Real World Digital Photography, 2nd edition

Global Tonal Correction

Now that we've laid the foundation for working with images in Photoshop, we'll address some of the important, fundamental techniques that can be used to improve any image. Chief among these is tonal correction, or adjusting the brightness levels of your images. The modifications made to the tonal range are often simple, yet the change in the image can be quite dramatic.

Before we get into the details of manipulating the tonal levels in your images, however, we want to talk about the best way to apply any color or tonal change in Photoshop so that the change is flexible and not permanent. The importance of this approach cannot be overstated.

The Importance of Adjustment Layers

The cold, hard truth of editing digital images ...