Project 7: Altering Colour with Levels

I feel quite comfortable working with the Levels command in Photoshop – performing a Levels ‘boost’ (i.e. adjusting the slider so that the histogram touches each axis, thereby ‘clipping’ the shadows and highlights and boosting contrast) is something that is often mention in photography magazines. I can now look at an image and have a pretty good idea about whether there are any pure blacks and/or whites within it. The individual Red, Green and Blue sliders are also fun to play with, and I have recently taken this a step further – using the Curves command, which gives even more control than Levels, and allows multiple points to be set for each channel.

 I sometimes wonder if I use Levels and Curves too much – it is one of the routine processes that I carry out on almost all of my images. I have a fondness for images that ‘pop’ – high contrast and colour are pleasing to my eye.

For this project, I was first required to use the Levels slider to alter the neutral point on the OCA colour chart. I was then asked to try it out on one of my own images.

This unprocessed image seems to have a strong colour cast, due partly to my error and partly to the time of day. It was taken shortly before sunset, using the built-in flash. The temperature of the light is obviously having an effect, and I think it would look more pleasing to the eye if the colour was neutralised. Because I shot in RAW, I could alter the white balance. However, for the purposes of this project, I will change it using the Levels dialogue box.

Original:

After Levels alteration:

As can be seen, there is quite a difference between the two. Parts of the background are now neutral, or very close to neutral, and the image looks more natural to me after altering the Red, Green and Blue channels in turn.

 It will never be a perfect image, as parts of the flowers are burnt out and others are in shadow. However, the control given by the Levels command has enabled me to ‘rescue’ an image that might otherwise have just been consigned straight to the Recycle Bin.