Re: calling all photoshop gurus

Scott,

I think I understand what you mean.

Once you have your image or negative ready, then open the INFO palette
Windows>Info

Next, go to Image>Adjustments>Levels OR, if you are in 16 bit image and
using Photoshop CS (which is wonderful) go to Layers>New Adjustment Layers>Levels

Once you have the Levels Adjustment window open by one of these methods, look
at the lower part of the window and you will see a gradient with two
triangles on each end—the left one adjusts the shadows and the right one adjusts the
highlights.

As you slide either triangle towards the center, you will see the output
levels (0-255) in ONE of the little boxes change...shadows on the left and
Highlights on the right. What you are doing is moving the Black Point higher and
the White Point lower. Everything in between gets compressed together
accordingly. So you might change your Black Point, or darkest part of the image from
0,0,0 to 20,20,20 and the White Point from 255,255,255 to 240,240,240.

The numbers in the two little boxes next to OUTPUT LEVEL tell you exactly how
much.

Since you have the INFO palette open, even with the Levels Adjustment Window
open, you can still go over to your image and move the little eyedropper
around and sample the change in the levels you are making.

This slider differs from the sliders above it in that it compresses all the
tones without clipping. Whereas, if you do the same thing with the top
sliders, you convert all the highlights to paper white as you slide to the left and
all the shadows to "Black" as you slide the left hand slider to the right.

Remember though, unless you are doing this as an adjustment layer, you are
making a permanent change in the file—so you might want to duplicate the file
first!

Hope this clarifies my earlier comment.

Mark Nelson

In a message dated 12/23/03 9:13:13 PM, smwbmp@starpower.net writes:
>  
>
> As to your post throught the list, what I was trying to say (muddled?) was
> that I want to pick a shadow tone (call it zone III) in the negative and set
> that tone to a RGB of 150, 150, 150 (which corresponds to a density of
> 0.20 via my tests). Then, I wanted to pick a highlight tone (call it zone VIII) in
> the negative and set that tone to a RGB of 11, 11, 11 (which corresponds to a
> density of 2.00 via my tests). That would give the printed negative a DR of
> 1.80 which I need for cyanotype. I tried using both levels and curves but
> don't seem to be getting what i'm looking for (I don't understand the input and
> output settings). I have to adjust the image then sample the area I want
> modified with the eyedropper tool (and checking the foreground color). If it's
> not right, I have to undo it and start over until I have what I want. I thought
> there might be a simpler way of going about it.
>
>  
>
> Thanks and happy holidays,
>
>  
>
> Scott
>
>
Received on Wed Dec 24 01:11:16 2003