Most photos aren't perfect.
As you gain more experience with Photoshop, you'll probably start to notice some common
problems that you wish you could fix.
Luckily, there are ways to do this, even if you're not a seasoned pro.
In this video, we're going to cover everything you need to get started, including how to
adjust your levels, curves, saturation, and more.
Levels let you adjust the shadows, highlights, and midtones in your image, which are things
that every image has.
Shadows are the darkest parts, highlights are the brightest, and the midtones are everything
in between.
There are many reasons why you might use a levels adjustment.
For example, here we have a photo that's underexposed, which means not enough light was captured
when the photo was taken.
If we adjust the levels, we can make the midtones and highlights brighter, so the details are
easier to see.
Let me show you how it works.
First, go ahead and create an adjustment layer.
Make sure to choose the Levels option from the menu.
When the properties panel appears, you should see a graph in the center—this is called
the histogram.
The histogram shows you data about the shadows, midtones, and highlights in your image.
You can make adjustments using the sliders below.
Now, this might seem a little strange at first, but don't worry—with some hands-on experience,
you'll start to get the hang of it.
In our example, we're going to move the highlight slider so it's where the histogram actually
ends... and then move the midtone slider a little to the left, which will make the image
a bit lighter over all.
Every image is unique, so when you start doing this on your own, you will see some big differences
between histograms.
Basically, the key is to target the endpoints with the shadow and highlight sliders.
Then you can adjust the midtones depending on what you need; for example, lighter or
darker.
Just be careful not to move the sliders too far past the endpoints.
This can cause you to lose detail in your image, also known as clipping.
As always, if you do end up making a mistake, it's not the end of the world.
You can just move the slider back, or press CTRL-Z or COMMAND-Z to undo.
When you're done, here's a tip that'll let you compare the adjustments to the original
image.
Just turn the layer on or off using the icon here.
See how the original is so much darker overall?
In the new version, the sky and the clouds look much, much brighter, so the subject is
easier to see.
Similar to levels is a feature called curves.
The difference is that curves let you adjust shadows, highlights, and midtones separately.
The tool is a bit harder to use, but for experienced users, it does offer a lot more control.
Let's take a look at how it works.
Just like before, you'll start by adding an adjustment layer—this time, choose Curves.
When the panel appears, you should see a diagonal line that has two beginning and end points.
This is where you'll make your adjustments.
Of course, it looks very different from the Levels interface, but it has the same arrangement
of shadows on the left and highlights on the right.
To add a point, just click anywhere on the line... then drag up, down, left, or right
to see the effect it has.
One of the simplest things you can do with curves is to increase the contrast.
To do this, you'll need to drag the curve down towards the left... then click to add
a second point, and drag it up near the right.
See how we've created a gentle curve that follows the upward slope of the line?
By dragging it down near the shadows and up near the highlights, we've intensified those
parts of the image.
If we wanted to decrease the contrast, we could just do the opposite—drag it down
here instead... and then up over here.
Just be careful to avoid big steep curves that don't follow the slope of the line.
As with levels, you can end up losing a lot of detail in your image.
While you're still getting the hang of curves, you might want to check out the presets menu
too.
Here you'll find lots of built-in options that you can then customize as needed.
These can also help you get a better understanding of how the curves interface works.
If you ever need to start over, just go to the menu, and choose Default.
There are many times when you might want to adjust the colors in your image.
With saturation, you can increase or decrease the color intensity—either as a correction
or just for artistic effect.
Luckily, this is one of the easiest adjustments you can make in Photoshop.
All you have to do is add an adjustment layer for Hue/Saturation... then you can make your
changes using the slider here.
If the colors in your image are dull or muted, increasing the saturation will make them look
more vivid.
If you drag the slider in the opposite direction... you can see that it reduces the intensity
instead.
You can even create a black & white or grayscale image by dragging it all the way to the left.
As with levels and curves, you'll want to avoid making extreme adjustments.
For example, watch what happens when I drag the slider all the way to the right.
Now we've lost a lot of detail in the image, and the colors look pretty unnatural.
I'm just going to drag this a little bit back towards the left... and I think that should
do it.
Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making color adjustments.
If you go back to the adjustments menu... you'll find lots of other options to choose
from.
Vibrance, for example, will up the saturation for parts of your image, without over-saturating
the parts that are already colorful.
Black & White, on the other hand, will give you more control over de-saturation.
Make sure to check these out when you have some time on your own.
Finally, some corrections are harder to pull off than others.
Luckily, Photoshop comes with several auto-adjustment tools that can help you make specialized corrections
in no time.
Take this image for example.
See how the snow sort of has a bluish tint to it?
To fix this, all we have to do is go to the Image menu... then choose the option that
says Auto Color.
Now the snow looks white.
If you go back to the Image menu, you'll see there are two more auto-adjustments to choose
from: Auto Tone and Auto Contrast.
Another place that you'll sometimes find an Auto option is within certain adjustment layers.
In general, these can be a great way to improve your image quickly, without much time and
effort.
You can also just plan to use them as a starting point, and tweak the adjustments afterwards
to customize them.
Whether your image is too light or too dark, too dull or too saturated, you can fix all
kinds of common problems in Photoshop.
Now you know some tools that can help you improve your images dramatically, including
levels, curves, saturation, and more.