, usually warmed or cooled. It can also be used creatively, like with color grading.
The Curves adjustment layer allows you to adjust the brightness of individual highlights throughout the entire tonal range of the image, thus affecting contrast precisely.
Each of these tweaks can be mastered with varying difficulty outside of the plugin; some are easier to grasp than others. But how those five interact is another matter entirely. So one can create these adjustment layers in Photoshop and adjust them yourself, but that takes time and knowledge on how to change them. Those who are already well versed in tones will probably still be able to do that. But many photographers like me have never ventured into this creative field and want a tool that simplifies and speeds up the process.
Infinite color has many other tricks that exploit Photoshop’s functionality, such as keeping the adjustment stack at the top of the stack and color coding the layers. The video at the top of this article gives you an overview of what this software can do.
What I like and what can be improved
This handy software got me interested in color grading. It’s simple to use and a great way to learn color grading. It is especially relevant for artistic portrait work, which is not a genre I specialize in. However, in my subjective opinion, the results are excellent.
I asked a digital artist to try it on his drawings and he was also impressed.
I especially like that it works in Photoshop, not an external application like Nik Color Efex or On1 Effects that has to be opened externally. Creating those classes is very fast. It’s also great to use at all levels of experience and is suitable for beginners, learners, and experts alike, although I suspect many professionals will still create color grading layers manually.
For my taste, the default intensity level can be reduced, but others may prefer a stronger setting. I did so, a double click on the Intensity slider returned it to its default value.
At $129, it’s not particularly cheap compared to other plugins. But it’s not like other plugins; it does all its functions in Photoshop and it speeds up the workflow compared to external plugins. For a professional photographer coloring multiple images, this cost will be offset to save time. Furthermore, the layers are non-destructive and can be tweaked. It depends on personal budget and whether you consider it affordable. Some will, and some won’t.
i will use Infinite color? Maybe occasionally. I’m interested in it, although, as I said at the beginning, color grading doesn’t suit my usual style of photography. I can see so many photographers that it would be a valuable addition to their toolbox. It is certainly a convenient tool for learning how color grading works; it gives excellent results and speeds up the editing process. Also, it allows me to get results in Photoshop that I can’t achieve.
To be open, I received a free copy of this software for review.
