How to Control Darks and Lights in Photoshop Using Levels
This shot is lit only with the two lighters, so I used a higher ISO and slower shutter speed. The camera that I used, a Nikon D300S, doesn't have the best noise reduction at high ISOs compared to today's top cameras, so I didn't want to crank the ISO too high either. What I got straight out of camera is interesting, but I wanted to tweak the colors and make it even darker.
Before / After:
1- Levels adjustment:
First, we’ll use a Levels adjustment to make the darks even darker:
- Create a Levels adjustment layer.
- Move the black point slightly to the right, to bring even more darks in the shadows and almost fully hide the shirt. Here I used a value of 10.
- Also move the white point slightly to the left, just to brighten up the visible parts of the face and hands. Here I used a value for the white point of 225.
2- Hue/Saturation Adjustment:
Finally, we’ll give a blue and desaturated tint to everything except the fire from the lighters:
- Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
- Check the Colorize checkbox, and then play with the Saturation and Hue until you get something you like. Here I chose a Saturation of 25 and a hue of 228.
- Now click on the layer mark that’s associated with the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and use a black paint brush to mask out the Hue/Saturation adjustment around the lighters and let the original color through.
🌄 Image info:
- Camera: Nikon D300S
- Focal length: 16mm
- Shutter speed: 1/10s
- Aperture: f/10
- ISO: 1250