Levels vs Curves

What is the main difference betweem levles adjustments and curves?
Booth of these adjustment layers do the same in differnt ways:
contrast corrections, midtone correction, shadow/highlight corrections, color correction.
I understand curves allows to select secific tonal points in the image.
When should levels be used instead of curves?

Levels has the advantage that you can put the screen into Threashold mode by holding down the Alt/Opt key while dragging the end sliders. This is further enhanced in that you can see which channel, or group of channels, are at clipping by the colours you see on the screen.
Curves lets you target specific tonal range, or points, and also allows complex adjustments like when the curve has multiple high and low points. Levels can't do that. I also like the larger view of the histogram you can view with Curves.

Similar Messages

Levels, Exposure, Curves - another explanation attempt

The exposure slider in Aperture does pretty much the same as moving the right bottom sliders in Levels. One difference is that one naturally can move the right slider in levels only to the left. The exposure slider can be moved in both directions.
The brightness slider does the exactly the same, except that it acts on the left bottom control in Levels. The contrast slider acts on both the right and left control.
In general, Levels is a much more powerfull tool [than the Exposure section] but can be trickier to use (and it is easy to spoil an image by making it look anatural). Its sliders can create much more drastic changes, e.g. extremely high contrast. And by offering midtone and quartertone controls, different tonal ranges can be adjusted differently. By moving the top sliders the these controls can be moved to any point in the tonal range.
When moving the right or left slider in Levels to the start of the histogram (to create pure blacks and whites), particularly when moving them quite a bit, one often might get better results by doing this separately for the three channels than on the luminance channel.
Generally, I have the impression that Exposure/Brightness/Contrast do a better job at balancing the three colour channels than the levels adjustment set to Luminance to maintain a natural look.
Comparing with the Curve tool (in e.g. Photoshop), one can state that levels and curves do exactly the same, the top controls on the diagram in levels in Aperture are the output of curves (y-axis) and and the bottom controls in Aperture are the input of curves (x-axis). The level controls in Aperture, however, 'only' have five control sliders at the bottom and only three at the top (and none at endpoints there).
An attempt to explain why all controls do more or less the same:
Take a B&W image (that makes things easier to understand). Any global image manipulation does nothing but remap luminence values. Every lumininence value in the original image gets translated into a value in the output, e.g., adding 20 (on the scale 0-255) to all brightens an image (probably not in a very smart way). This remapping is given by a functional relationship that can be illustrated by the curve in Curve tool. But there a lot of ways to represent that functional relationship, with levels being just another one (and one that I find more intuitive).

The exposure slider in Aperture does pretty much the same as moving the right bottom sliders in Levels. One difference is that one naturally can move the right slider in levels only to the left. The exposure slider can be moved in both directions.
The brightness slider does the exactly the same, except that it acts on the left bottom control in Levels. The contrast slider acts on both the right and left control.
In general, Levels is a much more powerfull tool [than the Exposure section] but can be trickier to use (and it is easy to spoil an image by making it look anatural). Its sliders can create much more drastic changes, e.g. extremely high contrast. And by offering midtone and quartertone controls, different tonal ranges can be adjusted differently. By moving the top sliders the these controls can be moved to any point in the tonal range.
When moving the right or left slider in Levels to the start of the histogram (to create pure blacks and whites), particularly when moving them quite a bit, one often might get better results by doing this separately for the three channels than on the luminance channel.
Generally, I have the impression that Exposure/Brightness/Contrast do a better job at balancing the three colour channels than the levels adjustment set to Luminance to maintain a natural look.
Comparing with the Curve tool (in e.g. Photoshop), one can state that levels and curves do exactly the same, the top controls on the diagram in levels in Aperture are the output of curves (y-axis) and and the bottom controls in Aperture are the input of curves (x-axis). The level controls in Aperture, however, 'only' have five control sliders at the bottom and only three at the top (and none at endpoints there).
An attempt to explain why all controls do more or less the same:
Take a B&W image (that makes things easier to understand). Any global image manipulation does nothing but remap luminence values. Every lumininence value in the original image gets translated into a value in the output, e.g., adding 20 (on the scale 0-255) to all brightens an image (probably not in a very smart way). This remapping is given by a functional relationship that can be illustrated by the curve in Curve tool. But there a lot of ways to represent that functional relationship, with levels being just another one (and one that I find more intuitive).

