Adobe Photoshop for Professionals, Intermediate Course

Session 02, published Dec 2024

What can you do with Photoshop?
© copyright by Peter Mock

Image Balance - There are a number of different tools in Photoshop that we can
Adjustment of use to improve or adjust exposure, brightness and colour.
Brightness & The quality of these tools range from simply and straight forward
Contrast for quick fixes to professional with a high degree of control.
I want to introduce you to three of these tools:
Brightness/Contrast, Levels and Curves.

Brightness/Contrast We begin with the Brightness/Contrast tool.

Let’s keep a non-destructive workflow and apply an adjustment

layer with the Brightness/Contrast tool. That way we can still
make changes later without compromising our original image.
Let me walk you through the different controls.

First, we have an Auto button that does

a decent job … sometimes! Try it out.
If you don’t like the result hit the reset
button and use the sliders manually.
Brightness is straightforward; drag to
the left and it darkens the image, drag
to the right and it brightens the image.
Often when we change the brightness
we also want to modify the contrast.
Find the right balance for your image
and compare it with the original.
A higher contrast increases saturation in
some areas at the cost of detail in others.

© copyright Peter Mock 1 of 12

Detail/Quality vs Be mindful that you do not exaggerate the settings otherwise
Contrast you might loose details or burn out some areas of your image.
There is only so much adjustment your image can take.
When you make changes always check and zoom into critical
areas with low detail, high and low exposure to check on the
quality. The higher the image quality the better the situation is.
The Brightness/Contrast tool is rather a simple tool but it has
improved over the last years and there is no need to revert to
the old version. So keep the legacy button un-ticked.
Remember you want to improve brightness and contrast, but
also maintain good detail in the highlights and the shadows.

Two of the most powerful tools for changing contrast and colours
are levels and curves. Let's Have a look at how we can work with
Levels Levels to modify the brightness and contrast in a photograph.

When you add a levels adjustment layer from the bottom of the
layers panel, you can see all of the options in the properties
Histogram panel, including that same histogram. One thing you are going to
notice is how much more
complicated this filter is
compared to brightness/
contrast where we basically
had only two sliders.
In our histogram here we
have a slider for dark tones,
one for mid-tones and
another for the highlights.
If we look at the histogram
we can see that we have
a lot of information
in between.

© copyright Peter Mock 2 of 12

 Often we have gaps on the left and
the right of the histogram.

As you can see we have 3 sliders;

one on the left - the dark slider and
right - the bright slider and one in
the middle - the midpoint slider.
You can drag these sliders.

Contrast The definition of Contrast is the

relationship between the darkest
darks and the lightest lights.
If you make the darks darker and the lights lighter you are
increasing the contrast in your image.

Move the slider on the right, which affects the brightest tones
and also do the same on the left side that affects the darker
areas of the image. Basically, you want to bring them into where
there is some information showing up on the histogram.
What about the middle slider?
It points at the middle contrast of pixels in our image, actually
the most important part. This slider affects the brightness of the
image because you shift the middle ground either to the dark
or the bright side. Simplified we can darken or brighten the
image. You can do that as well with the left and the right slider
but much more at the cost of detail because you cut into the
histogram whereas if you move the middle slider you shift the
entire spectrum without cutting any areas out.
Gamma The middle slider is also referred to as Gamma value.

Dynamic Range If the Dynamic Range of our image is a bit flat, it is because
there aren't values in neither the pure black area, nor in the
highlights or white area. In other words the image is not at its
Auto Button best contrast. In order to fix that you can click on the auto
button, to have Photoshop automatically set the black and
Eye Droppers white points for you. Alternatively you can use the
Black Point & eyedroppers on the left to set the black, mid and white
White Point points in your image as a quick solution. But be mindful if
Photoshop has moved the black point or the white point triangle
a little bit too far, it's actually clipping some of the values in your
image which is not good.
Also the eyedroppers change the colours as well!
For example if you select an area that has a cyan tone with
the mid tone eyedropper the image will shift to a red tone
which is the opposite colour.

© copyright Peter Mock 3 of 12

Clipping Areas To control the clipping of detail hold down the option/alt key
Visual Control whilst sliding the back or white slider, and we can see which
areas of the image are being clipped.

In the levels adjustment we also have something called

Output Levels Output Sliders or Output Levels below the histogram.
These output sliders determine
what the maximum dark and light
values are. If the maximum black
output is at 0 you can go all the
way to complete black and if
maximum white output is at 255
you can go all the way to complete
white. But if you change these
values the new absolute black and
white in the image cannot exceed
these values. This can be very
useful if you want to avoid outputting
any pure blacks or whites which is the case in TV productions.

As you notice now you have far more detail and quality control
with the level tool compared to the brightness/contrast tool.

Histogram Update You can see the results in your histogram but be aware to refresh
the histogram results by clicking the update warning sign.

