Black and White Points

[CharlesG]

Gday Friends,

Was watching a lightroom video tutorial and noticed that there is a way within the levels adjustment to set the black or white points to pure black or pure white respectively.  I am interested to do this because I am experimenting with still life photography that is sometimes set against a black or white background and want to ensure that those are not shades of gray.

Thank you as always!

[NotMyFault]

Hi Charles,

thank you for sharing.

Just wondering what is your question?

The levels adjustment will do what you described.

[CharlesG]

Yes but how do you tell when the black is true black?  In lightroom you can click on the black background and it sets that as the black point to ensure that your background is set to black.

I'm sorry as you can tell I don't really know how to phrase the question, I just don't know exactly how far to bring the black slider to the right to set the black point.

 

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, CharlesG said:

Yes but how do you tell when the black is true black?  In lightroom you can click on the black background and it sets that as the black point to ensure that your background is set to black.

I'm sorry as you can tell I don't really know how to phrase the question, I just don't know exactly how far to bring the black slider to the right to set the black point.

 

You might try the Help: https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Adjustments/adjustment_levels.html

In particular, the comment about holding the Opt (Mac) or Alt (Windows) key while you drag the Black and White Level sliders:

Quote

Holding the [Opt/Alt key] whilst modifying the Black Level or White Level provides a realtime clipping preview.

So, you can adjust one of the levels until you start to see a change, then back it off a little bit.