In this tutorial, I’ll show you in detail the workflow for making tonal and color corrections in Photoshop. The following overview of this workflow summarizes the steps for making quick tonal and color adjustments and edits to an image.
1. Open an image in Photoshop. If your image is in raw format, using Bridge, open an image in Camera Raw, make adjustments, and then click the Open button. The image will open in Photoshop. If the image is in JPEG or TIFF format, browse the image thumbnails and double-click on an image to open it directly in Photoshop.
2. Save the image as a PSD file. After you open an image in Photoshop, the file is still in the digital format native to the camera that took the picture. For example, if you took the image in raw format and converted it in Camera Raw before opening it in Photoshop, the image would still be in the raw format taken, such as .NEF for a Nikon digital camera or .CR2 for a Canon model. Saving the image to another folder in Photoshop format is the best method for keeping your images organized and your original image preserved. Select File, Save As or press Shift+Ctrl+S (Shift+Command+S on a Mac). The Save As window, shown in Figure 11.1, gives you the choices to select a folder, change the filename if you choose, and most importantly, change the file format. Select the folder to which you want to save your working file, and then click the Format selection box to select Photoshop (*.PSD, *.PDD) as the file format. Click the Save button to save your working file.
3. Duplicate the background layer. As you’ve discovered, I’m a stickler for making backups and protecting original files…and layers. As discussed in Chapter 10, images are adjusted and edited in separate layers. When you open an image, all the image information is contained in the background layer. You should create a new layer to contain every color adjustment, tonal adjustment, and edit separately. By creating separate layers, you ensure that you can always go back to that particular layer and make changes without affecting the other layers. You can also delete a layer if you don’t like an adjustment you made, and then keep the original image intact. When you’ve finished making changes to your image, you’ll have a number of layers, each with its own adjustment or edit.
Backing up the original background layer is just my particular best practice for protecting the background layer. To back up and protect the original background layer, choose Layer, Duplicate.
Figure 11.1 The Save As window
4. Evaluate the image and formulate a plan of attack. Before diving in and beginning to make adjustments and edits to an image, I always sit back and view it first, evaluating the image. This important step ensures that you are making a plan of attack for the image.
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One tool offered by Photoshop is Variations. Variations is found in the Image,Adjustments menu and can be a very useful tool in helping you evaluate your image.
Variations, shown in Figure 11.2, allows you to make changes to an image’s shadows, midtones, highlights, and saturation by viewing different variations of the image and clicking on those variations to make changes. As a nature photographer, I like Variations because it gives me a visual cue for what changes I might want to make during my color and tonal adjustments. However, I usually don’t use Variations to make my changes, just to view different possibilities.
Figure 11.2 Using Variations to help evaluate an image
5. Correct the exposure. A recent addition to Photoshop with the release of CS2, the Exposure adjustment (Image, Adjustments, Exposure) gives you the ability to correct JPEG or TIFF images that are overexposed or underexposed. If you shoot and process raw images, you won’t need to take this step.
The Exposure adjustment in Camera Raw is non-destructive and is a better adjustment to use, but only if you shoot raw images. If your image is a JPEG or TIFF that is in need of exposure correction, consider using the Exposure adjustment to make changes.
6. Adjust shadows. Another addition to Photoshop with the release of CS2 is the Shadows adjustment (Image, Adjustments, Shadows). Like the Exposure adjustment, if you shoot and process raw images in Camera Raw, you won’t need to use the Shadows adjustment in Photoshop.
7. Create a Levels adjustment layer. The first step in my overall adjustments is adjusting levels. Levels adjustments make corrections to the tonal values of an image by fine-tuning the colors in the highlights, midtones, and shadows.
You can create adjustment layers by clicking on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon that’s located on the bottom of the Layers palette, and then choosing which type of layer to create.
8. Create a Curves adjustment layer. To avoid using the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to increase or decrease the contrast in an image, I strongly recommend you use the Curves adjustment layer to make fine adjustments to contrast and the tonal values in an image. Using Curves is much less destructive than using the Brightness/Contrast adjustment and it allows for adjustments on up to 14 points of the tonal range of an image.
9. Create a Color Balance layer.You only need to do this if your white balance is out of whack for your image, especially if the original wasn’t processed in Camera Raw.
10. Create a Saturation adjustment layer. My favorite adjustment can be found in the Saturation layer.
Saturation allows you to increase color in your image. To make your images “pop” with some color, click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button on the Layers palette and choose Hue/Saturation.
