Levels Gamma Adjustment

[Mr. K]

Is the Gamma adjustment the same as mid-tones adjustment in PSD's levels?

 

 

[MEB]

Hi Mr. K

Yes, it will adjust the mid-tones.

You can also press ALT while dragging the Black and White Level sliders for clipping preview.

[JoaCHIP]

I just tried this function, and one thing surprised me a bit: When turning the "Gamma" to the right, the image turned darker. I guess this may make sense in a print context (increase gamma -> more ink to the paper), but in relation to photo and video stuff, I would always interpret someone telling me to "increasing gamma" as "make it brighter".

 

Then again, Affinity seems to always start with a white background, so maybe I should see things from a print perspective when working with Affinity? I mean, what's the general philosophy one should expect across the entire Affinity application? Print (subtractive color theory) or Screen/photo/video (additive color theory)?

[IanWilson]

I think that the Levels controls in most apps work like that. Moving the gamma slider to the left means that tones closer to the dark end of the scale are being mapped to the middle of the output scale. It is similar to what happens if you use a curve instead and drag the middle of the curve up an to the left - the image gets brighter. (I remember that in the original beta, it worked the other way round. I and perhaps others too, asked them to change it because it was the opposite of the way it worked in every other app.)

 

Ian