> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ FEBRUARY 2020[ 56 ]
THE CRUSHED-BLACKS LOOK
Now that we know more about our tonal manipulation tools,
we’re going to use them to create two completely different looks.
The main tool we’re going to focus on is the histogram, which is
going to tell us how to get to the desired outcome using the tools
we’ve just learned about. Both looks can be applied to any type of
photo, especially since you can determine their characteristics by
looking at the histogram. So, let’s get to work.
The first look we’re going to create is a crushed-blacks look.
It creates a sharp, high-contrast image that’s especially flattering
when you want to emphasize shapes. It has many variations, but
one thing is always the same: the blacks are shifted off the graph,
or in other words, cut off. This means that we need to choose a
tool that can cut off certain parts of our tonal values. This limits
us to using Levels, Curves, or Exposure; however, the Exposure
adjustment would be a bit clunky for this, so let’s use Levels be-
cause it will be the easiest to use to give us the style we want.Step One: Since we’re dealing with tones and not colors, turn your
image to black and white so the hue and saturation don’t distract
you from your goal (of course, this is completely optional). I like to
do this by creating a new Solid Color fill layer on top of my image
layer by going to Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color. After giving the
layer a proper name in the New Layer dialog, like “Black and White,”The next slider is Offset. Sliding
this around affects the shadows and
midtones with some effect on the
highlights. This can also create gaps
(lighter blacks, or darker whites) on
both sides of the graph. Usually,
adding a bit of Offset can wash out
an image nicely.
The last slider is the Gamma Cor-
rection, which is hard to understand
if you don’t know what gamma
means (unfortunately, I don’t have
the space to explain gamma here,
so you’ll need to look it up on your
own). According to the Adobe Pho-
toshop User Guide, this slider “ad-
justs the image gamma, using a
simple power function. Negative val-
ues are mirrored around zero (that is,
they remain negative, but still get ad-
justed as if they’re positive).” Trans-
lating this to histogram “language,”
it can either lighten or darken the
absolute darks.