PhotoShop CS5 - Using levels to adjust exposure

[Set_Nights]

Hey there,

I have been using Lightroom for the last few months and was getting the hang of using the different Development tools. I have now downloaded a Photoshop CS5 trial and urm... it is different . I have been reading online tutorials about curves and levels and the difference between them but I still have a few questions.

When would you use the exposure or contrast options in Photoshop? After playing with Curves (or even Levels) it seems that you'd never need to use the Exposure and Contrast? Or am I missing something? If you do still use them when do you do it and why?

Curves and Levels seem very similar (even after trying to read articles on the difference between them ) with Curves just being a more advanced and dynamic option. Is there anything that Levels can do that curves can't?

What do you use the gradient bar beneath the Levels chart for?! I can't find any tutorial that gives it a use.

 

[arad85]

Lightroom is a front end to Adobe Camera Raw. All the development module changes can be made if you open objects as a raw file, they're just in a different place.

As to gradient bar, I assume you mean the black to white bar. If so, this limits the output values to between the min and max values. This is different to the sliders under the input as that sets the input mapping and the output sets the output mapping. For example, you can map everything above 200 on the input side to be white by pulling the slider under the graph such that the white triangle is at 200. You can then make everything that is white on input (i.e. above 200 in the example above) map to a grey by pulling the slider down in the output section.

 

[Set_Nights]

Lightroom is a front end to Adobe Camera Raw. All the development module changes can be made if you open objects as a raw file, they're just in a different place.

As to gradient bar, I assume you mean the black to white bar. If so, this limits the output values to between the min and max values. This is different to the sliders under the input as that sets the input mapping and the output sets the output mapping. For example, you can map everything above 200 on the input side to be white by pulling the slider under the graph such that the white triangle is at 200. You can then make everything that is white on input (i.e. above 200 in the example above) map to a grey by pulling the slider down in the output section.

Thanks . I worked out how the sliders under the input worked but was confused about the gradient bar. So would you always use this or do you ever use the exposure adjustment?

 

[arad85]

So would you always use this or do you ever use the exposure adjustment?

I tend to do most of my post with the xposure bar and fill light (to get some detail in the shadows). TBH, I rarely use PS - 98% of the stuff I do is in Lightroom and the only time I drop into PS is to do pixel level editing.

As I mentioned above, PS has Adobe Camera Raw which has ALL the control of Lightroom, just organised differently. If I were editing in PS solely, I'd open everything as a arw file, do all my processing in the raw module and then drop into PS if I needed to replace pixels...