Differences Between BRIGHTNESS, CONTRAST, LEVELS AND EXPOSURE in Photoshop

Hello friends! Are you learning Photoshop and got some doubts while editing the image’s brightness, contrast, level, exposure, etc. Don’t worry, you are in the right place.

In this blog, we are going to look at the workflow of every term in detail. This content will help you enhance your skills for photo editing training.

All these tools are made to adjust the tonal range of any object/image. One can easily arrange the brightness and contrast as well as the darkness and dullness of any specific color. On the other hand, all these tools have their own specialties which are explained below.

First talk about BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST : -

That tool lets us make simple changes in the total range of an image. Every editor uses the tool to do professional editing and it's the best-known tool for editing purpose. To get to the BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST tool, click on IMAGE at the top of the screen, move into ADJUSTMENTS and you will find the very first option of BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST. 

When you click on that you'll get an adjustment menu. Moving the brightness slider to the right increases the tonal value and expand highlights, dragging the slider to the left will decreases the value and expand shadow. At the right of the menu bar, you will have an AUTO key, press the key to adjust the tonal range automatically. After setting up all the levels, simply click on OK to save the adjustment.

What are LEVELS/ Use of LEVELS: -

LEVELS tool lets us make some simple changes in an image. Levels can be used to adjust the image brightness level – shadow, midtone, and highlights. You will find the LEVELS tool at the same location as BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST. 

You can use CTRL+L as the short key of LEVELS. To get the window you need to click on the adjustments in the image menu. After that, a menu bar will be popped up with some unique features. 

There would be different types of presets and any one of them can be used at a time. It has three types of channels and you can choose any of them. A value bar can be seen down there so you can put the specific value of channels. The final step would be to press OK to save the changes you did.

What is CURVES/ Use of CURVES: -

CURVES is something which is used to set the contrast value of an image. Move into IMAGE at the top of the screen then click on ADJUSTMENT and 3rd row would be of CURVES. 

Press the CURVES key and it will take you to the menu of Curves. Here, you can see a graph. You can add more points on the line and when you move the points, the shape of curves will be changed. In the end, just click on OK to save the setting you made.     

What is EXPOSURE/ Use of EXPOSURE: -

EXPOSURE is not much diff. from BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST and LEVELS. As it also can be used to maintain the tonal range of an image, but professionals mainly use it to correct the total value of high dynamic images, which are 32 bits.

As we know, the more bits, the better, the color. EXPOSURE can be applied on 16 bits images or even 8 bits images, as well.

Lets’ see how to find EXPOSURE tool in photoshop. On the top right corner, move into IMAGE then click on ADJUSTMENTS and it would be in the 4th row. Press the EXPOSURE key to open the adjustment bar.

Once you open it, you’ll see a menu bar. There would be a few types of presets, you can choose a suitable one. Just down to it you will find three scales, 1st for Exposure, 2nd for Offset and 3rd for Gamma Correction. Moving left on all scales will lead to decrease in value and getting the scale in right, will expand the value. After all the changes, click on OK to save the changes.

So, that’s it.

This is how we can play with the adjustment settings of image menu in Photoshop.

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What is the use of Filters in Photoshop

When someone learns the Photoshop in an institute then he or she always wish to learn an option with eager i.e. filters in Photoshop. Most of us have a great excitement too for the filters in Photoshop to learn. Depending on which filters you apply and which settings you choose, the results can range from a subtle change to a total morph. You can make an image look (almost) as if it is hand painted, silk-screened, or sketched, distorted, patterned, textured, or noised. The creative possibilities are infinite. Start using the Filter Gallery; you’ll see ... time will fly by.

For applying filters, including using the Filter Gallery and Smart Filters, and use filters to make a photo look like an oil painting or tinted drawing.

A small handful of them, such as Clouds and Blur, are apply in one step simply by choosing the filter name from a sub-menu on the Filter menu. If apply a filter to a Smart Object, it becomes an editable, removable Smart Filter.