11. Save the image. After making adjustments, save the image by choosing File, Save or by clicking the Save button on the Option bar.
Correcting Exposure
If you’ve followed the steps I just described by opening an image in Photoshop and then duplicating the background layer, you’re ready to make any exposure corrections that might need to be done to your image. As you recall, Camera Raw has a great exposure adjustment, but not all of us shoot in the raw format. If you need to make a correction to an underexposed or overexposed image, follow these steps:
1. Open the Exposure adjustment. Choose Image, Adjustments, Exposure. The Exposure Adjustment window, shown in Figure 11.3, will appear.
2. Adjust the exposure. The image shown is underexposed by about a half stop. Using the Exposure adjustment, you can increase the exposure by moving the slider slightly to the right. You’ll notice that you don’t have to move the slider far to get results.
Figure 11.3 The Exposure adjustment and the Layers palette
3. Adjust the offset. The Offset slider will change the shadow areas of the image without affecting the highlights. In real-speak, this means you can increase the contrast (darken it) by moving the slider slightly to the left, and you can decrease the contrast by moving the slider slightly to the right. Again, you only have to move the slider in small increments to make any change to the image. I usually leave this adjustment set to its default.
4. Adjust the gamma. Gamma is an adjustment to the midtones of the image. I rarely use this slider in the Exposure adjustment, but you can experiment with your results by moving the slider slightly to the left to decrease the gamma or slightly to the right to increase the gamma of the image.
5. Click OK. To save your changes, click the OK button, or click the Cancel button if you would rather not use the changes made with the Exposure adjustment.
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To compare the changes you’ve made to the exposure, select and deselect the Preview
check box. If you like the version of the image without the Exposure adjustment, just
click Cancel.
Adjusting Shadow/Highlights
The Shadows adjustment (Image, Adjustments, Shadows) lets you lighten or darken the shadow areas of an image. I’ll often use it to darken backgrounds, such as in photos of foliage where I want fall color in the leaves to stand out against a darker background. When I’m shooting raw, I’ll use the Camera Raw Shadows adjustment, but if you’re shooting JPEG or TIFF images from your digital camera, you’ll want to give the Photoshop Shadows adjustment a whirl. To adjust shadows in Photoshop:
1. Create a new layer. Because the Shadows adjustment isn’t an option on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button in the Layers palette, you can simply right-click on the background layer and choose Duplicate Layer to duplicate the background layer. Make sure you name the layer Shadows, like in the Layers palette shown in Figure 11.4. If you have already made some adjustments, you can create a new layer that combines all the previous layers into one by pressing Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E on your PC or Shift+Command+Option+E on a Mac.
Figure 11.4 Creating a Shadow/Highlights layer
Figure 11.5 Adjusting Shadow/Highlights
2. Adjust Shadow/Highlights. The Shadow/Highlight window, shown in Figure 11.5, shows the Shadows slider and the Highlights slider. You can check the Show More Options box in the lowerleft corner of the window to view more options. I rarely ever use them, but you can experiment with
the more advanced options. Move the Shadows slider to the left to darken the shadow areas of the image, or move the slider to the right to lighten the shadow areas of the image. My goal was to correct the exposure in the shadow areas while adjusting highlights in this image to compensate for some overexposed areas at the top of the tree. If you noticed, the image has a nasty magenta cast. I’ll be correcting that later in the workflow.
3. Click OK. If you don’t want to save your changes (this can be a complex adjustment, so sometimes you won’t want to save your changes), just click the Cancel button.
Levels Adjustment Layer
Creating a Levels adjustment layer is often the first step I take after opening raw files in Photoshop. The Levels adjustment makes corrections to the tonal values of an image by fine-tuning the colors in the highlights, midtones, and shadows. If I’m processing a raw file in Camera Raw, I have already adjusted white balance, exposure, and shadows. My next step is creating a Levels adjustment layer. If I’m processing JPEGs or TIFF images, this step might come after Exposure or
Shadow/Highlights.
1. Create a Levels adjustment layer. Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button located on the bottom of the Layers palette, as shown in Figure 11.6.
2. As shown in Figure 11.7, the Levels adjustment window shows you a graphical representation of the color distribution (red, green and blue channels) of the image, also referred to as the histogram. Below the histogram
are three sliders.
