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Ian
Edit My Images
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Just wondered how many of you use (if at all) auto levels/colour/contrast etc when editing.

I was just having a play in CS2 with a Raw file.......

On the left everything done on Auto on the right nothing done with Auto,

AUTO.jpg
 
are you saying that Auto corrections are no good, because it looks like it made a mess of your original picture, and best left alone.
 
Boon said:
are you saying that Auto corrections are no good, because it looks like it made a mess of your original picture, and best left alone.
Click to expand...

I think Auto can work sometimes...........I do click it on occassion just to see if it will save me some time as I am quite lazy;)
 
Only time I use auto is if I have a large batch of images that are similar and will survive the 'auto' process. Otherwise turn them off and fiddle to get the result I'm aiming for!
 
I thought Auto was the bees knees until I started to play with Levels manually....never looked back. It only takes a few seconds to do it manually & the results are more better.
 
I've generally found them to be pretty useless and therefore redundant. I can't understand having such a powerful and expensive tool like CS2 and then using auto. :confused- There are plenty of freebies which will do that.

regards
 
I think the trouble with auto is that when it works you think 'Yeah, that's better' and on your merry way you go. Trouble is that you don't stop to think 'Could it look even better if I knew what it was doing and did it myself?', and the answer to that is yes.

It's worth taking the time to work out what each of these autos is doing and then attempting to do it by hand, no slower really and will always give as good but usually better results.

:)
 
great example, i tend to just lower shadows, and alter exposure in raw if needed, nothing else, sharpening etc all turned off. everything else is done in cs itself
 
I usually *try* auto, just to see if it's any good.

If it's not I do levels manually.
I used to just use the RGB sliders, pulling them in to the mountains etc etc, holding down the Alt key to check clipping....

Now after reading a CS2 tutorial, I do it differently.

I use the colour sampler tool, I set one sample at what *should* be true black on the picture, one at true white.
Then with the info palette displayed. I show the RGB values of each of the two samples I've placed.
Looking at the values of the black sample, I notice which is the lowest of the three (Red, Green or Blue), I then adjust the others to match it.
I then do the same with the white sample, but instead noticing the highest, and raising the others to match.

It might seem a bit daunting at first, but it usually produces a very pleasing result for me.
the tutorial did use 4 colour samples, the other 2 being a neutral grey and a dominant colour, but I just couldn't get my head round that bit...lol
 
More or less what I do myself when converting a RAW file Marcel........

It is a good tool to use along with the info option.
 
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