brightness

Making Photos Look Their Best Video Tutorial

At first glance, it may seem that we’re revisiting the same things we looked at way back when we explored the Quick Fix mode, but on second glance, we’re correcting the same problems only this time with way more accuracy, detail and control.

Quick Fix Mode in Action Video Tutorial

Having covered the theory of the Quick Fix mode in the previous video, it’s time to correct colour, brightness and focus of a real-world digital photograph. Almost all photographs taken on a digital camera require some degree of adjustment to make them look good, and quite simply put, the Quick Fix mode is going to be the fastest and easiest way to get the job done.

Touring the Quick Fix & Guided Modes Video Tutorial

If you’re new to Photoshop Elements then the Quick Fix and Guided Modes are for you! Designed as a gentle introduction to image editing, these modes offer a workspace that walks you through the process of improving digital photos with no more than a few simple movements of the appropriate sliders. Whether you’re correcting for color, dark shadows, bright highlights or a soft focus, these modes are the fastest way to see better looking images.

Removing a Colour Cast using Levels Video Tutorial

A colour cast is when the colour of an image shifts towards a specific hue, say green, to give the whole image an unsightly green tint. The reasons behind this and the resulting cast can be as numerous as the tools available to fix it. For this reason we'll take a classic example and put things right both manually and automatically.

Separating Luminance and Colour Video Tutorial

So we know the difference between colour and luminance information, now's the time to look at dividing the two and working on each individually. Whether we're doing that with blend modes or the highly theoretical Lab colour space we're going to be opening our eyes to a whole new universe.

Colour Histogram Video Tutorial

Made popular by the Camera Raw plug-in that ships along with Photoshop, the color histogram contains all 3 RGB channel histograms inside one window, giving a visually pleasing reference to colour information, how the channels interact and where exactly they don't.

Luminance Histogram Video Tutorial

Because the human eye doesn't see red, green and blue light equally we need a reliable way of representing the brightness of a pixel independent of colour. And so steps up the luminance histogram - the most accurate way of spotting clipped shadows and blown highlights threatening the very existence of your image!

RGB Histogram Video Tutorial

Photoshop produces red, green and blue histograms inside an RGB image, when it's done it puts the results into a composite version and displays it as the standard view. How that composite view is calculated decides how we see clipping inside our images - and as you'll bear witness, things aren't always what they seem!

Advanced Histograms Video Tutorial

It's time to summarize the RGB, luminance and Colour histograms available inside Photoshop, and talk more specifically and indeed more technically about the statistics available in the expanded view. It's not necessarily about how to ask questions, it more about deciphering the often misunderstood answers that the histogram palette is shouting out!

Improving Skin Tones with CMYK Values Video Tutorial

With one foot inside the CMYK colour space but the other firmly rooted to RGB land we begin to harness the power of number-based skin tone adjustments using the colour sampler tool and the levels command. Altogether a more involved but highly rewarding way to work that's employed by studios and portrait professionals around the world.