Photoshop 5.5 should be no different in terms of Levels and Curves.
The idea behind Levels is that you're tightening the spectrum of the image. You've got three sliders, representing your "black," "white," and "grey" tones, and then you've got that handy graph, showing you where things are actually falling. In a balanced image, you'll see the graph spread from one end to the other, in a screen cap, though, you're most likely to see everything slammed towards the left (black) side of the spectrum.
What this means is that there is no actual "white" in your image. It's like white balancing a camera - you have to tell photoshop where "white" is on the spectrum, and then it will adjust everything accordingly. If you slide the white slider left (usually, but not always, to where the graph actually starts) you'll see a big improvement. Unlike "Brightness" which makes everything brighter/whiter in a uniform way, "Levels" is magic, and tightens the whole spectrum, leaving your darks dark, adjusting your mids, and brightening your whites. (Sounds like laundry, doesn't it?)
I'll tackle curves in a seperate post, since I just got a stack of proofs on my desk!
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Date: 2005-10-19 10:40 pm (UTC)The idea behind Levels is that you're tightening the spectrum of the image. You've got three sliders, representing your "black," "white," and "grey" tones, and then you've got that handy graph, showing you where things are actually falling. In a balanced image, you'll see the graph spread from one end to the other, in a screen cap, though, you're most likely to see everything slammed towards the left (black) side of the spectrum.
What this means is that there is no actual "white" in your image. It's like white balancing a camera - you have to tell photoshop where "white" is on the spectrum, and then it will adjust everything accordingly. If you slide the white slider left (usually, but not always, to where the graph actually starts) you'll see a big improvement. Unlike "Brightness" which makes everything brighter/whiter in a uniform way, "Levels" is magic, and tightens the whole spectrum, leaving your darks dark, adjusting your mids, and brightening your whites. (Sounds like laundry, doesn't it?)
I'll tackle curves in a seperate post, since I just got a stack of proofs on my desk!