The slider on the left controls the shadow portions of the image, the middle slider controls the midtones (also called the gamma) of the image, and the slider on the right controls the amount of color in the highlight areas of the image. With the default channel set to RGB, move the left and right sliders to the point of the histogram at which pixels begin to show up clearly. Moving the middle slider to the right increases contrast in the image by darkening the highlight areas. Experiment with moving the sliders until you get the result you want. Don’t forget to have the Preview box checked!
Figure 11.6 Creating the Levels adjustment layer
Figure 11.7 The Levels adjustment window
3. Select a channel. Keep the channel selection as RGB so you can correct levels for the entire image (all three color channels—Red, Green, and Blue) at the same time. As you become more familiar with adjusting levels in Photoshop, experiment with changing the channel selection to the Red, Green, or Blue channels and adjusting them individually. If you are a new user of Photoshop, keep the RGB Channel selected.
4. Adjust the shadows. View the histogram and slide the Shadows input slider (the one on the left) to the right until it gets to where the curve begins to appear in the histogram. With Preview selected, you can view the image changes as you move the slider. A histogram provides a snapshot of the tonal range of an image. The histogram shows how much detail is in the shadow area on the left, in the midtones in the middle, and in the highlights on the right. Histogram data is different for every image. For many images, the histogram curve begins all the way to the left, where no Shadow input-slider adjustment is needed.
5. Adjust the highlights. Slide the Highlights input slider (the one on the right) to the left until it gets to where the Highlights curve begins.
6. Adjust the midtones. Move the Midtones input slider (the one in the middle—this is the one you’ll use most) to the right slightly, checking the image for improved color saturation and contrast. You can often improve the appearance of an image by using the Midtones slider to darken the midtones.
7. Click OK to complete the Levels adjustment. If you are not satisfied with the effects of your Levels adjustment, just click on the Cancel button.
Curves Adjustment Layer
When you adjust the tonal range of an image using Levels, you make only three adjustments: shadows, midtones (gamma), and highlights. The Curves adjustment allows for up to 14 different points of adjustment throughout the tonal range. Make a habit of using the Curves adjustment to finish any fine-tuning of tonal adjustments.
To adjust an image’s tonality and increase some contrast at the same time using the Curves adjustment layer, follow these steps:
1. Create a Curves adjustment layer. Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button in the Layers palette and then choose Curves, as shown in Figure 11.8.
Figure 11.8 Creating a Curves adjustment layer
2. Increase the grid lines. Increase the number of grid lines to provide a more precise grid. Press and hold the Alt key (the Option key on the Mac) while clicking inside the Curves grid to increase the number of grid lines. Figure 11.9 shows the Curves grid with increased grid lines.
Figure 11.9 The Curves adjustment window
3. Make tonal adjustments. Click on a point of the curve line and drag it to the desired grid point or click Auto. To adjust the highlight areas of the image, drag the curve line that is closer to the topright of the grid. To adjust the shadow areas of the image, click and drag the curve line at the bottom-left of the grid. Drag the curve upward and left to brighten, downward and right to darken. Experiment with creating adjustments for shadows, midtones, and highlights. I find that creating a slight S curve works best for most images.
4. Click OK to save your changes. If you don’t like the results of using the Curves adjustment, just click the Cancel button, and the layer will not be created.
Color Balance Adjustment Layer
Now is the time to get rid of that nasty magenta color cast in our tree photo. The rock that appears in the background should be more red, and the tree is too blue. Normally, I would have eliminated this color cast in Camera Raw using the White Balance adjustment (the image was shot with an incorrect white balance, which makes for a good example, don’t you think?), but if you’re shooting JPEG or TIFF, you don’t have the luxury of that adjustment; there isn’t one in Photoshop.
The Color Balance adjustment accomplishes changes to color in your images like we used to in the chemical darkroom. When making prints with a color enlarger, we had to manually insert color filters consisting of cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, and blue. Depending on the combination of filters you used in the enlarger, you were able to somewhat control the color output of the print. These adjustments are automatically made when you take rolls of film to the corner store to be developed on their expensive computerized equipment (either in-house or sent out). The Photoshop Color Balance adjustment gives the photographer finer control over color than any computer adjustment can calculate; our own eyes give us more of an interpretive understanding of color than any computerized whiz-bang machine ever could.
To make color correction using the Color Balance adjustment:
1. Create a new Color Balance adjustment layer. Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button on the Layers palette, as shown in Figure 11.10.