In addition with levels you can also

Colour Balance work with Colour Balance and that's
something you can't do with the
brightness and contrast adjustment.
If you we are working in the default
composite RGB you are working on the
luminosity and overall contrast of the
image but you can go into each of the
red, green and blue colour channels
and work with the colour balance of
those channels individually.

© copyright Peter Mock 4 of 12

Red Channel For example in the Red Channel, if you select the midpoint slider
and drag it to the left gives the image more red and if you shift
it to the right gives the image less red and more cyan which
the opposite of red in the colour wheel. So less red equals
more cyan and the midpoint slider determines the midpoint
Red <> Cyan between that Red <> Cyan balance.
The black slider (left) brings in Cyan into the shadows and
the white slider (right) brings in Red into the highlights.
The black output slider (left) tints the image Red and the
white output slider (right) tints the highlights Cyan.

Here is an overview for all Colour Channels

Red Channel Red Channel Red <> Cyan balance

Red <> Cyan Midpoint to the left -> more Red
Midpoint to the right -> more Cyan
Black Slider (left) -> Cyan into the shadows
White Slider (right) -> Red into the highlights
Black Output Slider (left) -> Tints image Red
White Output Slider (right) -> Tints Highlights Cyan

Green Channel Green Channel Green <> Magenta balance

Green <> Magenta Midpoint to the left -> more Green
Midpoint to the right -> more Magenta
Black Slider (left) -> Magenta into the shadows
White Slider (right) -> Green into the highlights
Black Output Slider (left) -> Tints image Green
White Output Slider (right) -> Tints Highlights Magenta

Blue Channel Blue Channel Blue <> Yellow balance

Blue <> Yellow Midpoint to the left -> more Blue
Midpoint to the right -> more Yellow
Black Slider (left) -> Yellow into the shadows
White Slider (right) -> Blue into the highlights
Black Output Slider (left) -> Tints image Blue
White Output Slider (right) -> Tints Highlights Yellow

© copyright Peter Mock 5 of 12

Levels >> Levels is most useful if you are working with an image that
Low Contrast Images has low contrast with an histogram where there are no pure
white and no pure black. You can move the black and white
sliders around without clipping highlights and shadows. This is
different when you are working with an image with a balanced
histogram where the blacks are almost all the way to the black
side the whites all the way to left. When you try to move the slides
you immediately start clipping either details in the shadows or
the highlights, not good. This is where curves tool comes in.

Black, Mid & White Finding the Black, Mid (50% Grey) & White Point in an image
Point is easier in a Black and White image as it is in a colour image
since the auto-adjustment of 50% grey affects 3 colour
channels and if chosen wrongly easily shifts the colour tone of
Auto-Options the entire image. There is an advanced Auto-Option in the
Level settings that makes this process much easier. The normal
auto-level option delivers good results but if you are looking for
more elaborate results this is the way to go.

When choosing this option an

adjustment panel for various
Options for how photoshop should
Go about the selecting and relating
The black, mid and white point.
This includes also an option that
Considers the colour channels.
Have a look.

© copyright Peter Mock 6 of 12

Enhance Brightness Enhance Brightness and
and Contrast Contrast (4th from the top)
is the default setting.
The 2nd and 3rd are of
more interest:
Enhance Per Enhance Per Channel
Channel Contrast Contrast adjusts the
contrast per channel
Find Dark & Light and Find Dark & Light
Colors Colors finds the points
and expands the range.
Important is to select
Snap Neutral Snap Neutral Midtones
Midtones to avoid colour shifts.
In most cases this option
Stays but as to the first
two you need to trust
your eye. In any case that is the way it goes but with this option
you get off to a good start and then can do further adjustments.
Use your eye and try to look neutrally at the image. Ask yourself:
Trust your Eye! “What is not right? What is off? Trust your instincts.
A little caution; try to adjust the colours as much as possible in
levels and don’t jump straight to colour balance. Do that only if
there is no other alternative and apply this filter gently.

© copyright Peter Mock 7 of 12

Curves Let's take a closer look at Curves which can do everything Levels
can do. Curves has colour pickers for setting the black, mid and
white point and also a histogram … but one with a diagonal line!

The sliders on the left and right are the same as the dark
and white slider in Levels. And the far ends of the thin line in
Output Levels Curves are the equivalent to the output sliders in Levels;
bottom left end of the line moved upwards in curves has the
same effect as the left output slider in levels moved to the right;
it is making the dark point brighter. The same is for the up right
end of the line in curves and the right output slider for levels;
changing the ultimate white tone. Also the sliders in Curves
have the same function as the dark and bright sliders in levels:
Black & White Points The Black and White Points. But the Mid Point is located in the
Mid Point middle of the line. There is control for the luminosity and contrast
for the entire image just as there is for the individual colour channels.
But what is this Line and how does all of this work?
On this line you can click to add points. Once you have a point,
you can then click and drag it up which is brightening the image
or click and drag down, in order to darken it. Having multiple
points on the line (up to 16) is
the advantage of working with
Curves. Remember, Brightness
and Contrast had two controls,
Levels had a view more but
Curves offers you to take
almost complete control over
each area of the histogram.
With Curves we can set
Multiple ‘Mid Points’ Multiple ‘Mid Points’ and
we can customise the way
the image appears in so
many different ways.

