WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:07.450 --> 00:00:09.470 Most photos aren't perfect. 00:00:09.470 --> 00:00:13.180 As you gain more experience with Photoshop, you'll probably start to notice some common 00:00:13.180 --> 00:00:15.269 problems that you wish you could fix. 00:00:15.269 --> 00:00:19.340 Luckily, there are ways to do this, even if you're not a seasoned pro. 00:00:19.340 --> 00:00:23.000 In this video, we're going to cover everything you need to get started, including how to 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:28.439 adjust your levels, curves, saturation, and more. 00:00:28.439 --> 00:00:32.070 Levels let you adjust the shadows, highlights, and midtones in your image, which are things 00:00:32.070 --> 00:00:34.250 that every image has. 00:00:34.250 --> 00:00:38.120 Shadows are the darkest parts, highlights are the brightest, and the midtones are everything 00:00:38.120 --> 00:00:40.960 in between. 00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:43.640 There are many reasons why you might use a levels adjustment. 00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:48.190 For example, here we have a photo that's underexposed, which means not enough light was captured 00:00:48.190 --> 00:00:50.220 when the photo was taken. 00:00:50.220 --> 00:00:54.489 If we adjust the levels, we can make the midtones and highlights brighter, so the details are 00:00:54.489 --> 00:00:56.130 easier to see. 00:00:56.130 --> 00:00:58.140 Let me show you how it works. 00:00:58.140 --> 00:01:01.560 First, go ahead and create an adjustment layer. 00:01:01.560 --> 00:01:05.170 Make sure to choose the Levels option from the menu. 00:01:05.170 --> 00:01:09.170 When the properties panel appears, you should see a graph in the center—this is called 00:01:09.170 --> 00:01:11.110 the histogram. 00:01:11.110 --> 00:01:15.450 The histogram shows you data about the shadows, midtones, and highlights in your image. 00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:18.189 You can make adjustments using the sliders below. 00:01:18.189 --> 00:01:23.009 Now, this might seem a little strange at first, but don't worry—with some hands-on experience, 00:01:23.009 --> 00:01:24.990 you'll start to get the hang of it. 00:01:24.990 --> 00:01:29.299 In our example, we're going to move the highlight slider so it's where the histogram actually 00:01:29.299 --> 00:01:33.920 ends... and then move the midtone slider a little to the left, which will make the image 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.829 a bit lighter over all. 00:01:36.829 --> 00:01:41.359 Every image is unique, so when you start doing this on your own, you will see some big differences 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:42.850 between histograms. 00:01:42.850 --> 00:01:47.670 Basically, the key is to target the endpoints with the shadow and highlight sliders. 00:01:47.670 --> 00:01:51.680 Then you can adjust the midtones depending on what you need; for example, lighter or 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:53.240 darker. 00:01:53.240 --> 00:01:56.750 Just be careful not to move the sliders too far past the endpoints. 00:01:56.750 --> 00:02:00.549 This can cause you to lose detail in your image, also known as clipping. 00:02:00.549 --> 00:02:04.759 As always, if you do end up making a mistake, it's not the end of the world. 00:02:04.759 --> 00:02:11.849 You can just move the slider back, or press CTRL-Z or COMMAND-Z to undo. 00:02:11.849 --> 00:02:15.319 When you're done, here's a tip that'll let you compare the adjustments to the original 00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:16.560 image. 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:20.739 Just turn the layer on or off using the icon here. 00:02:20.739 --> 00:02:23.970 See how the original is so much darker overall? 00:02:23.970 --> 00:02:28.120 In the new version, the sky and the clouds look much, much brighter, so the subject is 00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:32.200 easier to see. 00:02:32.200 --> 00:02:35.010 Similar to levels is a feature called curves. 00:02:35.010 --> 00:02:39.599 The difference is that curves let you adjust shadows, highlights, and midtones separately. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:45.220 The tool is a bit harder to use, but for experienced users, it does offer a lot more control. 00:02:45.220 --> 00:02:48.990 Let's take a look at how it works. 00:02:48.990 --> 00:02:54.760 Just like before, you'll start by adding an adjustment layer—this time, choose Curves. 00:02:54.760 --> 00:02:59.680 When the panel appears, you should see a diagonal line that has two beginning and end points. 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:01.569 This is where you'll make your adjustments. 00:03:01.569 --> 00:03:06.079 Of course, it looks very different from the Levels interface, but it has the same arrangement 00:03:06.079 --> 00:03:09.150 of shadows on the left and highlights on the right. 00:03:09.150 --> 00:03:14.200 To add a point, just click anywhere on the line... then drag up, down, left, or right 00:03:14.200 --> 00:03:16.840 to see the effect it has. 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:21.000 One of the simplest things you can do with curves is to increase the contrast. 