Sure you take some mean photos with your digital camera, and we all know how to find great photos online using an image search. But, there's always things that can be done to increase the vibrance, contrast, color balance, and overall appearance of an image to bump it up (at least a couple) notches in quality.

Color Correction - when adjusting the color leave image in RGB.

The Levels dialog is found in the Photoshop menu under Image > Adjustments > Levels.

Total Range: The region where most of the brightness values are presented.

Explaining Histograms

Immediately below the histogram are three small triangles, a black one on the left (Shadows), a gray one in the middle (Midtones), and a white one on the right hand end (Highlights).

Contrast: A histogram can also describe the amount of contrast. Contrast is a measure of the difference in brightness between light and dark areas in a scene. Broad histograms reflect a scene with significant contrast, whereas narrow histograms reflect less contrast and may appear flat or dull. This can be caused by any combination of subject matter and lighting conditions. Photos taken in the fog will have low contrast, while those taken under strong daylight will have higher contrast.

Low Contrast: Photoshop allows you to adjust the shadows and highlights of your image. If an image is too light or too dark, you can use the shadow and highlight controls to improve the picture. To the left is an example of an image before and after the contrast was adjusted.

Midtones: Moving it controls the overall brightness of our image without directly affecting either the highlight or the shadow end. After setting the black point and white point, the image may look a bit too dark or a bit too light. To solve this, simply adjust the gray slider to get the desired result. To lighten, move the slider left. To darken the image, move it toward the right.

High Contrast: dragging the shadows over.

Tutorial Download

Feel free to download this tutorial for your own personal use. Page1Printers tutorials…they're G-r-r-r-r-eat! (sorry, Kellogg's!)

using-photoshop-levels-for-image-color-correction.pdf (5.97 mb)