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Chapter 7. Creating a Good Image

In This Chapter

• Understanding the histogram

• Getting ready to correct an image

• Making a good tone curve

• Editing adjustment layers

• Testing your printer

Considering all the incredible things you can do in Photoshop, you can easily forget the basics. Yes, you can create incredible compositions with special effects, but people who look greenish detract from the image. Get in the habit of building good, clean images before heading into the artsy filters and fun things. Color correction isn't complicated and, if it's done properly, produces magical results in your images. In this chapter, you see how to use the values you read in the Info panel and use the Curves panel to produce quality image corrections.

Reading a Histogram

Before making adjustments, look at the image's histogram, which displays an image's tonal values, to evaluate whether the image has sufficient detail to produce a high-quality image. In Photoshop CS5, choose Window

Note

The greater the range of values in the histogram, the greater the detail. Poor images without much information can be difficult, if not impossible, to correct. The Histogram panel also displays the overall distribution of shadows, midtones, and highlights to help you determine which tonal corrections are needed.

Figure 7-1 shows a good, full histogram that indicates a smooth transition from one shade to another in the image. Figure ...