MA Forum ~ View topic - Photoshop: Curves & Levels (white balance/contrast)

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< TUTORIALS & HELP ~ Photoshop: Curves & Levels (white balance/contrast)

Jonas M. Rogne

Posted: Tue May 29, 2007 3:17 pm

Moderator Joined: 27 May 2007 Posts: 176 Location: Norway

Curves and levels isn't only a Photoshop thing, but exists in most photo (and video) editing software.

This is what I'll show how to do:

Quote:

A simple levels and/or curves adjustment will fix the colours and contrast in 90% of your photos in a matter of seconds!
If you ever take a photo and you find the contrast to flat, the white walls looking orange etc. then this is what you need.

This tutorial will show you how to adjust curves and levels solely using the curves dialouge in CS3. It is the same for older versions but they do not have a histogram in the curves dialouge. To get a histogram in CS2 or older use the levels adjustment layer.

PS: I have a 20min. low quality video detailing the use of levels and curves in CS2 on http://www.metacafe.com/watch/374485/

Adjusting your image:
(Click an image to view it in full size)

Start off with our image. As you can see there's only the background layer:

Now, add the 'curves' adjustment layer:

The curves window pop up. As you can see it has a faded histogram in the background (in cs3).
The adjustment layer will by default have an empty white mask on it. I have turned that off on mine so your layers may look slightly different.

The equivalent of adjusting the white and black point in the levels dialogue is moving the top and bottom point inwards. Just like with levels. Move them inwards until they "hit" the edges of the histogram (or further if you want to clip the colours). There's a checkbox at the bottom to preview where clipping will occur.
This allows you to easily do the levels adjustment and apply a contrast curve in the same operation.

If you want do increase the contrast furhter without getting more clipping, give the curve a soft s-shape.

That's it. You can now adjust contrast like a pro!

But how to do it if you're not happy with the white balance?
Remember you can adjust the R, G and B channel separately to correct white balance and colour cast. To adjust an individual channel, use the channel drop down at the top.

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Presets:

If the levels are already adjusted (or are naturally good) then you might want to adjust the contrast without changing the white/black point. You would do this by making an S-shaped curve. In CS3 you can choose some presets from the drop-down at the top to get you started; This shows the preset for a medium contrast increase.

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Masks:
Adjustment layers (like curves) can be used with masks to only affect parts of an image. Masks are a very powerful tool, and would allow you to brighten only the face and darken the sky, while leaving the rest intact.
A tutorial on masking can be found here.

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www.rognemedia.no - Grafisk design / Graphic design
http://chain.deviantart.com

Jonas M. Rogne

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 8:42 pm

Moderator Joined: 27 May 2007 Posts: 176 Location: Norway

Tutorials by me (like this one) will no longer be posted or updated on this forum.
They will all be available from my Free Resources website from now on.

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www.rognemedia.no - Grafisk design / Graphic design
http://chain.deviantart.com

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