DISQUS

Craig Ferguson Images: A Photoshop Tutorial – Levels

  • Darren Melrose · 10 months ago
    This is a helpful post, especially for newer PS users. A more advanced addition I would have, and one which is very easily done, is to change the blending mode of the layers level to Luminosity from Normal. This can help to avoid the colour shifts that can occur when you make levels (or curves) adjustments. Especially when you use auto-levels (not always a bad starting point) this can relieve a lot of headaches.
  • cfimages · 10 months ago
    Thanks Darren. Good tips on the blending mode. I purposely left Auto-Levels out of this tutorial because I want to encourage good non-destructive habits from the beginning. Of course one could always use auto-levels on a duplicated layer I guess.
  • Expatriate Games · 10 months ago
    Dude, that's cool of you to take make the time to put this together. I absolutely agree with the non-destructive approach. I learned the hard way and only wish I had read this two years ago!
  • cfimages · 10 months ago
    Thanks. The odd thing is that since Lightroom was released I find I rarely use Photoshop.
  • Darren Melrose · 10 months ago
    Maybe I am confused, or I wasn't quite clear. I meant using auto levels on the layer; it would be no more destructive than whatever choices the user made, since it is on a layer. I rarely use auto levels as a ending point, but it is often something I try as a starting point. The reason I mentioned the auto setting, is that is when I seem to see the most obvious colour shifts, which is what the Luminance blending mode really helps combat.
  • InvestorBlogger · 10 months ago
    Wow! I'm scouring this article... the layer structure... it's permanent if I make a jpeg... I think.
  • cfimages · 10 months ago
    I get it. Sorry for the confusion - I thought you meant using Auto-Levels separately. Since Lightroom was released, I find that I only really use PS for some portrait retouching and noise plug-ins. I don't think I've ever thought to try Auto Levels on a layer.
  • cfimages · 10 months ago
    Yeah, it's permanent if you save as a jpeg (and each time you open and resave a jpeg you slightly corrupt the file), but you can save as a TIFF or PSD and keep the layers intact. It creates a bigger file size, but with external 1TB harddrives around NT$3600 (US$110) bigger file size is not something that I worry about. Thanks for the comment.
  • Jeff · 3 months ago
    Thank you for such a wonderful tutorial. Keep up the good work!
  • cfimages · 3 months ago
    Glad it was useful. Thank you.