First things first. Yesterday I made the awful mistake of leaving out one of our FABULOUS sponsors for the month of September. The amazing AMY WOLFF. I don’t know how I did that (oh wait, maybe it was the four kids climbing on me and the one crazy puppy and the VERY pregnant and unhappy kitty all trying to get my attention at once 
In any case, Amy Wolff is part of this month’s lineup for THE DIGI FILES and I didn’t want her to feel left out. Sorry Amy!
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This week I had the pleasure of doing a guest class at our international school for the high school photography class. The teachers asked me to come in and do some beginning photo editing tutorials. These were designed for kids who had little to no Photoshop experience. I decided to teach them my four most used beginner tricks:
- Working With Levels
- Brightness and Contrast
- Screen Layer
- Converting to Black and White
Over the course of the last eight months here at THE DAILY DIGI we have looked at a few of these things (screen layer and black and whites). I have skipped the others (levels and brightness and contrast) because they seemed so simple, so beginner-ish. And then I remembered that many of our readers are beginners. I was also reminded that there are so many ways to do things in Photoshop and sometimes even seasoned Photoshop gals can learn something new. And so, I want to share with you the beginner tutorial I wrote for the class on working with levels.
The following tutorial was written for Photoshop CS2 (because that is what the class is using) but will work, with minor varations of menu options and keystrokes, in Photoshop Elements and CS3&4.
The tutorial was not written in a way that explains the technical side of things, but rather, it takes an easy “this is how you do it” approach. I think that when learning Photoshop, knowing all the “whys” can be overwhelming at first. I would rather learn WHAT to do and then later, if I am interested, I can learn WHY it works.
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The Levels tool in Photoshop adjusts the brightness of an image at three points: black, white, and midtones. It is great for brightening up dull images.
This example image is dark and lifeless. We will use the levels tool to brighten it up.
1. Make sure your layers palette is in view. Go to Window > Layers (or press F7).
2. Open your image. You layers palette should should one layer (your photo).
3. Click on the adjustment layer icon (the black and white circle) and choose LEVELS.
4. A Levels dialogue box will appear that looks like this
5. Don’t be intimidated by the box…the levels represent the color points in your image. The goal of a photo is to have the “curve” of colors extend all the to the blacks (the left) and all the way to the whites (right) with a peak in the center (midtones). That would create a photo with the full color range. However, if your photo doesn’t do that you can “help” it.
Our example photo is missing colors in the white (light) areas.
6. In order to fix that, we are going to drag the white slider to the point that it meets the “black mountain.”
7. In one quick and easy step your photo will improve dramatically.
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Thank you!! That was so easy but if you don’t know — you just don’t know! So helpful!! That’s what we all love about the daily digi!!
I wanted to add one more tip to this fantastic way to adjust your images. When you click on the Levels, instead of adjustin the RGB channel, adjust the R, G and B channels individually. Simply click the RGB drop-down and choose Red, adjust the slider, then select Green and adjust, and finally, select Blue and adjust. Then, return to RGB and drag the center to the left to lighten a smidge more. This method will help remove any color cast as well as lighten.
Thanks for all your tips!
I just learned this from my sister, and I’ve been playing with CS4 for almost a year!! Now if I could just figure out those curves… lol Great tutorial, thanks!
One of my most used simple tricks is a curve layer mask with a simple “S” curve.
This really helped. Thanks
Thanks so much! Although I have been using PSE for a while now I still did not know this! Please continue to discuss “beginner” tips as well as those that are more advanced. They are greatly appreciated!
I really, really needed this!! Thank you so much for sharing this technique and for making it so simple and user-friendly… Looking forward to more beginner tips!
I’m a PSE user, and I’ve always used “Auto Levels” to get rid of that dingy cast from my digital camera. I’ve been too intimidated to try manually moving things around. Is Levels appropriate for this use, or is there a better way to do it?
Thank you so much for explaining this. I had no idea how to use that box and you made it so simple. My pictures thank you too!
What an awesome tip, I had no idea and have tried to slide the sliders everywhich way with little or no improvment. You have made it simple and I totally “get it”
I usually scrap in Paint Shop Pro 9, but I have PSP 12 also. PSP 9 doesn’t have the same kind of controls as you showed here, but PSP 12 does. It worked magic on a cute dark photo I had =) Much better result than adding a screen layer ….. Thank you for sharing this tip.