Optimizing Grayscale with Levels
Ben Willmore
Lessons
Introduction To Adobe Photoshop
04:05 2Bridge vs. Lightroom
06:39 3Tour of Photoshop Interface
18:21 4Overview of Bridge Workspace
07:42 5Overview of Lightroom Workspace
11:21 6Lightroom Preferences - Saving Documents
08:19 7How To Use Camera Raw in Adobe Photoshop 2020
05:10 8Overview of Basic Adjustment Sliders
13:09Developing Raw Images
30:33 10Editing with the Effects and HLS Tabs
09:12 11How to Save Images
03:37 12Using the Transform Tool
04:48 13Making Selections in Adobe Photoshop 2020
06:03 14Selection Tools
05:55 15Combining Selection Tools
07:37 16Using Automated Selection Tools
17:34 17Quick Mask Mode
05:07 18Select Menu Essentials
21:28 19Using Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020
13:00 20Align Active Layers
07:29 21Creating a New Layer
06:15 22Creating a Clipping Mask
03:02 23Using Effects on Layers
11:24 24Using Adjustment Layers
16:44 25Using the Shape Tool
04:39 26Create a Layer Mask Using the Selection Tool
04:39 27Masking Multiple Images Together
15:15 28Using Layer Masks to Remove People
10:50 29Using Layer Masks to Replace Sky
10:04 30Adding Texture to Images
09:11 31Layering to Create Realistic Depth
05:35 32Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020
05:29 33Optimizing Grayscale with Levels
10:59 34Adjusting Levels with a Histogram
03:37 35Understanding Curves
06:18 36Editing an Image Using Curves
18:41 37Editing with Shadows/Highlights Adjustment
07:19 38Dodge and Burn Using Quick Mask Mode
07:14 39Editing with Blending Modes
08:04 40Color Theory
05:59 41Curves for Color
16:52 42Hue and Saturation Adjustments
08:59 43Isolating Colors Using Hue/Saturation Adjustment
13:33 44Match Colors Using Numbers
16:59 45Adjusting Skin Tones
05:25 46Retouching Essentials In Adobe Camera Raw
10:52 47Retouching with the Spot Healing Brush
07:53 48Retouching with the Clone Stamp
06:51 49Retouching with the Healing Brush
04:34 50Retouching Using Multiple Retouching Tools
13:07 51Extending an Edge with Content Aware
03:42 52Clone Between Documents
13:19 53Crop Tool
10:07 54Frame Tool
02:59 55Eye Dropper and Color Sampler Tools
08:14 56Paint Brush Tools
13:33 57History Brush Tool
06:27 58Eraser and Gradient Tools
03:06 59Brush Flow and Opacity Settings
04:17 60Blur and Shape Tools
11:06 61Dissolve Mode
09:24 62Multiply Mode
15:29 63Screen Mode
14:08 64Hard Light Mode
14:54 65Hue, Saturation, and Color Modes
11:31 66Smart Filters
11:32 67High Pass Filter
13:40 68Blur Filter
05:59 69Filter Gallery
07:42 70Adaptive Wide Angle Filter
04:43 71Combing Filters and Features
04:45 72Select and Mask
20:04 73Manually Select and Mask
08:08 74Creating a Clean Background
21:19 75Changing the Background
13:34 76Smart Object Overview
08:37 77Nested Smart Objects
09:55 78Scale and Warp Smart Objects
09:08 79Replace Contents
06:55 80Raw Smart Objects
10:20 81Multiple Instances of a Smart Object
12:59 82Creating a Mockup Using Smart Objects
05:42 83Panoramas
13:15 84HDR
11:20 85Focus Stacking
04:02 86Time-lapse
11:18 87Light Painting Composite
08:05 88Remove Moire Patterns
06:11 89Remove Similar Objects At Once
09:52 90Remove Objects Across an Entire Image
05:46 91Replace a Repeating Pattern
06:50 92Clone from Multiple Areas Using the Clone Source Panel
10:27 93Remove an Object with a Complex Background
07:49 94Frequency Separation to Remove Staining and Blemishes
12:27 95Warping
11:03 96Liquify
14:02 97Puppet Warp
12:52 98Displacement Map
10:36 99Polar Coordinates
07:19 100Organize Your Layers
11:02 101Layer Styles: Bevel and Emboss
02:59 102Layer Style: Knockout Deep
12:34 103Blending Options: Blend if
13:18 104Blending Options: Colorize Black and White Image
06:27 105Layer Comps
08:30 106Black-Only Shadows
06:07 107Create a Content Aware Fill Action
08:46 108Create a Desaturate Edges Action
07:42 109Create an Antique Color Action
13:52 110Create a Contour Map Action
10:20 111Faux Sunset Action
07:20 112Photo Credit Action
05:54 113Create Sharable Actions
07:31 114Common Troubleshooting Issues Part 1
10:23 115Common Troubleshooting Issues Part 2
07:57 116Image Compatibility with Lightroom
03:29 117Scratch Disk Is Full
06:02 118Preview Thumbnail
02:10Lesson Info
Optimizing Grayscale with Levels
And now let's think about what would I do if I've already adjusted an image with camera and then I need to do further adjustments? Well, there's a bunch of adjustments that we have available. Let's start talking about a black and white image. And let's say that this image, since it's an old picture, is one that it wasn't taken with a camera directly. Instead, this is a photographic print that was scanned, and therefore I don't have a raw file available. Well, I'd like to show you how in adjustment known as Levels works, and I'm gonna use to images to do so. We'll use this image and also use a simplified image, which is this generically known as a gray wedge. And I'm gonna start by choosing image adjustments. And here we have a bunch of adjustment choices, this images in grayscale mode. That means that Photoshopped knows it does not contain any color. If I come up here, you'll see that it's in grayscale mode and therefore any adjustments that require color become great out. If I wanted ...
