Selecting Color Balance adjustment layer brings up Levels adjustment layer

Ok, so, all of a sudden I cannot get a color balance adjustment layer to come up. Every time I do photoshop creates a levels layer. Selecting levels makes a levels layer. All of the other adjustment layers seem to be working normally. How do I fix this? I have a deadline and no time to be reinstalling photoshop.

Reinstalling the application seldom helps, and re-installing without trashing your preferences is futile as you end up right where you started.
I understand your frustrartion, but please remember that you are not addressing Adobe here in this user to user forum.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/419981?tstart=0
Excerpt from that link:
• Do not be abusive or aggressive in your tone
An aggressive or abusive sounding post will often evoke an aggressive or abusive and unhelpful reply
Remember, you are requesting help from other users, just like you, who are giving their time free of charge. No one is under any obligation to answer your question.
Thanks!

Similar Messages

Color balance adjustment layer opening as levels

When I try creating a color balance adjustment layer is it opening a levels adjustment layer. I'm using the New Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the Layers panel. Is this a bug with CS6? How can I fix the problem?

This is the process that I go through:
Selecting the adjustment icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel, as shown below.
I select color balance, as shown below.
The properties panel is brought up, and shows the color balance adjustment controls.
In your properties panel, are your saying when you follow the above, that level adjustments come up?
Janelle

Question about HSL Develop Controls vs. Photoshop Selective Color

Im an advanced Photoshop user and I enjoy shooting landscapes, macros and abstracts. Ive just started to experiment with Lightroom and have used it to process several hundred shots from a recent trip to the California Coast.
Even though my usage of the next Develop controls in Lightroom is still pretty limited, I find the new Basic Develop and Tone Controls to be very intuitive to use and Im getting better results than I could from Adobe Camera Raw 3.7 and earlier. Therefore, kudos to the Lightroom team.
But, I also have some questions regarding the HSL controls and what seems to be an omission of some useful functionality. To help with framing my question lets assume that we have shot of a waterfall in the forest. The waterfall is in partial shade and the rest of the scene is in partial to full sun. Also the histogram for image indicates that a blend of several bracketed images isnt needed to deal with the overall dynamic range within the scene.
If I was processing this shot in Photoshop, I would likely adjust the overall White Balance / Exposure / Black Clip / Contrast / Brightness in Camera Raw and then finish the image within Photoshop. Since the water of the waterfall described above is in the shade, it will likely have a color cast relative to the White Balance that I set for the rest of the image that is full sun.
With Photoshop, I would often set a couple of sample points and then use a Selective Color layer to correct for the color cast in the whites of the water and to neutralize the blacks in the shade. I would also sometimes increase the amount of black in the Selective Color Blacks tab to enhance the image contrast. These adjustments could have layer masks associated with them but for this example lets assume that the dont need any mask. Thus, I would hope that I could accomplish the same type of globally based whites and blacks color cast removal within Lightroom but I cant seem to find a way to accomplish this.
With Lightroom, I see that there are a set of HSL controls that should be able to handle much of what Selective Color could handle on a global level within Photoshop but I dont see any controls to deal with the Whites or Blacks. Am I missing something? Is there a way to accomplish the type of correction that I described above with Lightroom or am I going to have to take the image out to Photoshop and use Curves and/or Selective Color?
Dave

Fred, Richard - Thanks for responding.
I've tried the TAT tool but it only controls the colors controlled by the sliders in the HSL palette. Therefore, it doesn't seem to have any affect on the hue of the whites or blacks in a picture.
Regarding selective editing, I realize the the controls within Lightroom are global but unless I use a Layer Mask the Selective Color functionality within Photoshop is also global. That is, if I change the hue of the blacks then all blacks are affected. Hence, it seems to me that the HSL controls within Lightroom and the CYMK controls within Selective color can be used to do much the same thing. The big difference is that the Selective Color control set include the ability to adjust blacks and whites but this isn't included within Lightroom.
I also posted my message in the ACR forum as ACR 4.0 is going to include the same set of controls that the Develop module in Lightroom contains. Someone there suggested that I might be able to use the split toning controls to warm up the shadows and I will give this a try. I also plan to post in the Feature Requests Forum.
Thanks again for your help.
Dave

Auto color balance

Hello,
I'm using Photoshop CS2 on a work computer to edit and upload pictures of vehicles and I use the Auto Color Balance (Ctr+Alt+B) very often. I recently switched computers and installed the same version of Photoshop on my new one and it no longer auto adjusts the color balance, it just brings up the menu to manually adjust photos. Can anyone help me make it auto adjust again?