2. Make color adjustments. This is the fun part. This is the part where you’ll need just a little practice balancing your color in other types of images. The Color Balance adjustment gives you three sliders (see Figure 11.11)—the Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, and Yellow/Blue sliders. By judging the test image we’ve been using throughout this chapter, I’ve
Figure 11.10 Creating a Color Balance adjustment layer
Figure 11.11 Making color changes with the Color Balance adjustment layer
already evaluated the image and found that it has way too much magenta in the background rock area; it should be more “reddish” in color. The tree is also off color, containing blue where it needs more red. The three sliders allow you to readjust color from their opposites (Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, and Yellow/Blue).
I’ll first adjust the Cyan/Red slider by adding red to the image, then I’ll add green to the image using the Magenta/Green slider, and then I’ll reduce the blue by increasing yellow with the Yellow/Blue slider. The results of making these adjustments put my image in more of a color balance.
3. Click OK to save changes.
Finishing the Hue/Saturation Layer
The next steps in the overall-adjustment workflow are to add some visual “pop” to your image, to add color saturation to make final color adjustments, and to increase vibrancy in the image. Hey, I like color! You can also make final corrections to color if your image still contains a slight color hue, like in the example. With any overall adjustment, sometimes less is more; you might need to make only a slight correction. When adjusting color saturation, for example, sometimes all you have to do is nudge the slider to the right until you see the colors pop a little. “Easy does it” is the rule if you don’t want to make your images appear unrealistic. For our test image, I still think there is a little too much blue in the image, especially in the wood part of the tree. Let’s fix that and add some pop to the image. To create a Hue/Saturation layer, follow these steps:
1. Create a Hue/Saturation layer. Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button on the Layers palette, and then choose Hue/Saturation, as shown in Figure 11.12. The Hue/Saturation dialog box will appear.
2. Make sure Preview is selected. You want to be sure you see these changes before you apply them.
3. Adjust the hue of the image. Move the Hue slider to the right to increase the green hue in the image. Move the Hue slider to the left to increase the reds. Figure 11.13 shows the Hue/Saturation window.
4. Adjust the saturation. Increase image saturation by moving the Saturation slider slightly to the right. As a rule of thumb, increase the saturation until you see the colors start to pop. Be careful not to add too much color saturation; it can make certain colors in the image blow out, or lose detail as they’re overpowered by the color. If some areas look blown out, back off your adjustment slightly until you’re pleased with the results.
You can use the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to adjust individual color hues or saturation amounts. This is an advanced method of color-correcting your images. Just click on the Edit field and choose an individual color to adjust. Experiment with changing the hue and/or saturation of each color to see the results. You might find that adjusting the Master (the default setting) alone can work just fine for your photos.
Figure 11.12 Creating the Hue/Saturation layer
Figure 11.13 Adjusting Hue/Saturation in the image to make final color corrections
For this image, I decreased the saturation in the blue color, increased some saturation in the remaining colors, and darkened the yellow channel a bit.
5. Check the gamut warning. Choose View, Gamut Warning. For our test photo of the tree, I actually had to decrease some saturation in the red channel to bring the image more within the gamut of my selected output (but then I increased the saturation of some other colors).
6. Click OK to save your settings. Figure 11.14 shows the original image compared to the image after I made all the adjustments illustrated in this workflow—Exposure, Shadow/Highlights, Levels, Curves, Color Balance, and finally Hue/Saturation. It’s quite a difference! You can see that using a structured color and tonal correction workflow can do wonders for images that are out of whack when it comes to color balance, and you can salvage those off-color images.
Original image Final adjusted image using the color and tonal correction workflow
Figure 11.14 The original image and the final image with the Exposure, Shadow/Highlights, Levels, Curves, Color Balance, and Hue/Saturation adjustments
applied
Summary
Adjusting color and tonal values of an image is a talent you can only acquire with practice. Using a consistent and rigid workflow, you’ll master this most important part of your overall image processing. Following is a quick review of the steps to making color and tonal adjustments to your nature images:
1. Open an image in Photoshop.
2. Save the image as a .PSD file. Make sure you save your image to a Working Images folder.
3. Duplicate the background layer.
4. Evaluate the image and formulate a plan of attack.
5. If needed, correct the exposure and shadows.
6. Create a Levels adjustment layer.
7. Create a Curves adjustment layer.
8. If needed, create a Color Balance adjustment layer.
9. Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
10. Save your .PSD file to your Working Images folder.
1. Open an image in Photoshop. If your image is in raw format, using Bridge, open an image in Camera Raw, make adjustments, and then click the Open button. The image will open in Photoshop. If the image is in JPEG or TIFF format, browse the image thumbnails and double-click on an image to open it directly in Photoshop.
