I know that LAB color in photoshop has been discussed here before [View All]

[ET Awful]

But, I thought it might be nice to show some examples of how it can vastly improve the color and tonal range of a photo.

I started with this photo:



I opened in Photoshop, did a minor "Shadows and Hilights" adjustment to restore some shadow detail, then converted to LAB Color (under Image, then Mode).

After that, I went to Image, Adjustments, Curves, changed the "Channel" setting to "a" and simply moved the adjustment points in about 10 percent in both the upper right and lower left corners, then did the same for Channel "b".

I converted back to RGB mode, saved the image and this is the result:



This took all of 30 seconds (much less complicated than it sounds). The conclusion? LAB Color can REALLY save a photo in some cases.