Yes it will use the last used settings if you use Ctrl+Alt+B, but as far as i know the color balance dialog will still open with the last used settings shown.
Ctrl+B opens the color balance dialog, but with the settings zeroed

Cannot select tones in Color Balance adjustment layer

I'm not able to select the tone menu in the color balance tool. Is this a bug?

It was the tone pulldown menu when I used color balance as an adjustment layer. But it's now working for me. I just restarted the app.

Color Balance Adjustment Layer to blend faces?

I'm using 2 different images of 2 different people, and layer masking features from one person on to another. Afterwards, I play with the levels a little bit, though the skin tones from the different features are still off. I tried using a Color Balance Adjustment Layer, though I'm not really sure what to look for. I'm just eyeballing it, though are there any guidelines for doing something like this?
1. Should I be adjusting the midtones, shadows or highlights?
2. I added a little bit of red, is there ever a time when you might add add magenta or green to blend skin tone? What about yellow or blue?
3. Any other general tips for doing this?
Thanks.

What version of PS are you using? I think there were a couple versions that variations was removed. If you have it, it should be done on the layer that you want to adjust the color, but I would make that layer a smart object first, so you could undo what ever you did.

Selections & Levels Adjustment Layer Not Working Properly

Hello,
I'm experiencing something that I've never encountered before. I’ve used the selection function and levels adjustment layer hundreds of times and I’ve never ever seen this...
When I make a selection (in this case the signatures on the attached image) and then darken that selection using a levels adjustment layer, some of the surrounding information is changing/darkening as well. This should not be happening.
What's the fix?
Best,
Michelle

The solution I already gave you is valid, and works to modify your existing method, depending on your Quick Mask setting. Rather than reject it out of hand, I suggest you use it.
The problem is that I've performed this procedure hundreds of times before, using the very same steps below, and this particular oddity has never happened, until now.
If you have selected different Eyedropper settings (Range for example), or the image has even slightly different tonal or colour characteristics to normal, your method will not always work. Your method is too crude. In particular the need to alter the selection using the Marquee selection tool, suggests that some knowledge is required.
There are better methods that will produce perfect masks - using Calculations, channel operations, or even the new Refine Edge command. You probably don't even need selections at all to do this, because Curves and Advanced Blending Options could be used instead.

How to create a selection or mask from a Selective Color layer

Hi. I was wondering if it is possible to get a selection/mask out of a Selective Color Layer.
For instance lets say I have a complicated photo and I put a Selective Color layer on. I then pick Red and start adjusting. I can see the effect and how it changes the red and how it falls off in the photo. Is it at all possible to create a selection or a mask based off of that effect?
Thank you

You can try this. Once you get your selective color adjustment layer the way you like it, change it's blending mode to difference. Add a B&W adjustment layer above that then a curves or levels adjustment layer above that. Use the curves or levels adjustment layer to give the image more contrast by adjusting the top white values. This will produce an image that you can then make a selection from from the channel pallet.

Color Balance Adj Layer Characteristics Changed from CS4- CS5?

Maybe some guru with better connections to Adobe knows the answer to this. (or maybe I just forgot).
I just discovered (and I don't think it is pilot error) that the characteristic behavior of the Color Balance Adjustment Layer is different in CS5 than it was in CS4/CS3. (Much stronger in CS4/CS3).
In addition, there is also an associated behavior that is like a buried legacy mode that is not made visible to the user. Here is what I mean.
If I create an image in CS4 with a single Color Balance Adj Layer, I get an adjusted image.
If I open that same PSD file in CS5, the same image is displayed.
If I use the same base image, yet create the Color Balance Adj Layer from within CS5, the adjusted image is different than the prior two.   So the Color Adjustment Layer acts like it has a hidden legacy mode where the characteristics are one type if created in CS4/CS3 yet a different characteristic if created in CS5.
My mind might be slipping (or my cold has the better of me) because I do not remember this as a documented change and I searched the internet for "What's new in CS5" etc etc. I don't remember anything on other forums about this either.
I guess the good news is, the new characteristic of the Color Balance Adjustment Layer is better behaved with a transfer curve with less clipping for highlights and shadows. Very similar to the better behavior of the change of the Brightness/Contrast Adjustment Layer going from CS2 to CS3.
Here are some comparison images.
This is the Layer Stack Used with Base Image of simple B to W gradient with CB Layer on top with just the highlights pegged to red. This is the exact same Layer Stack for all of the images shown:
Here is the first image. This was created in PS CS4 and displayed from CS4 with the conditions show above:
This is the same image from above that was saved as PSD with profile and them imported to PS CS5 with same profile. There was no change:
This next image is using the same base gradient, yet then creating the CB Layer from within PS CS5 with the same parameters, only the Red pegged for the Highlights:
Does someone have an easy answer for this. Can someone duplicate this and confirm the change from CS4 to CS5. A test by someone else would either confirm I am off base with pilot error or there is something to this.
And yes, all the images were sRGB and kept in sRGB for creation/display. All Screenshot images were the images brought up side by side on the same color managed monitor.   All Edit > Color Settings were identical.
Thanks in advance for any help
John