2. Save the image as a PSD file. After you open an image in Photoshop, the file is still in the digital format native to the camera that took the picture. For example, if you took the image in raw format and converted it in Camera Raw before opening it in Photoshop, the image would still be in the raw format taken, such as .NEF for a Nikon digital camera or .CR2 for a Canon model. Saving the image to another folder in Photoshop format is the best method for keeping your images organized and your original image preserved. Select File, Save As or press Shift+Ctrl+S (Shift+Command+S on a Mac). The Save As window, shown in Figure 11.1, gives you the choices to select a folder, change the filename if you choose, and most importantly, change the file format. Select the folder to which you want to save your working file, and then click the Format selection box to select Photoshop (*.PSD, *.PDD) as the file format. Click the Save button to save your working file.
3. Duplicate the background layer. As you’ve discovered, I’m a stickler for making backups and protecting original files…and layers. As discussed in Chapter 10, images are adjusted and edited in separate layers. When you open an image, all the image information is contained in the background layer. You should create a new layer to contain every color adjustment, tonal adjustment, and edit separately. By creating separate layers, you ensure that you can always go back to that particular layer and make changes without affecting the other layers. You can also delete a layer if you don’t like an adjustment you made, and then keep the original image intact. When you’ve finished making changes to your image, you’ll have a number of layers, each with its own adjustment or edit.
Backing up the original background layer is just my particular best practice for protecting the background layer. To back up and protect the original background layer, choose Layer, Duplicate.
Figure 11.1 The Save As window
4. Evaluate the image and formulate a plan of attack. Before diving in and beginning to make adjustments and edits to an image, I always sit back and view it first, evaluating the image. This important step ensures that you are making a plan of attack for the image.
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One tool offered by Photoshop is Variations. Variations is found in the Image,Adjustments menu and can be a very useful tool in helping you evaluate your image.
Variations, shown in Figure 11.2, allows you to make changes to an image’s shadows, midtones, highlights, and saturation by viewing different variations of the image and clicking on those variations to make changes. As a nature photographer, I like Variations because it gives me a visual cue for what changes I might want to make during my color and tonal adjustments. However, I usually don’t use Variations to make my changes, just to view different possibilities.
Figure 11.2 Using Variations to help evaluate an image
5. Correct the exposure. A recent addition to Photoshop with the release of CS2, the Exposure adjustment (Image, Adjustments, Exposure) gives you the ability to correct JPEG or TIFF images that are overexposed or underexposed. If you shoot and process raw images, you won’t need to take this step.
The Exposure adjustment in Camera Raw is non-destructive and is a better adjustment to use, but only if you shoot raw images. If your image is a JPEG or TIFF that is in need of exposure correction, consider using the Exposure adjustment to make changes.
6. Adjust shadows. Another addition to Photoshop with the release of CS2 is the Shadows adjustment (Image, Adjustments, Shadows). Like the Exposure adjustment, if you shoot and process raw images in Camera Raw, you won’t need to use the Shadows adjustment in Photoshop.
7. Create a Levels adjustment layer. The first step in my overall adjustments is adjusting levels. Levels adjustments make corrections to the tonal values of an image by fine-tuning the colors in the highlights, midtones, and shadows.
You can create adjustment layers by clicking on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon that’s located on the bottom of the Layers palette, and then choosing which type of layer to create.
8. Create a Curves adjustment layer. To avoid using the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to increase or decrease the contrast in an image, I strongly recommend you use the Curves adjustment layer to make fine adjustments to contrast and the tonal values in an image. Using Curves is much less destructive than using the Brightness/Contrast adjustment and it allows for adjustments on up to 14 points of the tonal range of an image.
9. Create a Color Balance layer.You only need to do this if your white balance is out of whack for your image, especially if the original wasn’t processed in Camera Raw.
10. Create a Saturation adjustment layer. My favorite adjustment can be found in the Saturation layer.
Saturation allows you to increase color in your image. To make your images “pop” with some color, click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button on the Layers palette and choose Hue/Saturation.
11. Save the image. After making adjustments, save the image by choosing File, Save or by clicking the Save button on the Option bar.
