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-Levels-
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Levels is a tool in Photoshop and other image editing programs which can move and stretch the brightness levels of an image histogram. It has the power to adjust brightness, contrast, and tonal range by specifying the location of complete black, complete white, and midtones in a histogram. Since every photo's histogram is unique, there is no single way to adjust the levels for all your photos. A proper understanding of how to adjust the levels of an image histogram will help you better represent tones in the final image.
When considering adjusting the black and white point levels of your histogram,
ask yourself: is there any region in the image which should be completely
black or white, and does the image histogram show this? Midtone Level Moving the midtones slider compresses or stretches the tones to the left
or right of the slider, depending on which direction it is moved. Movement
to the left stretches the histogram to the its right and compresses the
histogram to its left (thereby brightening the image by stretching out
the shadows and compressing the highlights), whereas movement to the right
performs the opposite. Therefore, the midtone slider's main use is to
brighten or darken the midtones within an image.
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-Curves- |
The Photoshop curves tool is perhaps the most powerful and flexible image transformation, yet it may also be one of the most intimidating. Since photographers effectively paint with light, curves is central to their practice because it affects light's two primary influences: tones and contrast. Tonal curves are also what give different film types their unique character, so understanding how they work allows one to mimic any film-- without ever having to retake the photograph.
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Adapted from the Caimbridge in Colour Website: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com |