About Levels adjustments
The Levels dialog box is a powerful
tonal and color-adjustment tool. You can make levels adjustments
in the entire image or a selected portion. (To access the dialog
box, choose Enhance > Adjust Lighting >
Levels.)
Levels dialog box
- A.
- Channels to adjust color
- B.
- Shadow
values
- C.
- Middle tones
- D.
- Highlight
values
You can do any of the following with the Levels dialog box:
Set the shadow and highlight values to make sure that
your image uses the full tonal range.
Adjust the brightness of the image’s middle tones without
affecting the shadow and highlight values.
Fix a color cast by making grays neutral. You can also enhance
an image by adding a slight color cast, for example, by adding a
warming effect on a sunset.
Target shadow and highlight RGB values if you are preparing
images for commercial printing.
When you work with Levels, you can work directly on the image
pixels or through an adjustment layer. Adjustment layers give you
flexibility in the following ways:
You can modify an adjustment at any time by double-clicking
the adjustment layer to reopen the Levels dialog box.
You can reduce the effect of an adjustment by lowering the
adjustment layer’s opacity in the Layers palette.
You can stack adjustment layers to make multiple adjustments
without degrading the image because of too many successive adjustments.
You can use the adjustment layer’s layer mask to confine
an adjustment to a portion of your image.
