Problem or not?

gandhi said:
"Girls only like guys with great skills!
...... nunchuck skills, computer hacking skills, bow skills, photoshop skills."
Click to expand...

..with the latter only because you can airbrush those wrinkles & celluite out ;)
 
gandhi or anyone kind enough to offer any help.......

In levels when pulling the sliders either way and holding down the Alt key.....what should I be looking for or trying to achieve.

Sorry if it sounds such a noob question I feel such a tit asking but if I dont ask :)
 
the display will turn all white (not a barrymore impression) and the clipped pixels will start to appear as colour patches. Perfectionists and anal retentives will probably try and tell you not have any clipped areas of highlight or shadow. I say pants to that. It's ok to have areas of pure black and pure white, as long as they are not in vital areas of interest!
 
What you should be trying to achieve is what traditionally was considered a 'technically good' print in the film days on photographic paper - that is one where there is still detail visible in the shadows and the highlights aren't burned out, so you're trying to control both ends of the luminosity of the image. Not always easy in practice, and the best aid to this is getting the exposure right in the camera in the first place - or as near so as possible, although digital photography, and RAW in particular does give a fair bit of exposure latitude to play with in post processing.

I do agree though that I wouldn't bin an otherwise good shot for the sake of a little loss of detail in the shadows, particularly where that area isn't of particular importance overall. The same is true for blown highlights although they do tend to be far more noticeable.

You just need to excercise a little good judgement at each stage of the processing and if it doesn't work hit the 'undo' button. Take it slowly, a step at a time and you'll soon learn what works and what doesn't. :)
 
Ok I am just having a play with a different shot..........

Working with the LEFT SLIDER in LEVELS and pressing Alt the display is all white.

Working with the RIGHT SLIDER and pressing Alt shows as black with a few reds and a dark blue.

So should I be looking to get the left side all white and the right side ???
 
no, sorry. my poor cognitive skills in action again!

Left should be pure white and right pure black. Colored pixel are clipped ones.

HTH!
 
gandhi said:
no, sorry. my poor cognitive skills in action again!

Left should be pure white and right pure black. Colored pixel are clipped ones.

HTH!
Click to expand...

Seems easier to get the left side more or less all white than the right side all black.
 
Basically what you are doing is spreading the contents of the histogram over the entire dynamic range. You don't necessarily need to pull the white point slider in. The effect of doing so is to pull the image data toward the 'light' side of the histogram. If your whites are already whiter than white then you can cause more problems than improvements.

Suck it and see. you don't have to hold down the ALT key, it's just a good guide sometimes.
 
/\
Thanks for taking the time and patience to explain
 
No worries. Glad to help. Sorry my replies weren't exactly expedient but I've been sorting through the 200 odd shots of mostly dross from todays excursion to Weston-on-mud.

I love having a new camera but it's a pain in the arse learning its foibles, strengths and weaknesses!
 
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