Correcting Exposure
If you’ve followed the steps I just described by opening an image in Photoshop and then duplicating the background layer, you’re ready to make any exposure corrections that might need to be done to your image. As you recall, Camera Raw has a great exposure adjustment, but not all of us shoot in the raw format. If you need to make a correction to an underexposed or overexposed image, follow these steps:
1. Open the Exposure adjustment. Choose Image, Adjustments, Exposure. The Exposure Adjustment window, shown in Figure 11.3, will appear.
2. Adjust the exposure. The image shown is underexposed by about a half stop. Using the Exposure adjustment, you can increase the exposure by moving the slider slightly to the right. You’ll notice that you don’t have to move the slider far to get results.
Figure 11.3 The Exposure adjustment and the Layers palette
3. Adjust the offset. The Offset slider will change the shadow areas of the image without affecting the highlights. In real-speak, this means you can increase the contrast (darken it) by moving the slider slightly to the left, and you can decrease the contrast by moving the slider slightly to the right. Again, you only have to move the slider in small increments to make any change to the image. I usually leave this adjustment set to its default.
4. Adjust the gamma. Gamma is an adjustment to the midtones of the image. I rarely use this slider in the Exposure adjustment, but you can experiment with your results by moving the slider slightly to the left to decrease the gamma or slightly to the right to increase the gamma of the image.
5. Click OK. To save your changes, click the OK button, or click the Cancel button if you would rather not use the changes made with the Exposure adjustment.
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To compare the changes you’ve made to the exposure, select and deselect the Preview
check box. If you like the version of the image without the Exposure adjustment, just
click Cancel.
Adjusting Shadow/Highlights
The Shadows adjustment (Image, Adjustments, Shadows) lets you lighten or darken the shadow areas of an image. I’ll often use it to darken backgrounds, such as in photos of foliage where I want fall color in the leaves to stand out against a darker background. When I’m shooting raw, I’ll use the Camera Raw Shadows adjustment, but if you’re shooting JPEG or TIFF images from your digital camera, you’ll want to give the Photoshop Shadows adjustment a whirl. To adjust shadows in Photoshop:
1. Create a new layer. Because the Shadows adjustment isn’t an option on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button in the Layers palette, you can simply right-click on the background layer and choose Duplicate Layer to duplicate the background layer. Make sure you name the layer Shadows, like in the Layers palette shown in Figure 11.4. If you have already made some adjustments, you can create a new layer that combines all the previous layers into one by pressing Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E on your PC or Shift+Command+Option+E on a Mac.
Figure 11.4 Creating a Shadow/Highlights layer
Figure 11.5 Adjusting Shadow/Highlights
2. Adjust Shadow/Highlights. The Shadow/Highlight window, shown in Figure 11.5, shows the Shadows slider and the Highlights slider. You can check the Show More Options box in the lowerleft corner of the window to view more options. I rarely ever use them, but you can experiment with
the more advanced options. Move the Shadows slider to the left to darken the shadow areas of the image, or move the slider to the right to lighten the shadow areas of the image. My goal was to correct the exposure in the shadow areas while adjusting highlights in this image to compensate for some overexposed areas at the top of the tree. If you noticed, the image has a nasty magenta cast. I’ll be correcting that later in the workflow.
3. Click OK. If you don’t want to save your changes (this can be a complex adjustment, so sometimes you won’t want to save your changes), just click the Cancel button.
Levels Adjustment Layer
Creating a Levels adjustment layer is often the first step I take after opening raw files in Photoshop. The Levels adjustment makes corrections to the tonal values of an image by fine-tuning the colors in the highlights, midtones, and shadows. If I’m processing a raw file in Camera Raw, I have already adjusted white balance, exposure, and shadows. My next step is creating a Levels adjustment layer. If I’m processing JPEGs or TIFF images, this step might come after Exposure or
Shadow/Highlights.
1. Create a Levels adjustment layer. Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button located on the bottom of the Layers palette, as shown in Figure 11.6.
2. As shown in Figure 11.7, the Levels adjustment window shows you a graphical representation of the color distribution (red, green and blue channels) of the image, also referred to as the histogram. Below the histogram
are three sliders.