The current document color mode or bit depth. All the Photoshop filters are available for RGB files, most of the filters are available for Gray-scale files, fewer are available for CMYK Color, Lab Color, and 16-bits-per-channel files, still fewer are available for 32-bits-per-channel files, and none are available for Bitmap and Indexed Color files.

To use the Filter Gallery

1. Click an image layer; or for more flexibility, click a duplicate image layer or a Smart Object.
2. Optional: To limit the filter to a specific area of the image, create a selection.
3. The Foreground and/or Background colors are used by many filters and you must choose those colors now, before opening the Filter Gallery.
4. Choose Filter from Filter Gallery. The resizable gallery opens. 
5. To change the zoom level for the preview, click the Zoom Out button (Ctrl - ) or Zoom In button (Ctrl +) in the lower-left corner of the dialog, or choose a preset zoom level from the menu.  
6. In the middle pane of the dialog, click an arrowhead to expand any of the six filter categories, and then click a filter thumbnail.
7. Choose a filter name from the menu below the Cancel button.
8. On the right side of the dialog, choose settings for the filter. 
9. To edit the list of effects (bottom right portion of the dialog), do any of these optional steps: 
10. To apply an additional filter effect, click the New Effect Layer button, click a filter thumbnail in any category, and then choose settings. The effect may take a moment or two to process.
11. To replace one filter effect with another, click a filter effect name on the scroll list (don’t click the New Effect Layer button), then choose a replacement filter and settings.
12. To hide a filter effect, click the visibility icon next to the effect name (click again to re-display).
13. To change the stacking position of a filter effect to produce a different result in the image, drag the effect name upward or downward on the list.
14. To remove a filter effect from the list, click it, then click the Delete Effect Layer button.
15. Click OK.

Creating and editing Smart Filters

When apply a filter to a Smart Object, it becomes what is called a Smart Filter. We can edit or remove a Smart Filter at any time, apply multiple filters to the same Smart Object, hide individual filters while keeping others visible, and move or copy filters from one Smart Object to another. We can also edit the filter mask, change the stacking order of the filters, and edit the Smart Object itself.

The file formats that support Photoshop layers—such as PSD, PDF, and TIFF—also support Smart Filters. Some third-party (non-Adobe) filters can also be applied as Smart Filters.

To apply a Smart Filter

Click an image layer, then choose Filter > Convert for Smart Filters (or right-click the layer and choose Convert to Smart Object). If an alert appears, click OK.

Optional: Create a selection to control which area of the image the filter affects. Apply a filter Smart Filters listing, mask thumbnail, and filter listing will appear on the Layers panel.

The most significant advantage to using Smart Filters is that you can edit the filter settings at any time.

Working with the Smart Filter mask

When apply a filter to a Smart Object, a filter mask appears on the layer automatically. If create a selection before applying the first filter to a Smart Object, the selection will appear as the white area in the mask. A filter mask can also be edited using the same methods as for a layer mask. For an illustration of how this works, see the next two pages.

To edit a filter mask

1. Click the filter mask thumbnail.
2. Do either of the following: 

        Click the Brush tool, and then apply strokes with black to hide the filter effect, or with      white to reveal areas you've hidden. For a partial mask, use black and lower the tool opacity. To hide the filter effect gradually from one side of the image to the other, click the Gradient tool, and then drag across the image..

• To display the filter mask by itself in the document, Alt-click/Option-click the mask; repeat to re-display the full Smart Object.
• To soften the transition between black and white areas in a filter mask, click the filter mask thumbnail, then on the Properties panel, adjust the Feather value. To control the overall opacity of the mask, use the Density slider.

Filters are most fascinating thing among the designers who use Adobe Photoshop. Now filters are editable after you apply them on any of the layer. I remember till Photoshop 7 they were not editable meaning once you applied you couldn't delete or edit them. There are a plenty of third party filters available to be used by designers too.

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