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Levels and Curves: Photoshop's Left and Right Ventricles Pump Luminance

Submitted by LouBrz on 8 February 2011 - 6:15am.

Simply put, the Levels and Curves adjustments allow you to control the luminance of an image on a channel-by-channel basis. With these features, you can correct brightness, contrast, and color casts. They are essential commands and the two most powerful color correction facilities in Photoshop. The Levels command offers relative simplicity, while the Curves command gives you more control. Use one or the other as needed to adjust your images, but you'll never need both in a single project. In this article, we'll look at the features of the Levels command and then look at how the Curves command expands upon its capabilities.

Photoshop levels curves lead

This article is compiled from Chapter 14 of Deke's video course Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced. Like the last tip, it's packed with useful information, but there's even more value in viewing the actual chapter on lynda.com. Read more » 

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Martini Hour 058, In Which Colleen Levels Out

Submitted by colleen on 25 March 2010 - 1:12am.

Did you ever use a Photoshop feature on a regular basis---perhaps with the guidance of Deke in a book exercise or video? And although you get the results you want, you have no earthy idea why they're working the way their working? Or maybe a slightly earthly idea, but much remains a mystery. Possibly this has happened to me with regard to the Levels command. So this week, comfy in the lounge, I dared to reveal my almost complete ignorance and asked Deke to introduce me personally to Photoshop Top 40, Feature #9, aka: the Levels command.

What are "levels" exactly? You find it under the Image > Adjustments menu in Photoshop, so you know it's one of those global tonal adjustments. But what is it controlling? Well, luminance, yes. But luminance on a channel-by-channel basis. And what does that mean? And how can we harness that control to fix an image? Even those of you who already know what you want to do with levels will have a better idea of why you want do it after this conversation.

Here's what you'll learn from this week's show: Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #9: Levels

Submitted by deke on 16 February 2010 - 12:15am.
Feature #9: Levels

Feature #9 is my favorite adjustment command: Levels. Adjusted only slightly since its introduction in Version 1.0, this seminal feature lets you set the black and white points, as well as correct the midtones without harming either. It refrains from clipping colors unless you tell it to. It boasts Photoshop's first on-board histogram. And it works as well in CMYK and Lab as in RGB.

(Well there's another clue for you all.)

We had nearly twice as many entries last week as the week before, with 19 of you correctly guessing Levels or some variation. The winner is earthrat, whose guessed "Using Levels to work." Congrats to earthrat!

Now it's time to guess Feature #8. Hint: It's the ultimate convenience tool. All members have been sent an email invitation with a URL to enter the contest. (No direct URL this time around.) Join dekeOnline now to receive a reminder and an invitation to next week's contest!
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