The slider on the left controls the shadow portions of the image, the middle slider controls the midtones (also called the gamma) of the image, and the slider on the right controls the amount of color in the highlight areas of the image. With the default channel set to RGB, move the left and right sliders to the point of the histogram at which pixels begin to show up clearly. Moving the middle slider to the right increases contrast in the image by darkening the highlight areas. Experiment with moving the sliders until you get the result you want. Don’t forget to have the Preview box checked!
Figure 11.6 Creating the Levels adjustment layer
Figure 11.7 The Levels adjustment window
3. Select a channel. Keep the channel selection as RGB so you can correct levels for the entire image (all three color channels—Red, Green, and Blue) at the same time. As you become more familiar with adjusting levels in Photoshop, experiment with changing the channel selection to the Red, Green, or Blue channels and adjusting them individually. If you are a new user of Photoshop, keep the RGB Channel selected.
4. Adjust the shadows. View the histogram and slide the Shadows input slider (the one on the left) to the right until it gets to where the curve begins to appear in the histogram. With Preview selected, you can view the image changes as you move the slider. A histogram provides a snapshot of the tonal range of an image. The histogram shows how much detail is in the shadow area on the left, in the midtones in the middle, and in the highlights on the right. Histogram data is different for every image. For many images, the histogram curve begins all the way to the left, where no Shadow input-slider adjustment is needed.
5. Adjust the highlights. Slide the Highlights input slider (the one on the right) to the left until it gets to where the Highlights curve begins.
6. Adjust the midtones. Move the Midtones input slider (the one in the middle—this is the one you’ll use most) to the right slightly, checking the image for improved color saturation and contrast. You can often improve the appearance of an image by using the Midtones slider to darken the midtones.
7. Click OK to complete the Levels adjustment. If you are not satisfied with the effects of your Levels adjustment, just click on the Cancel button.
Curves Adjustment Layer
When you adjust the tonal range of an image using Levels, you make only three adjustments: shadows, midtones (gamma), and highlights. The Curves adjustment allows for up to 14 different points of adjustment throughout the tonal range. Make a habit of using the Curves adjustment to finish any fine-tuning of tonal adjustments.
To adjust an image’s tonality and increase some contrast at the same time using the Curves adjustment layer, follow these steps:
1. Create a Curves adjustment layer. Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button in the Layers palette and then choose Curves, as shown in Figure 11.8.
Figure 11.8 Creating a Curves adjustment layer
2. Increase the grid lines. Increase the number of grid lines to provide a more precise grid. Press and hold the Alt key (the Option key on the Mac) while clicking inside the Curves grid to increase the number of grid lines. Figure 11.9 shows the Curves grid with increased grid lines.
Figure 11.9 The Curves adjustment window
3. Make tonal adjustments. Click on a point of the curve line and drag it to the desired grid point or click Auto. To adjust the highlight areas of the image, drag the curve line that is closer to the topright of the grid. To adjust the shadow areas of the image, click and drag the curve line at the bottom-left of the grid. Drag the curve upward and left to brighten, downward and right to darken. Experiment with creating adjustments for shadows, midtones, and highlights. I find that creating a slight S curve works best for most images.
4. Click OK to save your changes. If you don’t like the results of using the Curves adjustment, just click the Cancel button, and the layer will not be created.
Color Balance Adjustment Layer
Now is the time to get rid of that nasty magenta color cast in our tree photo. The rock that appears in the background should be more red, and the tree is too blue. Normally, I would have eliminated this color cast in Camera Raw using the White Balance adjustment (the image was shot with an incorrect white balance, which makes for a good example, don’t you think?), but if you’re shooting JPEG or TIFF, you don’t have the luxury of that adjustment; there isn’t one in Photoshop.
The Color Balance adjustment accomplishes changes to color in your images like we used to in the chemical darkroom. When making prints with a color enlarger, we had to manually insert color filters consisting of cyan, magenta, yellow, red, green, and blue. Depending on the combination of filters you used in the enlarger, you were able to somewhat control the color output of the print. These adjustments are automatically made when you take rolls of film to the corner store to be developed on their expensive computerized equipment (either in-house or sent out). The Photoshop Color Balance adjustment gives the photographer finer control over color than any computer adjustment can calculate; our own eyes give us more of an interpretive understanding of color than any computerized whiz-bang machine ever could.
To make color correction using the Color Balance adjustment:
1. Create a new Color Balance adjustment layer. Click on the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button on the Layers palette, as shown in Figure 11.10.
