How to Add a Chromatic Effect in Photoshop (Color Aberration Photoshop)

Visual effects are essential to creating stunning results both in videography and photography. They can make your footage more immersive, allowing you to enhance the viewer experience and make your photos and videos stand out.

Chromatic aberration can occur naturally while using your camera to capture a real-life scene or a moment you wish to cherish. This visual effect may produce color distortions that can alter the visual appeal of your footage.

Though most content creators see color aberration as a flaw, you can use it to your advantage. Today, we’ll discuss the chromatic aberration effect, its good and bad sides, and how to create and remove it in Photoshop.

What Is the Chromatic Aberration Effect?

The chromatic aberration effect is a color distortion phenomenon that occurs due to the inability of the camera lens to bring together all color wavelengths to the same focal plane. Camera lenses can also produce this effect when they focus light wavelengths at different areas of the focal plane.

Also known as purple or color fringing, the chromatic aberration effect manifests as undesired color lines along the edges of camera-captured photos. Though powerful, most camera lenses can’t focus the immense number of colors on the same point in the focal plane.

Light wavelengths come in different speeds and angles. They tend to hit the camera lens at different times, causing various types of color distortions.

The two types of chromatic aberration include:

• Axial or longitudinal chromatic aberration (LCA) – produced by long focal lengths and prime lenses, LCA creates a chromatic effect around the frame edges and in the center of the image.
• Transverse or lateral chromatic aberration (TCA) – common for short focal lengths, TCA manifests in images with sharp transitions between light and dark surfaces and areas. It can also appear along high-contrast frame edges. You can easily recognize it by the blue-yellow or red-green fringing.

The chromatic aberration effect produces various color distortions in photography, manifesting in colors such as purple, yellow, magenta, green, blue, red, etc.

Is Chromatic Color Aberration Good or Bad?

Chromatic color aberration isn’t always a bad thing. You can use it to your advantage to create a specific emotion or a stylized visual appearance using intentional RGB splitting. On the other hand, you can remove the effect if you wish to reduce unrealistic color distortions and sharp edges to improve your photo quality.

Chromatic color aberration can add to the visual appeal of your photos and videos. You can use it to create various visual effects to enhance your footage and make it more engaging.

Modern-day chromatic color aberration correction programs like Photoshop, Wondershare Filmora, Premiere Pro, and After Effects can separate the RGB (red, green, blue) channels, allowing you to use the chromatic effect to create vivid motion in still images, add depth to your video footage, and make your content more engaging and attention-grabbing.

Chromatic Aberration Video Effects│Filmora

How to Create Color Aberration in Photoshop

Photoshop is an ideal program for editing your photos and enhancing the visual appeal of your images. You can use it to create an artificial chromatic aberration look for your content. Download and install Photoshop on your computer, then follow these steps to create the color aberration effect.

Step 1: Launch Photoshop and navigate to File > Open. Click Open to upload the image you wish to enhance with the color aberration effect.

Step 2: Navigate to Layers > Background and right-click the background layer of the image to duplicate the background layer and avoid making unwanted changes to the original photo. In case something goes wrong, you can start again.

Step 3: Select Duplicate Layer and rename the new duplicated layer according to your preferences.

Step 4: Navigate to Image > Mode > RGB Color to ensure your image is in RGB mode.

Step 5: Select the Channels tab to access separate color channels (Red, Green, and Blue). Click each channel and drag it to the Create new channel icon to duplicate all color channels.

Step 6: Use the Move Tool (V) or click the Canvas tab under Properties to move each color channel in the desired direction and create the color aberration effect. We recommend displacing each channel by a few pixels.

Step 7: Once you displace all the color channels, select all of them, right-click the selection, and choose Merge Channels.

That’s it; you have now added a color aberration effect to your photo in Photoshop.

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How to Remove Chromatic Aberration in Photoshop

Photoshop also lets you remove color distortion caused by chromatic aberration. Here are the steps to follow to remove chromatic aberration in Photoshop.

Step 1: Launch Photoshop, upload your photo, and duplicate the background layer.

Step 2: Click the Color tab and select Add a layer mask.

Step 3: Navigate to the Filter tab and select Blur > Gaussian Blur to add some blur to your image.

Step 4: Adjust the radius to 9-12.

Step 5: Navigate to the Color tab in the right sidebar and select Layer. Change the blending mode from Normal to Color.

Step 6: Click the mask layer of your image and select the Brush tool. Use it to select the area to remove chromatic aberration.

Step 7: Export and save your enhanced image on your computer.

Bonus: Best Alternative Tool to Use

Photoshop is an excellent tool to reduce, minimize, or eliminate the chromatic aberration effect from your images. However, it is primarily designed for still images and requires a decent dose of know-how to navigate its complex, feature-packed user interface.

If you find Photoshop navigation too confusing, consider using Wondershare Filmora instead. Filmora is a versatile software that not only corrects chromatic aberration in images but also handles videos, making it a more streamlined alternative packed with AI-enabled editing features.

Aside from empowering you to create, manage, and remove color aberration from your content, Filmora gives you access to thousands of creative assets, audio/video effects, text templates, and 3D animations you can use to enhance your footage beyond your expectations.

With Filmora, you can transform color distortions caused by chromatic aberration into aesthetically pleasing visual effects to enhance your footage and make it more engaging. Filmora can correct and adjust the effect according to your needs, and you can select areas where you don’t want to apply chromatic aberration.

Download and install Filmora on your computer, then follow the steps below to add and customize the chromatic aberration effect.

Step 1: Launch Filmora and navigate to Create Project > New Project.

Step 2: Select Import, add your video, and drag it to the timeline.

Step 3: Select the Effects tab and type Chromatic Aberration in the search bar.

Step 4: Select the desired Chromatic Aberration option and drag it to the timeline above your video.

Step 5: Now, click the effect in the timeline to access the Editing panel on the right side. Drag the Fade and Opacity sliders to customize the chromatic aberration effect according to your needs.

Step 6: Drag the same video to the timeline again and select it to open the Video editor. Navigate to Video > AI Tools > Smart Cutout. Select Click to start Smart Cutout.

Step 7: Select the image area where you don’t want to apply the chromatic aberration effect and choose Click to start Smart Cutout. When you’re finished, click Save.

Step 8: Once you’re done, click Export to save the edited video on your computer.

Conclusion

This article shared the basic information about color distortions caused by chromatic aberrations. We’ve discussed its impact on the visual appeal of your photos and videos, including why it occurs and how to use it to your advantage.

In addition, we shared step-by-step guides on how to create and remove the chromatic aberration effect in Photoshop. However, since Photoshop is primarily designed for still images and can be overwhelming if you're not familiar with its complex interface, we recommend giving Wondershare Filmora a shot.

Filmora offers a more intuitive interface with fully transparent and automated features, making navigation much easier. It not only allows you to correct chromatic aberration in images but also supports video editing. With just a few mouse clicks, you can create and correct chromatic aberration in Filmora, simplifying the process significantly.