essential skills: digital photography in available light
Alternatively you can simply click on the ‘White Balance’ eyedropper in the small tools palette (top
left-hand corner of the dialog box) and then click on any neutral tone you can fi nd in the image.
Note > Although it is a ‘White Balance’ you actually need to click on a tone that is not too
bright. Clicking on a light or mid gray is preferable. A photographer looking to save a little
time later may introduce a ‘gray card’ in the fi rst frame of a shoot to simplify this task.Tonal adjustments - Step 2
Set the tonal range of the image using the ‘Exposure’, ‘Shadows’ and ‘Brightness’ sliders. These
sliders behave like the input sliders in the ‘Levels’ dialog box and will set the black and white
points within the image. The ‘Brightness’ slider adjusts the midtone values in a similar way to the
‘Gamma’ slider when using ‘Levels’ dialog. When tall peaks appear at either end of the histogram
you will lose shadow, highlight or color detail when you export the fi le to the main editing software.
Careful adjustment of these sliders will allow you to get the best out of the dynamic range of your
imaging sensor, thereby creating a tonally rich image with full detail.