Some levels work...

[Seb]

Yesterday we went for a short road trip to Ottawa. I didn't photographed much things but one scene grabbed my attention. I usually avoid to shoot in the harsh light of the early afternoon but that was the first time in 10 years that I was visiting the city and we were short in time so waiting for better lightning wasn't an option.

Moreover, I used the threshold command to identifiy the darker and lighter areas of the pictures, sampled them and manually ajusted levels. It's the second time ever that I try this approach and first time ever with a color picture. The first picture is the original one and the second is the ajusted one.

What are you thinking about the tweaking here? Any suggestion regarding how to improve it?

1/250 sec f/8 iso 200

Seb

[Yoyo Szeto]

Hi Seb,
The second pic is much better. It has a wider dynamic range and the colours are more saturated.
All the best.
yoyo

[Elysian]

Nice improvements Seb ;)

Btw, I wrote earlier in a different thread about an alternative method. It's using the auto button in the levels tool. What is does is finding the darkest and lightest areas for you, depending on the clipping values. You can change the clipping values by clicking on the options button in levels. If you don't see an options button, just hold the Alt key and one will appear.

The "image/adjustyments/auto levels" tool works the same, but the problem with that command is that you don't have any control over the midtones like with the gray (gamma) slider in levels.
The threshold method can give you more control, but it's also easier to do something wrong, since you have to sample the dark/light areas very precise.

Experiment and try to find out what works best for you Seb in any specific situation.

Btw, the middle slider can be very useful to remove color casts.

Look at my example; a shot of my brother and me taken with some of these crappy point and click cameras some 30 years ago. The middle slider in levels can be used to sample a color in the image that you consider medium gray. I sampled the soil. What does medium gray look like? Open Photoshop, open new document, go to edit/fill and select in the box named "use:" 50% gray and click ok.

The moment you sample something close to 50% gray in any image, photoshop will correct the colors in the whole image so that the sampled area is close to 50% gray. This is a quick way to remove a color cast. Even better if you have a 50% gray reference card in your original shot (outside the main focus area), but we can't have it all can we?

[Seb]

Hi Seb,
The second pic is much better. It has a wider dynamic range and the colours are more saturated.
All the best.
yoyo

Hey Yoyo,

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I am glad to know that I got it right.

Seb

[Seb]

Nice improvements Seb ;)

Btw, I wrote earlier in a different thread about an alternative method. It's using the auto button in the levels tool. What is does is finding the darkest and lightest areas for you, depending on the clipping values. You can change the clipping values by clicking on the options button in levels. If you don't see an options button, just hold the Alt key and one will appear.

The "image/adjustyments/auto levels" tool works the same, but the problem with that command is that you don't have any control over the midtones like with the gray (gamma) slider in levels.
The threshold method can give you more control, but it's also easier to do something wrong, since you have to sample the dark/light areas very precise.

Experiment and try to find out what works best for you Seb in any specific situation.

Btw, the middle slider can be very useful to remove color casts.

Look at my example; a shot of my brother and me taken with some of these crappy point and click cameras some 30 years ago. The middle slider in levels can be used to sample a color in the image that you consider medium gray. I sampled the soil. What does medium gray look like? Open Photoshop, open new document, go to edit/fill and select in the box named "use:" 50% gray and click ok.

The moment you sample something close to 50% gray in any image, photoshop will correct the colors in the whole image so that the sampled area is close to 50% gray. This is a quick way to remove a color cast. Even better if you have a 50% gray reference card in your original shot (outside the main focus area), but we can't have it all can we?

Hi Joe,

Thank you for the imput. I will try the auto function as well to see what it can do. I guess that I have encountered beginner luck with the threshould command, the darkest and lighter areas of the picture were very easy to identify (they would clearly stand out of the rest of the picture). Ànyway, I am glad to know that I got this right.

The improvement that you have achieved in your example is truly impressive, it makes the picture significantly more pleasing.

regards

Seb