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:26.069 To do this, you'll need to drag the curve down towards the left... then click to add 00:03:26.069 --> 00:03:30.170 a second point, and drag it up near the right. 00:03:30.170 --> 00:03:34.690 See how we've created a gentle curve that follows the upward slope of the line? 00:03:34.690 --> 00:03:38.569 By dragging it down near the shadows and up near the highlights, we've intensified those 00:03:38.569 --> 00:03:40.550 parts of the image. 00:03:40.550 --> 00:03:45.069 If we wanted to decrease the contrast, we could just do the opposite—drag it down 00:03:45.069 --> 00:03:50.230 here instead... and then up over here. 00:03:50.230 --> 00:03:54.930 Just be careful to avoid big steep curves that don't follow the slope of the line. 00:03:54.930 --> 00:03:59.859 As with levels, you can end up losing a lot of detail in your image. 00:03:59.859 --> 00:04:03.299 While you're still getting the hang of curves, you might want to check out the presets menu 00:04:03.299 --> 00:04:04.749 too. 00:04:04.749 --> 00:04:09.250 Here you'll find lots of built-in options that you can then customize as needed. 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:13.799 These can also help you get a better understanding of how the curves interface works. 00:04:13.799 --> 00:04:22.330 If you ever need to start over, just go to the menu, and choose Default. 00:04:22.330 --> 00:04:25.450 There are many times when you might want to adjust the colors in your image. 00:04:25.450 --> 00:04:30.470 With saturation, you can increase or decrease the color intensity—either as a correction 00:04:30.470 --> 00:04:33.070 or just for artistic effect. 00:04:33.070 --> 00:04:38.190 Luckily, this is one of the easiest adjustments you can make in Photoshop. 00:04:38.190 --> 00:04:43.350 All you have to do is add an adjustment layer for Hue/Saturation... then you can make your 00:04:43.350 --> 00:04:46.290 changes using the slider here. 00:04:46.290 --> 00:04:50.460 If the colors in your image are dull or muted, increasing the saturation will make them look 00:04:50.460 --> 00:04:52.200 more vivid. 00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:56.690 If you drag the slider in the opposite direction... you can see that it reduces the intensity 00:04:56.690 --> 00:04:57.690 instead. 00:04:57.690 --> 00:05:04.190 You can even create a black & white or grayscale image by dragging it all the way to the left. 00:05:04.190 --> 00:05:08.160 As with levels and curves, you'll want to avoid making extreme adjustments. 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:13.320 For example, watch what happens when I drag the slider all the way to the right. 00:05:13.320 --> 00:05:17.970 Now we've lost a lot of detail in the image, and the colors look pretty unnatural. 00:05:17.970 --> 00:05:22.700 I'm just going to drag this a little bit back towards the left... and I think that should 00:05:22.700 --> 00:05:23.810 do it. 00:05:23.810 --> 00:05:29.450 Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making color adjustments. 00:05:29.450 --> 00:05:33.560 If you go back to the adjustments menu... you'll find lots of other options to choose 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:34.560 from. 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:39.310 Vibrance, for example, will up the saturation for parts of your image, without over-saturating 00:05:39.310 --> 00:05:41.910 the parts that are already colorful. 00:05:41.910 --> 00:05:46.410 Black & White, on the other hand, will give you more control over de-saturation. 00:05:46.410 --> 00:05:50.590 Make sure to check these out when you have some time on your own. 00:05:50.590 --> 00:05:55.440 Finally, some corrections are harder to pull off than others. 00:05:55.440 --> 00:06:00.370 Luckily, Photoshop comes with several auto-adjustment tools that can help you make specialized corrections 00:06:00.370 --> 00:06:03.360 in no time. 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:05.240 Take this image for example. 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:08.440 See how the snow sort of has a bluish tint to it? 00:06:08.440 --> 00:06:13.250 To fix this, all we have to do is go to the Image menu... then choose the option that 00:06:13.250 --> 00:06:15.560 says Auto Color. 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:18.250 Now the snow looks white. 00:06:18.250 --> 00:06:21.970 If you go back to the Image menu, you'll see there are two more auto-adjustments to choose 00:06:21.970 --> 00:06:25.380 from: Auto Tone and Auto Contrast. 00:06:25.380 --> 00:06:31.160 Another place that you'll sometimes find an Auto option is within certain adjustment layers. 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:35.190 In general, these can be a great way to improve your image quickly, without much time and 00:06:35.190 --> 00:06:36.410 effort. 00:06:36.410 --> 00:06:40.250 You can also just plan to use them as a starting point, and tweak the adjustments afterwards 00:06:40.250 --> 00:06:42.890 to customize them. 00:06:42.890 --> 00:06:48.990 Whether your image is too light or too dark, too dull or too saturated, you can fix all 00:06:48.990 --> 00:06:51.620 kinds of common problems in Photoshop. 00:06:51.620 --> 00:06:55.910 Now you know some tools that can help you improve your images dramatically, including 00:06:55.910 --> 00:06:58.000 levels, curves, saturation, and more.