to use any of those, I'd have to change the mode up here from grayscale to RGB, then everything would be available. But looking at the adjustments that do show up, let's just take a look at him. First. We have brightness and contrast with brightness and contrast. We just have to sliders. The brightness liner is gonna brighten or darken your picture in the one thing that's nice about it is watch what happens to the extremes of black and white. When I dark in the image noticed that white remains white and when I brighten the image noticed that black remains black. Therefore, if you had the full brightness range to begin with, your going to still have the full brightness range from black to white. When you're done, it's just everything that's in between. Those two will be brightened or darkened. Then we have contrast. In contrast, means how big of a difference is there between British areas in darkish areas. So if you look at areas that are relatively bright in areas that are relatively dark, if I increase, contrast will be a greater difference between the two, and therefore bright areas will get brighter in dark areas will get even darker Now there's a greater difference between bright and dark. If I reduce it. Then instead, the difference between bright and dark is gonna be more come more similar, and therefore both the bright areas and the darker is are going to get closer to middle gray. Yes, I lower this well. The problem with this is it's always thinking about an images if it has the full brightness range available. So if your image that you originally opened up was a picture of snow and the snow had no real shadows to it may just slightly shadowy areas so that the entirety of the image went from white down to about this brightness level here, that's the darkest there was in the entire photograph. Well, then, when I increased contrast, since it changes the relationship between British and darkish tones, increasing it, it's just gonna brighten that entire snow photograph because the entire images in that bright range in lowering contrast will just darken the entire snowy photograph. This doesn't allow me to really target things with precision. This is simply the simplest brightness or tonal adjustments. Now there is a check box called use legacy. There used to be a different version of brightness and contrast, one that was so basic that you almost never use it. And if you want to use the old version, you can turn on use legacy in. In that case, if I adjust brightness, every single tone in the images brightened an equal amount. So do you see what happens to black? And if I darken every single tone and the image will be darkened, an equal amount so you see what happens toe white and then, with contrast, it's going to make bright areas brighter, dark areas darker. But it'll be very easy for areas to turn solid white or solid black. And if you bring it down, it'll be much easier to get to, uh, like everything being identical for a photographic image that's not very effective. And that's what we used tohave. If he went with Photoshopped 1.0, up through photo shop. I don't remember what number but many years that's all we had for brightness and contrast. Now you mentioned that because the use legacy check box is extremely useful, just not when you're working on a photographic image. Instead, it's useful. When you're working on a mask, you can have a layer mask. We have a lesson about layer mass as part of the ultimate guide. And if I was working on that layer mask, I might want to take the entirety of whatever happens to be there in brighten or darken it, and this would be an effective way to do so. But you won't see me using brightness and contrast on any pictures unless I'm teaching an absolute beginner and Photoshopped because they usually want more control. So as you work your way down these top three choices, you get mawr, INM or control. So now let's go toe levels and see how it works with levels there a total of five adjustment sliders to work with. If you start with the upper right slider, it will force areas toe white as I bring it in towards the middle. More and more of my image will become solid white. But to truly understand the way it works, you need to pay attention to the Grady int That's right down here, this ramp that goes from black toe white and you need to look at where that slider is relative to that little bar. That bar shows you all the brightness levels you could possibly have in your picture. And as you move this slider to the left and you go straight down here, anything that's to the right of the slider in the bar at the bottom is going to turn white. And so if I were to bring it into the middle, that means go straight down from it. Anything that used to be this brightness level, my picture and anything brighter than that will be solid white. And then everything that's darker than that is going to be brightened along with it. Actually, yeah, So watch this. If I bring this in, you'll Seymour in Maura, the image becoming white because all those shades that turning white are found in this region right here. Then it just keeps h a consistent transition between all the other shades. So as they bring this up now that this shade here is white, this one is just a different from it, as it was before. And so it brightened up along with it. If I bring in the upper left slider, then it's going to force areas to black. Anything to the left of it will turn black. And when I say left of it, I mean in the Grady int at the bottom and therefore for bringing halfway in. Everything it was 50% gray or darker becomes black. Now that could be very useful. Let's say you're scanning your signature, and when you wrote your signature, used a pencil on a sheet of paper and the paper was not vividly white. It wasn't extremely bright. Instead, there had a little atonality to it. So