2. Make color adjustments. This is the fun part. This is the part where you’ll need just a little practice balancing your color in other types of images. The Color Balance adjustment gives you three sliders (see Figure 11.11)—the Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, and Yellow/Blue sliders. By judging the test image we’ve been using throughout this chapter, I’ve
Figure 11.10 Creating a Color Balance adjustment layer
Figure 11.11 Making color changes with the Color Balance adjustment layer
already evaluated the image and found that it has way too much magenta in the background rock area; it should be more “reddish” in color. The tree is also off color, containing blue where it needs more red. The three sliders allow you to readjust color from their opposites (Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, and Yellow/Blue).
I’ll first adjust the Cyan/Red slider by adding red to the image, then I’ll add green to the image using the Magenta/Green slider, and then I’ll reduce the blue by increasing yellow with the Yellow/Blue slider. The results of making these adjustments put my image in more of a color balance.
3. Click OK to save changes.
Finishing the Hue/Saturation Layer
The next steps in the overall-adjustment workflow are to add some visual “pop” to your image, to add color saturation to make final color adjustments, and to increase vibrancy in the image. Hey, I like color! You can also make final corrections to color if your image still contains a slight color hue, like in the example. With any overall adjustment, sometimes less is more; you might need to make only a slight correction. When adjusting color saturation, for example, sometimes all you have to do is nudge the slider to the right until you see the colors pop a little. “Easy does it” is the rule if you don’t want to make your images appear unrealistic. For our test image, I still think there is a little too much blue in the image, especially in the wood part of the tree. Let’s fix that and add some pop to the image. To create a Hue/Saturation layer, follow these steps:
1. Create a Hue/Saturation layer. Click the Create New Fill or Adjustment Layer button on the Layers palette, and then choose Hue/Saturation, as shown in Figure 11.12. The Hue/Saturation dialog box will appear.
2. Make sure Preview is selected. You want to be sure you see these changes before you apply them.
3. Adjust the hue of the image. Move the Hue slider to the right to increase the green hue in the image. Move the Hue slider to the left to increase the reds. Figure 11.13 shows the Hue/Saturation window.
4. Adjust the saturation. Increase image saturation by moving the Saturation slider slightly to the right. As a rule of thumb, increase the saturation until you see the colors start to pop. Be careful not to add too much color saturation; it can make certain colors in the image blow out, or lose detail as they’re overpowered by the color. If some areas look blown out, back off your adjustment slightly until you’re pleased with the results.
You can use the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to adjust individual color hues or saturation amounts. This is an advanced method of color-correcting your images. Just click on the Edit field and choose an individual color to adjust. Experiment with changing the hue and/or saturation of each color to see the results. You might find that adjusting the Master (the default setting) alone can work just fine for your photos.
Figure 11.12 Creating the Hue/Saturation layer
Figure 11.13 Adjusting Hue/Saturation in the image to make final color corrections
For this image, I decreased the saturation in the blue color, increased some saturation in the remaining colors, and darkened the yellow channel a bit.
5. Check the gamut warning. Choose View, Gamut Warning. For our test photo of the tree, I actually had to decrease some saturation in the red channel to bring the image more within the gamut of my selected output (but then I increased the saturation of some other colors).
6. Click OK to save your settings. Figure 11.14 shows the original image compared to the image after I made all the adjustments illustrated in this workflow—Exposure, Shadow/Highlights, Levels, Curves, Color Balance, and finally Hue/Saturation. It’s quite a difference! You can see that using a structured color and tonal correction workflow can do wonders for images that are out of whack when it comes to color balance, and you can salvage those off-color images.
Original image Final adjusted image using the color and tonal correction workflow
Figure 11.14 The original image and the final image with the Exposure, Shadow/Highlights, Levels, Curves, Color Balance, and Hue/Saturation adjustments
applied
Summary
Adjusting color and tonal values of an image is a talent you can only acquire with practice. Using a consistent and rigid workflow, you’ll master this most important part of your overall image processing. Following is a quick review of the steps to making color and tonal adjustments to your nature images:
1. Open an image in Photoshop.
2. Save the image as a .PSD file. Make sure you save your image to a Working Images folder.
3. Duplicate the background layer.
4. Evaluate the image and formulate a plan of attack.
5. If needed, correct the exposure and shadows.
6. Create a Levels adjustment layer.
7. Create a Curves adjustment layer.
8. If needed, create a Color Balance adjustment layer.
9. Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
10. Save your .PSD file to your Working Images folder.