If I go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness and Contrast and the little palette opens with the two sliders, I am able to adjust the Brightness ok, but when I try to reduce the Contrast there is hardly any change.   However when I tick the Legacy box, everything works perfectly.  My question is...what exactly does Legacy do?  Thanks for your help.

I believe that when you check the Legacy box it lets what ever the filter, adjustment or what have you act like it did in CS2.  I found this out while following a tutorial written for CS2 while in CS3.  It was driving me crazy that I couldn't do what they where telling me to do, until I checked the Legacy box.  hope this helps.

Attached Link: The old Brightness/Contrast was evil!

Thanks stew451 and prixat for responding.  You were both a great help particularly the article. It explained it perfectly.  My problem is now, because I get better results using the Legacy box do I use it or not?  At least I know what it does.  Cheers guys.

I've always stayed away from the Brightness/Contrast adjustment because it's too big and blunt of a tool for what I need to do.

Give this a try - at the bottom of the Layers palette, click on the "create Adjustment Layer" icon (the circle split down the center - black and white), and create a Levels Adjustment Layer. Adjust to taste, then click OK (or hit Enter on the keyboard). You now have something you can tweak AGAIN, that won't actually commit any changes until you flatten (or merge that with the layer below it), and has a mask built-in so you can paint BLACK to hide what you did NOT want changed.

You can use it to make the whites brighter, the darks darker, or adjust only midtones - clip whites or blacks, or a little of everything.

This also goes for creating ANY adjustment Layer in the list - Curves, Hue/Sat, etc.

Gotta admit - I'm more like the guy who wrote the article - I found the Brightness/Contrast adjustment too limited in use, and too harsh in application, so I just dropped even thinking of using it. Might give it another chance now that it's function has been changed a little in CS3...

Hope this helps-
-Lew ;-)

Out of curiosity, I just checked, and in CS3 Brightness/Contrast is now in the list of Adjustment Layers.

Even better! If it doesn't commit a change to what I'm doing until I tell it to, I just might use it more often...

-Lew ;-)

Hi thundering1

Thanks for the tip.  It makes a lot of sense to use an Adjustment Layer.  I will definately explore the possibilities.  Thanks once again

Hey Jack!
Glad you could get the assist you needed. good to see ya around again.

take care
scott

Hi Scott

I know that I am not very active but I DO read the Forum every day.  But best of all I know that if I have a problem, the Forum is my first port of call.  And over the years I have never failed to get the right answer I was seeking.  So keep up the good work.  Cheers.  Jack