when you scan in your signature, the paper comes in is a shade of gray in your signature comes in as a darker shade of gray. But what you want is solid white paper in a solid black signature. Well, if you brought this in, you could. You could end up getting that paper eventually to turn white because it would be in this general brightness range. Then, if your signature, let's say it was about this bright when you scanned, Ickes was in pencil. You could bring this slider over until it's beyond it, and you'd force it to black. So it being really nice way of working the middle slider, is going to force things to 50% gray. So that's why it starts out in the middle because if you go straight down from it, that's where 50% Gray has found originally. If I were to move in this direction, then what is right here? If I get it to be right above, that will end up being 50% gray. Well, this used to be darker than 50% gray. So moving in this direction will brighten your image, making what's directly below it 50% gray. If I move in the opposite direction, then something over here is gonna become 50% grade. These were originally brighter than 50%. So when I get it over here, it's gonna be darkening. Now that is very useful. When you're working with textures, we have a session within the ultimate guide that covers a feature known as blending modes. In blending modes. There's one set of modes that makes 50% go away, and so if you scanned in a texture, then you want the majority of the texture to go away. Then you want the majority the texture to be exactly 50% gray. When using those modes, will this middle slider right here if you can get it pointing at the exact shade of what's in your texture, it could be very useful. So it's really good to know how these sliders work because it's not just one adjusting normal images that you're going to be using this. It's also when you're applying textures when you're working with masks and all sorts of other things that you might want to think about this. There's two more sliders, and they're found down here at the bottom. The slider on the left, if I pull it in, is going to make what used to be white in our picture. It's gonna change it to the shade of gray. This points at so over here is white in this image, and if I were to pull this over to left, we're no longer gonna have any white. Instead, the brightest part of our picture will be whatever this points at. I bring in the opposite, one that controls how bright things are that used to be black. When you bring it in. Now black will become whatever this points at. There's a bunch of good reasons for using that. Let's say you prints on a printer that you have on your desk, and you find out that every time you print the dark part of your image, where you could see detail on screen comes out of solid black. It's just you're using cheap paper when you're using ink to print with, and that ink is absorbing into the paper. And as it does, it spreads out. Is it absorbs in in any variation there was in an area that was 98% gray, or something like that becomes solid black. Well, you could do a test. You could print an image similar to this, although you have it so all the shades or dark. So it's kind of like that. And then you could print it out and say, What's the 1st 1 of these? That actually looks different than black? And if you were to figure out how bright that shade waas, then when you're about to prepare an image to print on your printer, you could just take the slider and point it right at that shade, the darkest shade where you can still see a hint to detail. So that should give you an idea of what these sliders do. Let's use them now to adjust an image
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Noel Ice
I am an avid reader of photoshop books, and an avid watcher of photoshop tutorials. I have attended (internet) several hundred of presentations. In the course of this endeavor, I have found my own favorite photoshop websites and instructors. Creative Live is probably the bargain out there as well as among the top three internet course sites. I have to say with great enthusiasm that the best Photoshop instructor is Ben Willmore. There are many great ones, but truly, he is the best I have come across, and, as indicated above, I have watched literally 100s of tutorials on Photoshop. I have seen all of Ben's courses, I think, and among them, this one is the best by far, and that is saying a lot, because that makes this course the best course on Photoshop to be found anywhere. I am going back and watching it twice. Not only is it comprehensive, but Ben is so familiar with his subject that he is able to explain it like no other. This is crème de la crème of Photoshop classes. I have been wanting to write this review for some time because I have been so thoroughly impressed with everything about this class!
ford smith
Highly recommended if you want to take your Photoshop skills to the next level. Ben Willmore is clear, concise, and professional. He also has a good speaking voice that is not distracting but also keeps you engaged. Lastly, I would recommend that as you become more advanced, increasing the speed of the video (one of the options given on the menu)...especially if you've gone through the course once before and maybe want to watch it again. The double speed is very efficient as you become more advanced in Photoshop. Thanks for the help Ben!
a Creativelive Student
Wow. I cannot communicate the value of this course!! The true value in this course is how the instructor identifies workflows you'll need before you'll ever realize it, repeats important information without it becoming annoying, and explains the "why" behind the techniques so well that even if you forget the exact method, you can figure it out via the principles learned. Excellent value, excellent material, excellent instructor!!!