In this movie, we're going to dig into the wonderful world of working with Levels. Levels are really powerful, and they allow us to have great control when it comes to modifying color and tone in our pictures. And here in this first movie, I want to work with the few different images and take a look at how we can use these controls and also how we can use some auto settings in order to help our images so that they look even better. We'll start off with this photograph here, and let's click on the icon to open up our Levels adjustment.
You can find that icon in the top row here. We'll click on that, and there you can see in the Properties panel we have options for our Levels controls. Well, what exactly are these controls? Well, when you look at them you'll notice you have a black point, a midtone, and also a highlight point. You can click and drag these, and by doing so you can see the images becoming darker. You can also control the midpoint. You can either brighten or darken the overall photograph or work on those highlights.
If you drag this too far, well, I lose detail. So these controls, well, they have a lot of power. They allow us to make some pretty big and bold adjustments. And what I want to take a look at in this first movie are some of these auto adjustments. With this picture, it looks like it's lacking a little bit of life or snap. Well, if you click on the Auto button, it will apply an auto adjustment to try to correct your photograph, whether it's underexposed or just needs a little boost. You can then click on this Eye icon. Here it is. Here's that before and then after.
This photograph looks so much better already. We can then further customize these controls by changing their overall settings as well. Well, let's jump to another image to see how this will work in a different scenario. In this case, once again we have a photograph that's lacking a little bit of snap. We'll click on the Levels icon and go straight to the Auto button. What this will do then is it essentially decreased our exposure a bit. This image was overexposed, whereas the previous image, it needed a little bit of contrast.
So what Auto is doing is it's analyzing that photograph. It's trying to see what the problem is, and then it's going to introduce some adjustments in order to try to fix it. Well, let's look at one more photograph. This one here, perhaps a picture which is even a bit more complicated. It's underexposed this time. Here, we'll click on the Levels icon; I'll start off by clicking on the Auto button. Now when I do that, it brightens up the overall image, I have more detail there, but I need more contrast, more presence. I need something.
So we can then use these sliders after we've modified that with the Auto button. And what I want to do with this image is I want to bring back some of the density. I went a bit too far. It brightened it up too much. So now just by simply moving my black point slider, I brought this image to a nice spot. Let's click on the Eye icon to see the before and after. Here's before, and now here's after. By using the Auto button or just by using your sliders, you can modify the overall tone, which in turn also affects the overall color of your photograph.
And so far we've been looking at how we can apply adjustments in a pretty global way. Yet let's say that we want to get a bit more specific, we want to modify tone but we also want to modify color. Well, let's take a look at how we can do that in the next movie.
Author
Released
4/26/2012The course details the features and techniques behind enhancing and retouching photos, preparing them for print and online publishing, and much more. Chris demonstrates how to make basic edits in Camera Raw, develop and save color profiles, work with layers and selections, tone and sharpen, and retouch images while retaining their natural character.
Chris also shares some creative tips and project ideas, such as converting a photo to black-and-white and enhancing a portrait with hand-painted masks. The course also covers workflow details, such as organizing images in Bridge and Mini Bridge, optimizing Photoshop preferences, and calibrating your monitor.
- Getting started with Bridge and Mini Bridge
- Setting up color and performance preferences
- Calibrating your monitor
- Improving images with the basic controls in Camera Raw
- Creating, aligning, and organizing layers
- Using masks for removing or blending images and for sharpening
- Working with vibrancy, hue, and saturation controls
- Enhancing color and tone with Levels
- Using Curves and masks to enhance brightness, color, and tone
- Mastering the art of blending modes
- Correcting and replacing color
- Burning and dodging
- Converting to black and white
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
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Introduction
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Welcome55s
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1. Strategies for Learning
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2. Getting Started with Bridge and Mini Bridge
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Adding metadata and keywords4m 47s
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Renaming images1m 45s
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Working with Mini Bridge4m 36s
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3. Color Settings and Preferences
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Modifying zoom preferences4m 20s
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Changing HUD brush options3m 41s
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Opening up documents in tabs4m 11s
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Choosing cursor preferences5m 14s
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4. Foundations of Color Management
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Introducing color profiles5m 17s
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Setting up your studio1m 59s
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5. Getting Started with Photoshop
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Introducing the Tools panel4m 53s
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6. Understanding Digital Images
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Introducing image resizing3m 42s
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Resizing images effectively3m 48s
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7. Working in Camera Raw
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What is Camera Raw?2m 47s
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8. Utilizing Layers
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Introducing layers2m 22s
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Working with layer opacity3m 29s
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Aligning layers1m 32s
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Creating new layers4m 53s
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Organizing layers2m 31s
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Adding layer style effects5m 28s
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Creating a clipping mask6m 50s
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Targeting and moving layers2m 13s
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9. Making Selections
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Using the three lasso tools4m 56s
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10. Using the Masking Panel
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Introducing masking1m 14s
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11. Adding Custom Borders
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Using prebuilt borders4m 13s
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12. Improving Your Images with Adjustments
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13. Using Levels to Correct and Enhance
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Working with auto levels3m 36s
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Creative tip: checking in2m 38s
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14. Making Color and Tone Adjustments with Curves
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15. The Art of Blending Modes
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Using blending shortcuts2m 4s
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16. Correcting Color
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17. Enhancing Colors
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Creative tip: shoot more1m 37s
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18. Burning and Dodging
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19. Converting to Black and White
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The power of black and white4m 14s
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20. Working with Filters
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Introducing Smart Filters3m 36s
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Applying Smart Filters6m 20s
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Working with Tilt-Shift Blur3m 52s
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21. Removing Noise
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22. Basic Image Cleanup
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Basic portrait retouching3m 15s
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Brightening the eyes2m 30s
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Retouching selected areas5m 27s
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23. Correcting Distortion and Perspective
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24. Combining Multiple Images
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25. Sharpening Your Images
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Working with Smart Sharpen6m 17s
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Using Unsharpen Mask4m 49s
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26. Getting Your Images Online
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Sharpening for the web3m 5s
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Creating a web gallery5m 49s
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27. Desktop Printing
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Adjusting printer settings3m 43s
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28. Working with Video
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Exporting a project2m 15s
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Conclusion
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Goodbye35s
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Video: Working with auto levels