Understanding Levels and Curves

I've read some tutorials on this subject, but I'm hoping someone can help me conclude this learning chapter hopefully by a tutorial or explination on how levels and curves work and what and how to read them. So far from what I know with levels you have a white slider and a black slider I don't know how the peaks and valleys work that you see in the levels window I also don't know what the middle slider represents. As for curves I'd like to know how to use and how to read and tweak a curve what it does.

Ok that tutorial loads all the way for me. Although the business of moving values is explained Ok in there - there are a number of basic problems, and bad practice demonstrated in the tutorial, and its not one I would recommend …
1: The guy has made three moves, two Curves and a Levels - extremely destructive to the image . Where a single Curve could have done the same visually, with much less damage. In other words, he obviously doesn't realise what basic things like the endpoints of the curve do. Levels although it uses different MATH, is reproduceable in Curves very precisely. In practice, in terms of overall image EFFECT, there's really no point at all in using Levels if you know how to use Curves properly. Think of Levels as a poor mans, slightly easier to understand, Curves.
2: He has duplicated pixels instead of using Adjustment Layers, pretty thick and generates larger files.
3: He doesn't seem to know that you can place curve points automatically, and as a result doesn't explain how to do this.
I did some searching for you, trying to find something better -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egwF0WWqHuE&feature=related - In 2 parts, yeah its Kloskowski, but he is explaining it quite well, especially the basic theory
http://vimeo.com/46703100 I quite liked this one, ignore all the other stuff, he's going though curves it in a way which might help it to dawn.

Levels, not Curves in CS6

Using CS6, try to open a curves adjustment layer...the way I have for years...levels opens. Will not correct. Have to close the app and reopen. Impossible to find on internet. What's up?

He's baaaack! My machine died, wife had terrible accident. I've not been able to do anything with my photography for months. Just got new computer, reloaded cs6. Working a large stitch. Needs lots of curve adjustments. Try curves, get levels. I had this on my old machine, have it on my new machine. First time I did curves this time, I went three curves layers before getting levels. Now get all the time. I have tried to create a curves layer every way possible...or at least the three I know of. No love. I have to shut down every time I want to make a curves layer, then get only one shot. Next curves layer is a levels.
Does no one from Adobe look at this forum?? This has to be a problem with the application. New computer...virgin...nothing other than AVG virus protection package and other adobe products...Lightroom 5 (I had 4 on my old machine). Bridge cs6. Really, someone at Adobe ought to know how to fix this. Now. I first brought this problem forward in March; it's September. Others have had it. None of the suggested "fixes"...which I appreciate...work. It's time for Adobe to speak up!
Oh yeah...I'm on a Dell XPS 8500, Intel i7, Windows 7 Ultimate, 32 gig RAM, 64 bit OS.
Peter

Are there any levels or curves in FCPX?

It looks like it would at the very least support creating a Levels effect in motion and bringing that across, but what happens is the GUI loses the histogram and the effect itself doesn't work (it just causes a blank out on the media). So is there any other way of doing this?
This seems like a bit of a draconian omission since removing the Color app which had both these and much more, right now color correction and control in FCPX seems nearly non-existant.
As much as I like many other changes to the timeline and rendering process in FCPX the gaps are large and juddering.

Hi Steve, like your hint for motion. I have both FCPX and MOTION 5, and have started to like the effects builder in Motion that appears in FCPX. But are you saying there is a method to send a FCPX project into motion for "Serious" color editing and then back to FCPX again, with the filters and adjustment options?
If so, thats a rather akward but cool solution.
Would love to see how you did that.
Cause I agree, that FCPX and color editing may be full of power, but lacking options... I mean basic basic 1-2-3 everyday video editing options like Curves, Levels, etc...
Atb Sofus

LEVELS? CURVES? ... EXPOSURE?

A few Photoshop generations ago, the choice was simple: curves was non destructive, but layers was. Or something like that.
Curves is certainly a welcome addition to Aperture, but I'm left wondering: is it an "either/or" or an "and" with EXPOSURE controls (RAW, obviously) and LEVELS?
I'm not one to over-tweak my images, so... any workflow tips?

