Adjusting Levels
Color Plate 30-1
Technique 30 shows you how to adjust the tone and color of an image using Levels.The color cast of this great photograph of Mount Banner (top) is a little dark, the snow isn’t as white as it should be, and the sky could be more blue.I could have adjusted the tone and color by using Auto Levels, which tends to work well generally, but because this photo is so special, I really wanted to adjust the colors by hand.After opening the Levels dialog box, I started by choosing the Red channel and adjusting the highlights and midtones using the histogram (middle left). Next, I chose the Green channel and adjusted its highlights and midtones as well (middle right). Finally, I selected the Blue channel and adjusted the midtones and highlights to create a lovely blue sky (bottom).