© copyright Peter Mock 8 of 12

 You just want to be a little bit careful with adding and moving
points because there are a set number of values across the
dynamic range. If you pull the curve so far that it becomes flat
and there will also be flat areas in your image. Not only can you
adjust the tonality of the image using curves, you can also go
into the individual red, green, and blue channels in order to
change the colour just like in Levels but with even more
control. So for example, if you wanted to add some blue to this
image, increase the blue curve. If you wanted to decrease it,
bring it down.
But how to remove a point?
Just click and drag those off or you can always just click on the
reset button and everything is back to normal.

But there is more!

Targeted Adjustment There is a tool, which is called the Targeted Adjustment Tool,
Tool if you click on it, you can position it over different areas of the
image. You can see how a little circle on the curve line in the
histogram is moving around. This circle shows where the
underlaying image pixels are located in the histogram. But there is
more … If you get to an area and click with the Targeted
Adjustment Tool, you automatically add another point to
your curve for this area. If you want to brighten up this part of
the image, you can click and drag up. If you want to darken
this area click and drag down.
That is a level of control neither of the previous tools can offer.
Do you remember the empty gaps left and right of the the
histogram of the levels tool and how we optimised the image
contrast by closing them with left and right triangles?
As you now know you can do the same with the Curve tool. The
white point is located on the bottom left of the diagram and we
can move that to the right to where the histogram actually
begins to show and we can do that with the black point on the
right as well. That is the equivalence of doing what we did in
Levels. Once that’s done that, we can then working with the
curve area in between. But this is not necessary since you can
add points to your curve that can do that job as well.
Worth mentioning is that the Auto function along with the Auto
Auto Color Color Correction Options works the same way in Curves as it
Correction Options does with the Levels tool (see page 7).

And there is one thing that Curves can and Levels can’t, that is
De-crease Contrast De-crease Contrast.
When you get an image that has already sufficient or too much
contrast Curves is the tool of choice!

© copyright Peter Mock 9 of 12

 In curves you can make pixels brighter or darker on two axis
and you can make your brights darker and bring the darks up
together with existing detail so you can actually not only
De-crease Contrast increase contrast but also De-crease Contrast with curves!

Colour Correction The colour correction works essentially the same as in Levels
in relation to the histogram, black, white and output sliders
except that the curve/line in curves gives you more control.
A little tip, don’t try to convert the interpretation of the levels
settings to the curves interface too much. This only leads to
confusion and frankly we want a practical approach. Applying
the curve tool is easier if you follow a view simple rules.

Right Side > Bright As you can see in the histogram on the right side are the bright
Left Side > Dark pixels and the left side are the darker pixels of your image.
Check with the targeted adjustment tool to familiarise yourself.

© copyright Peter Mock 10 of 12

Add Brightness > If you want to Add Brightness to an area set a point on your curve
Up or Left and move it Up or to the Left.

Darken > If you want Darken (Subtract Brightness) the area move the point
Down or Right Down or to the Right.

It’s that simple!

The same principle of adding and subtracting guides with the

adjustments in the Colour Channels.

Red <> Cyan Red Channel Red <> Cyan

Add Red > Up / Left If you want to Add Red to an area set a point on your Red curve
and move it Up or to the Left.
Subtract Red If you want Subtract Red / Increase Cyan in the area move the
/ Add Cyan > point Down or to the Right.
Down / Right

Green <> Magenta Green Channel Green <> Magenta

Add Green > Up / Left If you want to Add Green to an area set a point on your Red curve
and move it Up or to the Left.
Subtract Green If you want Subtract Green / Increase Magenta in the area move
/ Add Magenta > the point Down or to the Right.
Down or Right

Blue <> Yellow Blue Channel Blue <> Yellow

Add Blue > Up / Left If you want to Add Blue to an area set a point on your Red curve
and move it Up or to the Left.
Subtract Red If you want Subtract Blue / Increase Yellow in the area move the
/ Add Cyan > point Down or to the Right.
Down / Right
Give it a try, as you know practice makes a master!

Just remember how colours are relating in the colour wheel:

Red <> Cyan

Green <> Magenta
Blue <> Yellow
© copyright Peter Mock 11 of 12
 Of course if there are severe colour tints in an image I would
Selective Colour use the Selective Colour tool which is very easy to apply.

As you can see in curves we have all the same controls as in

Levels, it's just that we can get more specific. And that's why
many people or many professionals really prefer to work with
Curves versus Levels.

© copyright Peter Mock 12 of 12