Might sound silly of me to ask but I am curious as to what you's think??? Does "Auto Levels" actually work?? I mean, is this the computes version of what it thinks Photoshop should blend the rendering as?? I find to my eyes that it doesn't always look right?? Are there folks here that USE this regularily, or do you find it flawed?? ~3D ;-)

3DSprite: Personally, I seldom use the auto levels as I find it usually makes the picture to dark and besides, I've always been a sort of "control freak" :o)

(Aaarrrg! Fat fingered the keyboard and sent this before I was through!) You can almost always do better by setting the levels manually unless you are working with a perfectly exposed picture (and I almost never get one of those when I'm out taking pictures!). Bringing the two outside triangles in towards the center increases contrast and the center triangle sets the white point. BTW, don't overlook using the curves to set your levels instead! It takes a little getting used to, but you can do some amazing things with it. -Jim

jnmoore's suggestions are what I find works best, too. Auto levels is pretty useless, especially for non-photographic images. You can also try "variations". I use that quite a bit to make subtle adjustments in contrast or color cast. Diane

Curves...curves...curves... Get used to using curves instead of levels. Curves lets you adjust brightness, contrast, max luma, min luma, and color balance via channels - all in one dialog. When you use levels, apply a change - then go to color balance and apply a change, you destroy image data with each step. These are destructive processes, and if you can get all of the adjustments done in one application, you're much better off. As for auto curves: if you're working on an image that has the color balance really screwed up (for instance, a photograph taken under flourescent lighting with the green cast...) then clicking the Auto Curves button will get you into the ballpark very quickly. You can then tweak the color channels and the RGB composite separately to get the color and brightness/contrast right. Then you apply all the changes with one click. There are a couple of specific effects that I use the levels and color balance controls for... 98% of the time I only use curves. -sk

All of the above is true but I guess that none of the above have worked with professional print. You normally only use levels when you want to reduce the min and max values of the picture (the white and black point). Curves are often used to reduce or increase the colours between the black and white points. When you work with objects such as scanned logos and you dont wanna take the time to use paths to reduce jagged edges you use levels and curves to reduce the amount of gray by making them black or white. Its very easy and takes about 4-5 minutes per logo if its for a B/W print. Of course you can use the levels for midtones and the curves for the black and whites and in the end you should do what gives you the best result. Finally about the autolevels... use it only as a preview. It normally doesnt have a powerful enough impact to be used in professional work. /Jacko

Auto Levels seems to work for bad digital photographs, but not much else...

I disagree. I use auto levels on a work that I've just completed so I can get a perspective on how "bad" the pic could have turned out. A great ego boost!