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Adobe InDesign Help,
Graphic Design Inspiration,
Colour Correction With Levels
For this free Adobe InDesign help and Photoshop HDR as part of a series on best Photoshop tutorials, I use Photoshop CS3 for photo editing and InDesign CS3 for pagination.
After assembling the story in InDesign, I will open the image in Photoshop (right click if you have it set to open in Photoshop.
The HDR photo for this exercise is the Sussex Train Station, which was built in 1913. Passenger trains no longer pass through Sussex, although freight trains frequent the area since we have a huge potash mine in nearby Penobsquis and the product is transported by rail to the port of Saint John.My goal is to give the photo some punch. I want dark darks and light lights without any significant amount of clipping. The first step is to check the photo's levels with respect to light and dark. Do the "Control L" keystroke. See that histogram that looks like its showing mountains and valleys? We want to move the black point slider so the histogram "valleys" out to the left. It's the same intention with the white point slider. Get it to valley out to the right.
Here are just three more Adobe Photoshop tips for doing levels:
Auto Levels: Simply open Levels and press Auto. 'Nuff said.Threshold/Point Sampler: This is a good way to determine your whitest and blackest points. Go to Image>>Adjustments>>Threshold and you get a histogram with one slider.
Move the slider to the left to find your darkest area. Go to the Eyedropper tool and open the Point Sampler Tool. For its Sample Size, choose 3 by 3 average or 5 by 5. Choose a dark area and do Shift Left Click to place the point sample. Repeat for another dark area if you wish. To exit, press Cancel, not OK. That way you are left with the image and not the black/white cutout. The red circles show my dark choices.
Next, you will choose the lightest areas by moving the slider to the right and making point samples. In the example, I sampled the white area in the sky. However, I was worried it was a burnt-out area so not having another good white point, I sampled a neutral gray area without using Threshold.
With four sample points, we are ready to perform the Eyedropper function, so open the Levels again. See those three eyedroppers on the right side of the Levels dialog box? Click on the left or dark one and then on the sample point. Without closing the Levels, click on the right/white eyedropper and then click the white point. Try the middle eyedropper for the neutral gray point.
Each and All Channels: Basically open the Levels and adjust the light and dark sliders for RGB first and then each channel and finally RGB again.
Click here to leave Adobe InDesign Help and move on to curves and image resolution.
Click here to leave Adobe InDesign Help and return to Home.
For more Adobe InDesign help, try this
tutorial on unsharp mask.
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