I think I have to agree with most comments here too. I think it was back in V1, and was still documented in V1.5, that the bricks were placed in an order that was suggested to be the best workflow.
My own workflow always starts with the exposure brick, although it makes sense to apply cropping first if needed. I then set a base exposure correction, using the clipping overlay tool (Command+adjust) to set the black and white points using the Exposure, Recovery and Black Point adjusters as required, depending on how I want the image to look, and Brightness if needed (note that this adjuster restrains the data within the histogram scale, and does not cause clipping).
This is only a base adjustment, and simply ensures I'm working with the maximum data available. The rest just depends on how much adjustment the image needs. Well exposed images shouldn't need much else, although I've made my own version of the iPhoto 'Enhance' tool, which applies a little definition, saturation, vibrancy, and some edge sharpen - all in very subtle amounts.
I rarely use the Auto buttons though, as I find them generally too severe.
Curves I don't make much use of, as I find without experience it's much easier to make a real mess of things. The Levels tool seems more productive if you're unsure of the curves settings needed - it does a lot anyway if you enable the quarter tone adjusters.

FX Factory Plugin Nattress Levels & Curves crashing Mavericks

Recently, I've reluctantly purchased FX Factory plugins - mainly because there's no other way to get Ripple Callouts and Tools (which I find really useful). I say reluctantly, because I learned a long time ago that plugins are one of the main causes of crashes in both old and new versions of FCP.
Over the past couple of days, I've been plagued with crashes and by a process of elimination, narrowed it down to the Levels and Curves plugin from FX Factory.
Those unfamiliar with plugins might think this is easily remedied by simply disabling the plugin. Not quite so. Disabling the plugin causes the clip to go "offline" - so every single clip has to have the plugin disabled or removed and of course, Levels and Curves being a colour correction plugin, the clip must be colour corrected again.
Unfortunately, I have hundreds of clips on which I've used the Levels and Curves plugin. This is a serious setback for my project. From now on, I will use the FCP X color board where possible. I say this with reservations though, because keyframing colour correction is essential in my work.
The clips are long and shot outdoors in the UK, where there's seldom a day which doesn't have huge variations in light levels.
I've found to my cost that if I use fixed exposure, the sun will come out, or clouds come over - and if I use auto-exposure, as soon as any sky appears in the shot, the footage gets adversely affected. Such are the joys of outdoor film and video production!
One of the most urgent modifications needed in FCP X is keyframing of colour correction. I realise there are workarounds, but they are messy.
I contacted FX Factory about the Levels and Curves plugin and the reply stated thus:
The authors of Levels and Curves (CC'd on this email) are working hard to identify this issue, which has appeared with OS X Mavericks. Hopefully there will be an update soon to solve the problem.
Andy

Thanks Ben.
BenB wrote:
1- Never update/upgrade mid-project.
2- Always verify all of your plugins and third party soft/hardware is compatible before any update/upgrade.
I agree in a perfect world, we'd all do this.
3- Always use an ND filter when shooting outdoors in the sun during mid-day.
How will an ND Filter prevent the light level plummeting when the sun suddenly goes behind a cloud (using manual exposure) or when the camera zooms out and the appearance of sky makes the auto-exposure darken the image?
4- Always shoot early morning and late evening when the sun is not as harsh.
Again, in a perfect world. Sometimes we don't have any choice.
Andy

Does Touch have "remove color cast" and adjust lighting - levels like Photoshop Elements?

Does Touch have "remove color cast" and adjust lighting -> levels like Photoshop Elements?

There isn't a "remove color cast" command per se but there are Levels and Curves adjustments so you can effectively remove/diminish colors yourself.

Exposure vs. Levels vs. Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layers?

I have some photos that are a bit underexposed and I'm trying to brighten them up a bit and I made a Levels adjustment layer and also experimented with the Exposure adjustment layer. Are these essentially doing the same thing OR are there reasons to have a Levels adjustment layer along with an exposure one and a Brightness/Contrast one?
Thanks in advance.

The Exposure adjustment in Photoshop is primarily meant to correct tonal values of High Dynamic Range images, which are 32 bits. This command makes tonal adjustments using a linear color space or gamma instead of your image’s color space. You can use it on 8 bit or 16 bit images too, but the adjustments may seem rather drastic.
When rescuing poorly exposed 8 bit or 16 bit images, I prefer Levels or Curves because you have greater control. Brightness/Contrast, isn't something I use much.
Nancy O.

Looking for an in-depth levels tutorial

I am looking for an in-depth tutorial on levels adjustment layer. NO VIDEOS please. I am looking for something that explains the axes and all of the controls in the levels adjustment layer and what they do in detail. The articles I have found so far are to superficial. Thanks.

