Photo Color Correction

Adobe Photoshop Tutorial

3. Brightness/Contrast

The third Adjustment Layer in the Photoshop color management control panel is Brightness/Contrast. It is not so much for color as tone/shading/lighting. It is one of the earliest and most basic Photoshop functions.

Brightness/Contrast is in fact the simplest adjustment layer with the least number of features. There are only two sliders, one for brightness, the other for contrast. It is pretty straight forward, as the names explain exactly what they do.

You can increase or decrease brightness and contrast. They are related but they are changed independently. Like the other Adjustment Layer sliders, you can click and drag or use arrow keys (Shift-arrow for +/- 10).

Some photo corrections require only brightness; others only contrast; while others need adjustments to both brightness and contrast.

Brightness/Contrast is quite unrefined. Unlike the other adjustment layers, it doesn't allow changes to specific shades, like Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights of select colors. It changes everything at once, so it is used when the entire image needs to be changed.

There are other adjustment layers to fine tune the brightness and contrast of specific colors when you need to isolate them. You can, for example, brighten the reds or the yellows, and leave the rest of the photo the same.

Although it is primitive, Brightness/Contrast has its place, and it is useful to see if basic adjustments can be made early in the photo color correction process. It is easy to use and results can be previewed quickly.

Going to Extremes

The inherent danger of using Brightness/Contrast is making the most extreme areas of a photo look distorted: the darkest parts become too dark and the lightest parts become too light.

Increasing the intensity of the shadows and highlights using different adjustment layers can remove fine details, but especially using Brightness/Contrast.

Keep your eye on the areas which are or become pitch black and pure white.

Toggle the preview box to see how much if any detail is going to be lost, and how much if any difference it makes to the overall quality of the image.

Some details can be lost without it making any appreciable difference, and sometimes it actually helps to remove stray pixels or messy areas at object edges.

But if too much detail is going to be lost in one area with the adjustment layer correction which helps the rest of the picture, isolate the area and airbrush black onto the adjustment layer.