OK, Chris, but before I perform my act of self flaggelation for the benefit for all and my extra embarrassment, let me add in some useful information about the Color Balance Adj Layer that could be helpful.
I was working with another individual who wanted a better understanding the color balance adj layer, what is was exactly doing, how the shadows, midtones, and highlights interacted, and the differences with preserve luminosity checked or not, and also why the preserve luminosity was so hard to predict (e.g. did not really preserve luminoisty).
Without going into the deails of all of that, the tidbit I will leave as far as penance for my stupid original post above is that the Color Balance Adj Layer with the Preserve Luminosity box checked does a reasonable job or preserving luminoisty for the midtone adjustments yet definitely does not for the shadow and highlight adjustments.
An easy workaround for this is to just set the Color Balance Adj Layer Blend to Color which preserves Luminosity of the image presented from lower layers while maintaining the Color as best it can from using the CB Adj Layer (It holds the Hue and does its best to keep the same Saturation yet the Luminoisty from the presented image from lower layers takes prescendence). This does a much better job at preserving Luminosity than using the checkbox option.    I usually use this approach and keep the Preserve Luminiosity box turned off.
The error that I made was during the fairly involved exchange with this other individual, at some point I accidentally set the Layer Mask for the CB Adj Layer to 50% gray and did not notice that it had changed from the default white. Much further down the line, when this other individual could not exactly recreate my results, he mentioned working in CS3. Thinking this odd, I pulled up CS3, created the image from scratch (without the erroneous mask change to 50% gray) so therefore I duplicated his results and did not realize the error was in my original Layer Stack. To make a long story short, I went and checked for differences in all system settings, profiles, Color Settings, opacity settings, Blend settings, Layer Style settings (and their options) etc, etc and overlooked a change in the Mask gray level.       When I quickly flashed back and forth between the two documents/stack it finally popped out at me. Mea Culpa.

Levels adjusment to only selected colors in indexed image?

I regularly have to adjust ranges of colors in indexed images. I usually use "Image -> Adjustments -> Replace color..." to do this since it effectively allows me to pick multiple color table entries and apply Hue, Saturation, and Lightness adjustments to them. What I could *really* use now and then, however, is the ability to apply a Levels adjustment to the selection. Unfortunately, I can only seem to apply a Levels adjustment to the whole indexed image, not just ranges of color table entries. I can't convert to RGB first because the color tables I end up with have to be applicable to the same image (the pixels in the image have to continue to reference the same color table index; converting to RGB and back breaks this association).
Does anyone know if there's something I'm overlooking? The "Lightness" adjustment in the "Replace color..." tool just doesn't cut it for the level of adjustment I need.

Here's a test I did. First I created the rhinestone shape (rough shaped), with transparent background). I used a size of 30px and made a pattern of it.
Then I took this photo and reduced it to the number of pixels that I wanted for each of the dots. So in this case, I wanted 100 dots across the top, So I reduced the image to 100px wide.
Then I converted it to index color with the five colors your wanted: white, black, red, yellow, and blue.
After that, I converted back to RGB and upscaled it using nearest neighbor to keep the pixelated look. I upscaled it so each pixel was my pattern size of 30px, so 3000%.
Then I created a blank layer under this pixelated layer, and used the fill command using the pattern I created in the first image. I clipped the pixelated layer to the fill layer, so that the colors would just show where my pattern had pixel values (round dots). Then I set the pixelated layer's bend mode to overlay to get the look of a rounded dot.
It looks a bit flat, but you can play with different patterns to get different looks. I also put a solid black layer under everything to fill in the gaps between the dots.

Action written in CS4 won't run correctly in Elements 11 - specif. the "selective color" layer

I created an action using Adobe Photoshop CS4, and it runs correctly in CS4. When I save and load the action into Elements 11, there is a problem with the selective color layer. The selective color layer shows up in the layer stack along with the expected message that it can't be edited b/c it was created in the full version of Photoshop. However, the layer itself does not have any color/changes in it.
In Photoshop, the selective color layer makes the photo look pink. When I run the action in Elements11,the selective color layer does absolutely nothing to the photo. I do have the eye turned "on" to view the layer, and it's set at the correct blending options & opacity (normal, 100%).
If I run the action in Photoshop, save the file with all the action-created layers, and reopen the file in Elements 11, THEN the selective color layer shows its correct pink color. But when I run the action as a stand-alone action in Elements11, it does not.
Can anyone offer help as to why this is happening? Is there something special I need to do to make the action work correctly in Elements 11? My understanding was that it should RUN and create the layers correctly, although some of them will not be editable in Elements11. However, as it stands, it is not creating them with the correct color.
Thanks in advance for your help!

