Photoshop Elements How-To

Using Levels: 

Levels is the best way to correct tone and contrast of a photo and is usually the first step in correcting a photo. Levels is found under Enhance > Adjust Brightness/Contrast > Levels

Levels means “levels of light” which are displayed on a Histogram or graph showing how light levels are distributed in a photo from pure black to pure white. The extreme left end of the graph represents black pixels and the extreme right end represents white pixels, with other shades of lightness in between.

Setting highlights and shadows:

If the histogram does not go all the way to the right or you have just a flat line, then you need to set new highlight point.  Drag the right triangle slider to the left, to where the main part of the graph begins, or the “foot of the hill”. If you go too far, pull it back to the right.  You will see the changes on the monitor.

Do the same thing at the other end of the histogram by dragging the black slider to the right to the “foot of the hill” which will deepen shadow/dark areas.

After doing the above, if the image is still too light or dark, you can correct the overall  brightness  making the image brighter or darker using the Levels midtone slider.  Move it to the right to make your image darker and to the left to make it brighter.  When your photo is adjusted to your liking, click OK.

Adjust Color

The Color Cast feature can also be used to remove color casts.  Choose Enhance>Adjust Color>Color Cast to bring up the dialog box. This prompts you to click on the image using a tiny dropper tool, onto a white, black or grey area. You may need to make several attempts before it’s fully corrected though. It’s important to remember that even a slight repositioning of your dropper tool will result in a completely different color change, but keep on clicking until you find the right balance.

Improving Color Saturation

Washed-out colors can be enhanced using the Saturation slider. Choose Enhance>Adjust Color>Hue/Saturation and move the saturation slider to the right. Don’t go too far with this adjustment, or your image will look start to look overdone or posterized. Don’t touch the Lightness slider, or you’ll get a bad result.

Saturation can also be used to decrease saturation of an image, particularly one color that is too distracting such as skin that is too red or even correct a color cast. Instead of using the Master (all colors) in the selection box, click on the down triangle and select individual colors to saturate or desaturate, such as red, blue, etc. I do this frequently for skin that is too red. Sometimes I will also saturate the yellow a little after desaturating the red skin tones. Normally the adjustments will be very small, less than + or - 5. You can also use the green slider to make greenery in a sceen more saturated if it is washed out by sunlight.