I share your aversion to video tutorials, although I've learned a lot by watching YouTube tutorials on my TV.
This isn't a tutorial per se, but it is a good place to start: https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/photoshop_reference.pdf
Page 306 begins a discussion about "Correcting Images," and covers levels and curves, with links to supportive information.
I also found this, which gives some basic information, and does include a video, which you can ignore: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/levels-adjustment.html
I hope that helps.

Greyscale image, can't adjust contrast/levels.

A very recent problem - I have some greyscale scanned images - nothing fancy, batch-scanned via document feeder at 600 dpi - and my problem is this: I try to adjust contrast or levels, I see the effect I want in the image as I do so, but when I dismiss the contrast/levels dialogue, the change doesn't 'stick'.
I can delete parts of an image, paint-bucket for example works fine, I can save. I expect it's something obvious :(
OS X 10.3.9, Photoshop CS2. Memory is 1.25Gb (yes, I'm a lightweight ;) )

No. What I'm saying is they are
i like
bitmap mode, in that scanned grayscale images of line or halftone pics tend to have very little gray information. It's made mostly of black or white pixels. So Level or Curves adjustments have little effect. In addition, you will get a FALSE preview on any Level/Curves adjustments on these types of images when viewed at less than 100%. Just as you describe.
Same thing would happen if you took a detailed 1-bit file and converted to grayscale. The Levels/Curves adjustments would be available. A preview at less than 100% might show that Levels are lightening or darkening. But when you commit the command, the adjustment seems to disappear! That is because you only have 0 or 255 pixels, you can't lighten white and you can't darken black and there are no pixels in-between to affect.

Batch processing light levels...

I make stop-motion animations using natural light. This results in a “flickering” effect due to the small differences in light in each still. I am able to balance the light levels in Photoshop for each still, but this is very time-consuming. I’ve heard of using Batch processing for multiple images, but I have one question:
Can Batch processing take a number of images and make the light levels the same in each (so that all the images look the same)? Or does it just take a number of images and make the same adjustments to each one (so that they would still look different from eachother)?

Or does it just take a number of images and make the same adjustments to each one (so that they would still look different from eachother)?
How do you adjust the luminance?
Is it done with one of the Auto corrections? Then it should be automatable.
If it requires manual input (for example in the Levels or Curves dialog) then you are looking at a problem (not an undeserved one, I guess, as you chose natural lighting).
Far as I can tell automation of content-dependent corrections basically requires some form of quantifiability of the issue; so if you could for example deduce the necessary correction from the Histogram one should be able to make a Script for the task.

Could not complete your request because of a program error photoshop cs4

My first frustration right now is that I can't search the forums... anyone got an answer to that? on the right hand side (if I'm logged in) I type in a search for anything and it always shows no search results found! Why? is the search function not working?
Anyway, my problem is that when I try to save a multi-layered psd file into psd or jpg I get this error message: "Could not complete your request because of a program error."
What is causing it?
I checked for updates and PS is up-to-date. I restarted, and it worked great for about 3 saves (different pictures). (I'm basically running through some shots and just doing a quick levels and curves adjustment and running an action putting in my name watermark.)
After that quick edit and trying to save - same error message again.
It started suddenly yesterday - after having used PS for about 1.5 years without a problem. I haven't done any changes to it as far as I'm aware.
Any one seen this before, or have a solution to this?
Thanks!
Computer specs:
Windows 7 Pro - 64-bit
12 GB Ram
750 GB OS hdd where PS is installed
2 TB Media drive where the files are being pulled up from/saved to.
Intel i7 x980 3.33 GHz
GeForce GTX 470 with 1280 MB dedicated memory
Logged in as administrator.