You probaly need to record the action in a little different way in photoshop cs4 to get the selective color adjustment layer to work.
Try something like this:
1. In photoshop cs4 add an selective color adjustment layer, but don't do any adjustments and stop recording the action.
2. Undo the selective color adjustment layer and then double click on on the selective color adjustment layer step in the actions panel
and when the dialog opens set your adjustments and click ok.
Now it should work in pse 11:

Selective Color Adjustment Layers

Maybe someone can guide me on how to remedy these questions about Adjustments Layers changes in CS4:
1. Selective Color adjustment. When entering values manually, "undo" will now (in CS4) only undo the last digit (all other versions would undo the whole value just entered). Exp: if I enter +25, and then want to immediately change to +10, pressing Command Z only will undo the "5", not the whole "+25". This has been possible for over a dozen years, so not sure why it won't work now.
2. Old key commands for cycling through each color in Selective Color no longer work in CS4. "Command 1" used to toggle Red, "Command 2" would toggle Yellow, etc. Again, this has always been possible in other versions.

Okay, here's the link I found to the plugin and info on the changes.
http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2008/10/shortcut_changes_in_cs4.html
sure change is good, but after 15+ years using the same keys (well most have been the same now since v4.0), having to pause for the first time and take 2 days to learn how to use something you have used everyday without hiccups on previous versiosn - it gets frustrating, and loses valuable time for yourself and clients. How embarrassing to be in front of clients and realize you don't know how to bring up feathering because it both changed in the menu, and the key command no longer works...
thanks again Mark

Making a Levels Adjustment Layer

I want to create a Levels Adjustments Layer in CS5. I select the layer of the image I want to adjust, create a new layer above it, and want to choose image > Adjustment > Levels, though it is greyed out?
How do you do this?

Or click the appropriate icon in the Layers Panel:
Edit: If you want to apply the Adjustment to just the underlying layer make a Clipping Mask (command-alt-G or alt-click the line between the layers’ icons in the Layers Panel).

Levels adjustment layer in a 16 bits/channel image

Since adobe removed the way i had been adding adjustment layers to 16 bits/channel images from pse 10, i had to try and find another easy way.
Here's the gist of it (if anyone's interested):
1. Open a camera raw image, in the camera raw dialog set the Bit Depth to 16 bits/channel and press open.
2. Duplicate the layer by selecting the move tool, hold down the Alt (option) key and move the image up just a bit (this duplicates the layer)
Select>All, use the align vertical centers and align horizontal centers in the tool options bar. Select>Deselect. (this aligns the layer)
3. Add a layer mask to the layer (the layer mask button on the bottom of the layers panel)
4. Make sure the layer mask is active by clicking on it. (this won't work if the layer mask is not active)
5. Choose the Smart Brush Tool, Nature and click on Cloud Contrast (levels adjustment layer added)
6. It's very important that you switch to another tool before doing anything else or elements is prone to crash.
7. Now hit Ctrl (cmd) +i to invert the layer mask (double click on the adjustment layer to open the adjustments panel)
8. Reset the Levels adjustment layer by clicking on the Reset to adjustment defaults button on the bottom of the adjustments panel.
Now your ready to adjust the levels on your image.
(i the screenshot i actually duplicated the background layer twice and renamed the Cloud Contrast 1 to Levels 1)
You can use this same method to get other kinds of adjustment layers, just try some of the different options in the smart brush menu.

Thanks for the tip R_Kelly. I still think it’s easier to use the sliders in camera raw e.g. exposure, fill light recovery etc.
However a levels adjustment could be useful for a badly exposed image where you want to drag in the extreme white and black points of the histogram.
I wonder how many other Elements hidden secrets are available!

Colorizing hair with Color Balance Layer VS. Paintbrush?

I'm following a tutorial and want to change the color of someone's hair, so I make a color balance adjustment layer, change the color, press option delete, and then paint over the hair with white to make this color come back. How is this all different from just getting the paint brush tool on a new layer and painting over the hair? Isn't the end result the same and a bit easier?
Thanks.

Both methods work
The masked method may take longer, but get you better results, because you can stack various color corrections as in the screenshot below. You can also do more like turn a brunette into a blond with the mask method. With the paintbrush I would not attempt such a correction.
If you have a low budget job with 100s of images, you may just want to use the paintbrush set to a color mode.

Selecting Color Balance adjustment layer brings up Levels adjustment layer

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