Image Adjustment

Color Balance

The Color Balance palette offers simple controls for adjusting overall brightness, contrast, and color balance for the entire image. Unlike the controls in the Curves palette, however, the Color Balance palette does not allow you to make changes that affect only a portion of the tone range. After making broad adjustments to color balance in the Color Balance palette, examine the histogram in the Curves palette and make fine adjustments as needed.

Adjusting Brightness, Contrast, and Color Balance

1 Display the Color Balance palette Select the tool palette containing the Color Balance palette from the View menu (the default location is the Color Balance Palette) and click the triangle at the top left corner of the palette.

2 If the Apply button is off () , turn it on ()

Apply button

Brightness

Contrast

Red

Green

Blue

3 Adjust brightness, contrast, and color balance

Adjust brightness, contrast, and color balance using the options in the Color Balance palette.

Adjusting Overall Brightness

The brightness slider adjusts brightness for the entire image. Dragging the brightness slider in the + direction brightens all the colors in the image, making the image as a whole more white. Dragging the slider in the – direction darkens all the colors in the image, making the image as a whole darker and less distinct. Unlike adjustments to the midpoint in the Curves palette, this setting applies equally to shadows and highlights, producing a flat, low-contrast image. A value for brightness between –100 and +100 can be entered directly in the text box to the right of the slider.

Adjusting Image Contrast

Dragging the contrast slider in the + direction heightens the difference between highlights and shadows in the image, increasing contrast. Dragging the slider in the – direction de- creases the difference between light and dark portions of the image, lowering contrast. A value for contrast between –100 and +100 can be entered in the text box to the right of the slider.

Adjusting Color Balance

While the brightness slider adjusts brightness for the image as a whole, the three color- balance controls allow the user to adjust brightness for each color individually. For ex- ample, dragging the red slider in the + direction brightens the red portions of the image, making the image as a whole more red. Dragging it in the – direction dims the red ele- ments in the image, bringing out the remaining colors. A value between –100 and +100 can be entered for each color in the text box to the right of the slider.

66

Page 70
Image 70
Nikon 4 Adjusting Brightness, Contrast, and Color Balance, Adjusting Overall Brightness, Adjusting Image Contrast