well, after about a half a bottle of Robotussin, i finally stopped coughing and felt good enough to play around a bit and see if i could make heads or tails of this levels and curves things i've been learning about in here. Pascale, you're right...levels seemed pretty easy and straight forward. Curves are DEFINITELY a lot more challenging!!! I'm using PSP7 and did read the help info. i think it's gonna take me some time to get the hang of curves. Regardless, i sure did have fun playing. Let me show you my stuff. I'd love any advice on this subject & my pics!!! thanks ya'all!!! this is the original photo resized. here's the data: f 4.5 exp 1/500 ISO 64 0 step

here's something i did playing with the levels and loved the outcome. what do you think?

hmmm...looking again at the above i'm thinking i still need to tweak it. anyway... on this one i made a "little-bitty, tiny" adjustment...LOL!!! what can i say? sometimes i get in these moods!!!!!

okay...onto curves...i really went wild her. i KNOW this is NOT what curves is intended for, but until i get the hang of this....*sigh*...all i can say is i had fun! hopefully i'll continue to learn!

and here's the last one i'll show using curves. on both of these last ones i like the sparklies! stop laughing at me now!!! :) LOL!!! OBVIOUSLY i need help in using these tools. and since HELP is not much help.... help guys!!!!!!!! :)

I guess it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. The first image looks to me very accurately exposed. Good contrast showing off the fine texture detail, and complete range from black to white. Color looks natural. The others look... different. Not bad. Just different. Depends on what effect you are trying to get. 'course, after half a bottle of Robotussin, I start seeing sheep perching in the branches, so who knows what is best?

LOL!! Misha you're so funny!!!! yep...now that you mention it, i think i DO see some sheep there in the branches!!!! :) thanks for what you said about my original image. i liked it too but was a wee bit unhappy with it. you don't think that part on the bottom left going upward is overexposed? i was thinking it was and thought this might be a good image to try levels and curves to see what i could do to correct that. i like how #4 turned out the best. anyway, i was not successful in figuring out how to use levels and curves the way it was intended. i'm a bit confused how to do that. Levels were EASY to use but i'm not EFFECTIVE at using them. same with curves. Misha, i read yours and Gradient's responses in Pascale's thread. I was hoping to find a good reference for using these tools, but since you said you don't know of one... I'll read your responses again later and take the advice you both gave in there; however, i think I'll wait until that Robotussin wears off!!!! LOL!!!! my eyes are crossin'! thanks for the feedback!!!!! :)

Attached Link: http://www.khiba.com/PSP/Spring02/42502.htm

Wow....you are right...there isn't much on the web about this. All I could find is in the attached link. Hope it helps a bit. Happy curving!

Sheila, change the colour of the third one to blue and you get an almost perfect shot of the "spooky light" efect. :-)

I'm partial to #5 myself (though the original is good). I like the full on Robotussin effect, as it will now be forever called! ;) The almost oily appearance of the upper right sky in 4 and 5 is very cool!

Original photo is technically perfect, and really didn't need curves or any kind of adjustments. However your Robitussin Effects are quite pretty too....!

Michelle, Misha didn't see any problem in exposure either. You say the original photo is technically perfect. So you don't think that the bottom part going upward to the center is overexposed?????????? Compared to the blue in the rest of the sky, that part looks over-exposed to me. I'm confused!!!! Gradient, thanks sooooo much for that link!!! I just woke up a bit and am too sleepy to concentrate enough to read it now. but i will definitely read that later!!!!! I can't believe you found something! i gave up last night after coming up empty. Glad ya'all liked my Robotussin effects!! hehe!!! Vlatko..i'll have to give that a try!!! Thanks guys!! :)

Had to compress this down quite a bit to show, sorry 'bout that.... but no to me the highlights are not blown out, and in relation to the rest of the image they are exactly where they should be..... There's great detail in the shadow areas as well. Using the info palatte in curves.... I selected areas of the image to show you what the actual numbers are..... Lets keep in mind that when talking about color and tonal range 255 is pure white, 0 is pure black. Now while the histogram does show some clipping (sudden sharp rise) in the highlights and in the blacks.... they are not pure white, nor pure black.... Bottom left #1 (the little circle with the #) is 252.... close but not quite. A little further up we have #2.... which reads at 250 getting better.... and #3 you're starting to get your blues mixing in..... #4 got cut off but it was down at the bottom. I tried to pick the darkest area of the image I could find..... weighing in at 7 in tonal value. But what you have to notice too is that your tonal values are fairly evenly distributed across the histogram, which weighs or balances out the sharp increases on either end. Ok it is true that it is better to start with a gradual increase in tones instead of starting out high... but every image is different..... and this is the sky which bright, and a tree which is dark.... you expect to have more of these tones there... Hope at least some of this makes sense.....

I agree that the first shot looks perfectly exposed to me too but I definitely have a soft spot for number 5!!! That shiny dark blue is fabulous!! And yes, curves are a pain to use in my humble opinion while I'm having lots of fun using levels! But, like u Sheila, I won't give up on the curves! ;) Let's have a curves party! ;)

Butter near the tree but seen with Apple...bad taste...of humour....but its a mooving scale:-)))))))) http://www.apple.com/ilife/iphoto/edit.html

Michelle, sorry, I've never seen a histogram before and i'm completely lost. I'm gonna need need to read about this. I appreciate you taking the time to do this. It's sometime i will definitely come back and read again. i just don't understand ANY of this. i'm soooooo sorry! thanks for taking the time to do this. i try to figure these histogram things later. my brain is fried after a hellacious holiday at work. i just ain't gettin' it. thank you thank you though for try to help me. sigh. sorry. Sylvaine, thanks for that link. i saved it! Pascale, i like #5 too! Curves party...oh boy...i'd better get my thinkin' cap on! :)

With curves you can adjust the brightness of individual colours for example here you can adjust the sky to give it a brighter more vibrant blue without affecting other parts of the image. Using Levels it will also change the gamma of the image affecting the midtones which Curves has not because I have put a point in at the mid tones (ie centre point)

Message edited on: 03/26/2005 05:41

Oh!! It's becoming a 'lil clearer now onslow! Didn't know u could lock the tones u're working on in order not to affect other ones! Great tip here dear! Thx! :D We'll get there eventually Sheila!! Oh yea, and the histogram shows u how ur image is balanced! And seing the histogram that Michelle uploaded, u can see that all 3 colors have the same shape, meaning that ur image is perfectly balanced! ;) Hope this helps!

Thanks, Richard! i see what you've done and understand that. i just tried to do this with another image and was successful. thank you!