harsh light colour to b n w

N
Posted By
nick
Oct 29, 2003
Views
265
Replies
3
Status
Closed
Hi,

I have lots of colour photos taken in harsh lighting in the middle of the afternoon. They are all scanned and on a computer so that I can show my friends. I have access to Photoshop 6 for an hour or so each week and realised that by clicking DESATURATE the photos turn black and white. Then, just by altering BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST I can, within seconds make an image that is noticably better to look at than the original colour. My question, if anyone would be kind enough to reply, is, can something as quick as this be done which will improve the image whilst retaining the colour?

Thanks
Related Tags
color light

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M
Mr3
Oct 29, 2003
There are several adjustments that can be made…

A very simple one that mimics what you do now is:
Open the image in Photoshop
Click Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Brightness-Contrast
Then adjust the controls.

This technique does not alter your original image and can be used with additional or alternate adjustment layers. From there you can adjust Layer Opacity on the Layers Palette for fine tuning.

HTH

Mr3

"nick" wrote in message
Hi,

I have lots of colour photos taken in harsh lighting in the middle of the afternoon. They are all scanned and on a computer so that I can show my friends. I have access to Photoshop 6 for an hour or so each week and realised that by clicking DESATURATE the photos turn black and white.
Then,
just by altering BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST I can, within seconds make an image that is noticably better to look at than the original colour. My question, if anyone would be kind enough to reply, is, can something as quick as this be done which will improve the image whilst retaining the colour?

Thanks

N
nick
Oct 29, 2003
Great, thanks…

Nick

Mr3
< &#106;&#104;&#097;&#114;&#114;&#105; &#115;&#051;&#064;&#115;&#112;&#101; &#0
97;&#107;&#101;&#097;&#115;&#121;&#0 46;&#110;&#101;&#116; > wrote in message
There are several adjustments that can be made…

A very simple one that mimics what you do now is:
Open the image in Photoshop
Click Layer/New Adjustment Layer/Brightness-Contrast
Then adjust the controls.

This technique does not alter your original image and can be used with additional or alternate adjustment layers. From there you can adjust Layer Opacity on the Layers Palette for fine tuning.

HTH

Mr3

"nick" wrote in message
Hi,

I have lots of colour photos taken in harsh lighting in the middle of
the
afternoon. They are all scanned and on a computer so that I can show my friends. I have access to Photoshop 6 for an hour or so each week and realised that by clicking DESATURATE the photos turn black and white.
Then,
just by altering BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST I can, within seconds make an image that is noticably better to look at than the original colour. My question, if anyone would be kind enough to reply, is, can something as quick as this be done which will improve the image whilst retaining the colour?

Thanks

MR
Mike Russell
Oct 29, 2003
nick wrote:
Hi,

I have lots of colour photos taken in harsh lighting in the middle of the afternoon. They are all scanned and on a computer so that I can show my friends. I have access to Photoshop 6 for an hour or so each week and realised that by clicking DESATURATE the photos turn black and white. Then, just by altering BRIGHTNESS and CONTRAST I can, within seconds make an image that is noticably better to look at than the original colour. My question, if anyone would be kind enough to reply, is, can something as quick as this be done which will improve the image whilst retaining the colour?

There are a number of ways to fix this problem.

If you are already happy with your B&W images, you can drag them on top of the original color one. This creates a new layer. Change the layer mode to "luminance" and you’ll get and image that looks better and retains the color.

A better way to do this is with curves. Moving the bottom third of the curve up a notch or two will open up the shadows without throwing away detail in the brighter areas of your image, which almost always happens with the brightness and contrast settings.

—

Mike Russell
http://www.curvemeister.com
http://www.zocalo.net/~mgr
http://geigy.2y.net

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