PCPhoto
4 Fundamental Photoshop SkillsLearn these essential tools and techniques and you'll be equipped for most common image enhancements |
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Page 3 of 6 Adjust Tonality And Color Text And Photography By Rob Sheppard  Want better color? A lot of photographers go right to Hue/Saturation, but often too early. For us to see color at its best in a photograph (and to use Hue/Saturation properly), we need to also see strong blacks and whites in the image. They create a visual reference for the eye to allow us to interpret color well.In Photoshop, use Levels to set black and white as soon as your photo is open (you can do the same with RAW files using a similar technique in Camera Raw as noted below). I recommend you use a Levels adjustment layer rather than adjusting directly into the photo’s pixels because adjustment layers let you adjust and readjust with no change in image quality. You don’t need to understand all the parts of the Levels dialog box in order to use Levels to set blacks and whites. You only need to know the black and white sliders under the histogram. Here’s how to use them: 1. Set blacks. Hold down the Alt/Option key as you click on the left, black slider. As you move the slider, the screen will change to a black-and-white threshold screen that shows where blacks are appearing in the image. You can move the slider until blacks just start to appear or you can be more interpretive and extend the blacks into larger areas of the photo (be aware that these areas are pure black without detail). Colors on the screen are showing the RGB channels as they max out. In Camera Raw, use Alt/Option with the Shadows slider for the same threshold screen.   |
