SLIDER CONTROLS ORIENTATION

[A. J.]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find that the black and white slider controls in the levels adjustment panel of AP are in reverse orientation, i.e: if you pull the black slider to the right, where the scale shows it should be getting lighter, just the opposite happens - it gets darker. Same with the white slider - pull it left towards the dark side of the scale and it gets lighter. I understand that the scales are indicative of percentages of black and white, but I find this very confusing, and not at all intuitive.

[Fixx]

It is just you. Those are not lighter/darker adjustments, they are for setting black and white points. When you drag BP to the right towards lighter values you can see where the target is in the histogram, moving towards lighter areas.

[A_B_C]

In addition to what Fixx said, here is a nice and simple explanation of the levels adjustment panel, though written for a now obsolete competing product …  ;)

 

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/photoshop-levels-image-adjustment-essentials/

 

Hope that helps …  :)

Alex

[A. J.]

Hi, guys. Thanks for your input, it's much appreciated.

 

I understand about setting a white point and a black point. I just think the AP settings on the scales are counter-intuitive. Maybe it's just that old habits die hard. I used LR for quite some time, and if I remember correctly, all the sliders in the Basic and Tone Curve panels go left to right, dark to light. Pull a slider to the right and the image gets lighter, and vice versa. If you hold down the alt key, it allows you to set the white and black points. You pull a slider to the right, the image gets lighter, and you see where the light areas of the image are blown out, i.e: that is where you know that everything beyond there has no information, and you set the white point. Pull left to set the black point. Dark on the indicator means dark, light means light. Is it different in PS?

 

I don't mean to sound pedantic. That's just the way I remember it. I could be wrong. I have trouble remembering what I had for breakfast. :(

 

BTW, Alex: That is a great tutorial by Steve Patterson.

I agree with you that AP and other apps such as Luminar make PS obsolete, and I stopped updating PS and LR when Adobe went subscription. I'm in love with AP.

 

Thanks again.

[Fixx]

PS levels work similarly:

 

 

(I just wish there were auto button in AP too...)

 

LR has in basic tone controls it in opposite directions, but there is no actual Levels tool.

[DavidMac]

Just a tiny niggle, but I do wish AP offered output levels too. It's very useful on occasions.

I was about to say "There's always more than one way to skin a cat" but perhaps this is definitely not the forum for it. ;)  But of course there are all sorts of approaches to the same thing and I can do this with Curves for example, but It would be a logical and useful addition to Levels. 

[Kodiak]

(I just wish there were auto button in AP too...)

 

 

+1