Need help with levels dialog and highlights/shadows preview

MF
Posted By
Michael_Fletcher
Jun 5, 2004
Views
239
Replies
7
Status
Closed
I am running Photoshop CS on an iMac 20" with 1 GB of ram.

When you open the levels dialog and hold the alt/option key while sliding the highlight or shadow arrows, you should get an indication of blown highlights and shadows on the preview display. This used to work fine for me and I really like this feature.

At some point this seems to have stopped functioning and the preview looks the same whether is move the arrows with or without the alt/option key depressed.

Is there some preference that I inadvertantly changed? Has anyone else experienced this behavior or know of a fix?

Any help would be kindly appreciated since I can’t seem to figure this one out on my own.

Thanks!

-Michael
Related Tags
dialog help highlight level preview shadow

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Jun 5, 2004
It still works for me.
Make sure that "Preview" is checked in the Levels Palette If it still doesn’t work, try Repairing Permissions or trashing your Prefs.
AR
Andrew Rodney
Jun 5, 2004
Odd. You’re sure you’re clicking on the input levels? Is the "normal" preview look OK? Make sure Photoshop is seeing your display profile (in Color Settings, at the top of the RGB working space popup you’ll see "Monitor;XXX" where XXX is the name of the profile. It might be hosed (although you should still see the effect). If all else fails, trash the preferences and repair permissions.
MF
Michael_Fletcher
Jun 7, 2004
Yes, preview is checked.

I know how to trash the prefs, but how do I repair the permissions? Is it a menu option?
AS
Ann_Shelbourne
Jun 7, 2004
Use either Apple’s Disk Utility or Cocktail to "Repair Permissions".

You should always do this both before AND after installing new software.
R
Ram
Jun 7, 2004
Michael,

Click on the thread below. Read it in its entirety, as well as the links contained therein:

Ramón G Castañeda "Repair Permissions BEFORE AND AFTER installing software (for the FAQs?)" 6/2/04 8:12pm </cgi-bin/webx?50>
BB
Berry_Banks
Jun 8, 2004
Michael,

This has happened to me in the past, but somehow got resolved by itself. BTW I do run permissions daily.

Another way to find the white and black points:

1)Have the eye dropper tool selected.

2)create an adjustment layer with "Threshold" use the slider to find the first showing of blacks and do a shift click with the eye dropper. This will set a sample point. Now move the slider the other way to find the first showing of white, and shift click again to set a sample point.

3) at this time you can cancel the "Threshold". Make a new levels adj. layer and set the white & black points on the sampled points you just made.
MF
Michael_Fletcher
Jun 10, 2004
Thank you everyone for your help!

I am so happy to have a forum like this to share ideas and help each other.

I ran the Repair Permissions on my startup disk using Apple’s Disk Utility and the problem corrected itself. :O)

I never knew about this feature and will be sure to use it whenever I install software in the future.

Berry, thanks for the alternate method of finding highlights and shadows.

-Michael

How to Master Sharpening in Photoshop

Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections