It' a shame that many Photoshop users ignore the Eyedropper tool when editing their images to achieve precise colors with a natural look. This instructional video comes from the folks at Adobe Photoshop Tutorials, a new YouTube channel dedicated to providing expert-guided tutorials for photographers and other creators interested in elevating their imaging skills. This episode is devoted to Photoshop's Eyedropper tool that, despite it's power, takes less than two minutes to explain. In basic terms it enables you to quickly sample a color from anywhere within an image and add it to your Swatches panel. When using the Eyedropper tool, the color swatch in the panel immediately changes accordingly. Once you determine the specific color(s) you desire you'll notice some magic occurring in Photoshop's Info panel: As you click around the image the panel automatically expands to display the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) settings for each color swatch selected.
There''s an alternative method to the keyboard shortcut you'll learn that involves employing Photoshop's Brush tool while holding down the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on a PC. You'll immediately recognize the benefits of the Eyedropper tool after giving this a try, and you'll definitely want to add this easy and efficient technique to your Photoshop workflow.
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How the Eyedropper Tool Works in Photoshop
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How to Use the Eyedropper in Photoshop
- Open your image and select the Eyedropper tool to click on the color you want to sample. The foreground color then becomes that sampled color and is ready for painting or editing.
- By default, clicking in the image area with the Eyedropper tool displays a sample ring. The new color appears in the upper half of the ring while the current foreground color appears in the bottom half. The ring is surrounded by gray to help neutralize surrounding colors that may influence color choices.
- Choose a sample size from the Options bar, from Point Sample to 101 by 101 Average. Because the Eyedropper samples color based on a specific number of pixels on-screen, zooming in or out can change the sampled color.
- The Eyedropper tool can sample colors from outside of Photoshop; make the color visible on the desktop or in another application, etc.
- To keep track of multiple color readouts, click in the image area to set up to ten color samplers. Choose Window > Info to display the Info panel for live color readouts.
- In Photoshop’s default state, the Info panel displays two sets of values for tracking changes. To quickly change Color Readout settings without using the panel options, click-hold the eyedropper icon in the Info Panel and select from the list.
Additionally, Photoshop’s Color Picker tool complements the Eyedropper: click the foreground color swatch to open the color picker panel, sample a color from your image, and select a shade using RGB, CMYK, HEX, or other models. The Eyedropper remains a fast and flexible way to choose the perfect shade, whether designing from scratch, editing, or sampling from a photo.
Open your image, select the Eyedropper tool, and click on the color you want to sample. The foreground color updates to the sampled color for immediate use in painting or editing. You can zoom to adjust sampling accuracy, as the sample size may include more or fewer surrounding pixels.
Practical Tips for Using Eyedropper Effectively
- Use the sample ring to compare the new sampled color with the current foreground color.
- Experiment with different sample sizes to understand how surrounding pixels influence the readout.
- Utilize the Info panel to monitor RGB values as you sample from diverse areas of the image.
- Keep multiple samplers in the Image to compare several color options simultaneously.