Did you update or change or plug-in or remove anything else on your computer just before it happened? Photoshop relies on other system libraries to do things and maybe one of those changed.
No, I did not change anything; I was editing pictures - from a quadding trip where they asked me to shoot for them - and suddenly I started getting the message on most pictures.
Hard drives are not nearly full. (.99 TB free on media drive and 588 GB free on OS {C} Drive)
scandisk error check? I probably need that.. (I've had some problems with BSOD and had the BIOS corrupted recently that I had to flash the BIOS again. Could that cause something like this?)
How do you reset preferences? Is it the Ctrl + Shift + Alt key immediately after PS starts? I did that and it didn't fix it.
Saving in odd location? No, I don't think so; I save to the same place I save other stuff and I have a solid directory base and I always follow the same procedures. I save back into the same folder I open the file from and save back to the same filename + "edit". That way I can compare side by side and have a backup copy of the file.
The only USB device plugged into the computer is a logitech wireless combo of keyboard and mouse. (And a wired USB keyboard that sits to the side and that I use only when the batteries in my wireless dies.
I can't think of anything that has changed that would cause PS to act like this.
If I can't get it working soon, I'll re-install. I have the Production Premium CS4 version - can I just reinstall PS or would I have to do the whole suite?
Thanks!
PS. I don't know if I was clear enough on what I'm doing: I open anywhere from 1 - 20 pictures at once, and then do a quick level or curve adjustment and save to a different file name. The confusing thing is - some pictures I have no problem with, but others - even though I do exactly the same thing - this error message comes up. I'd say about half of my 107 pictures from the quadding trip refused to save.
It almost makes it seem like some pictures are corrupt or something - and yet, I'd be really surprised to have soo many corrupted images suddenly.

From inDesign to Magazine (Understanding the process - Indesign - In5 - Bakerframework -)

     Hello there, firstly I'd just like to say thanks so much for taking the time to help me (and maybe others who read this forum and have the same confusion) on how to go about these issues.
     I am incredibly new with creating Newsstand apps and have a very rough idea on how to create a Magazine to send off to the Newsstand application as affordable as possible. But, nevertheless, here is what my concept consists of.
     A: Create the particular "Issue" via inDesign
     B: Export the issue with "in5" to an HPUB format (Link to plugin - http://ajarproductions.com/pages/products/in5/?ref=footer)
     C: One thing I need help on - Import the .json created from in5 to Bakerframwork via xCode. (Anyone know any tutorials or exactly whats happening when I do this?)
     - From there I am under the assumption it some how links up with your actual "Magazine App" (What downloads when you click on the magazine name in the Newsstand store") How's this work?
     Now, when it actually comes to the application it's self (Issue container section) is where I get pretty nervous. I do not consider myself an App developer and am
     pretty much completely confused on what to do when it comes to this. I've been looking at alternative methods for being able to create that Magazine app / Issue purchaser / container section and have come across a template container (Link to site - http://www.appdesignvault.com/newsstand-app-ios/ ) and was hoping this would work with the HPUB i've generated out of in5. Does baker framework still need to be used? (Just a bit confused on exactly what bakerframework does)
     I am trying my hardest to completely understand what's actually happening throughout this process but the way I am going about it seems to be only one way out of plenty to actually create a Newsstand app. So, what I suppose I need help on is what are the file extensions that are generated when I export them? What is the file extension of the "issue" and how does it link to my "Magazine app" and how does this all tie in with baker framework?

You ought to be able to clip the black in photoshop so 97% outputs at 100% using levels or curves. Not knowing what the page looks like otherwise I couldn't say if this will be successful with the gradient or if you'd lose other sahodw details, but if it's going to press you probably don't really need to worry about it -- the dot gain on 97% will probably plug it up on the paper anyway.

New to photoshop, looking for advice on creating a stencil design, can anyone explain how to do this

Heya,
So I'm hoping to get back into photoshop, my knowledge at the moment is pritty minimal, but i'm going to start learning how to use it again.
I'm new to this forum and don't intend to come on here often for advice but i hope that someone would be kind enough to point me in the direction that i'm looking for, i would be very grateful.
Firstly, i haven't yet decided which adobe photoshop product is best suited for what i'm looking for and i aim to go and explore the trials first to find out.
I'm looking to create designs with software that doesn't really have any limits in terms of creating designs.
I was wondering if someone could give me some links to a tutorial or something that explains how to create the stencilling effect in the image that is seen as a tree with a cityscape in the background, and possibly the other effects seen on the t-shirt. I know it might be a lot to ask but it would really mean a lot if someone could explain how you create effects like this.
Here's the image:http://www.gifts.com/products/Kohls/Mudd-Tree-Tee?p=6886:1945256129:35
I know that the image is small, it was the best i could currently find, i hope that you can still see it well enough.
Thank you in advance
I really appreciate it!!

First you may want to google »photoshop tutorial distresssed«.
As for combining images like that a combination of Blend If-settings (one can split the handles by alt-click-dragging them)), Layer Groups set to Blend Modes other than Pass Through and Grtadient Maps may be employed to maintain high editability.
One could also just use the images as Layer Masks for Solid Color Layers (and use Levels or Curves to get the intended contrast), though.

Levels vs Curves

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for