Four ways to take control with Levels
Discover the versatility of a tool many Photoshop users take for granted
James Abbott
James is a professional photographer who specialises in landscape and portraits. He’s an advanced Photoshop user and has created hundreds of tutorials.
In photo editing, Levels are often considered to be the lesser sibling of Curves, because they don’t offer quite the same level of control when it comes to brightness, contrast and colour adjustments. But that certainly doesn’t mean that this often-underrated tool is redundant. Not only are Levels easier to get to grips with for beginners, they’re also the only Adjustment Layer of this type available in both Photoshop and Elements. We’ll cover all the techniques in Photoshop, but Photoshop Elements users can follow along, too: the controls are practically identical. Rather than focusing on one area of Levels, we’ll explore a range of ways in which you can apply brightness, contrast and creative colour effects.