Adjusting Levels and Curves with Photoshop

When I was working with this photo of the sunset over the Grand Canyon last night, I realized that it was a perfect photo to demonstrate the power of the two quick Photoshop adjustments that improve almost any photo. They are adjusting the levels and curves. Almost all photos benefit from an adjustment to both of these elements.

I opened the photo of the sunset which I shot using Canon's raw format (CR2). A "raw" file is actually not an image file; it's a data file that has to be opened with a program that can read it and process it as an image file. Photoshop has plug-ins for handling the raw files for all the common brands of cameras.

Here's the before and after of the image:
The original unadjusted photo has an orange cast. A lot of photos have casts, and especially wide-angle landscape photos. You can think of the cast as something like a colored mesh or filter over the entire surface of the photo. Adjusting levels will remove the color cast.


So let's start out by adjusting the levels. Create a new Levels Adjustment Layer by right clicking on the adjustment layer icon at the bottom center of the Layers palette toolbar - highlighted in yellow below:
Photoshop will display for you at this point the Levels histogram, which is a chart that represents the color information of the image. By default you will be shown the RGB histogram, which is the combination of all the color values from zero (black) to 255 (white) for red, green, and blue combined. A good histogram will have information that runs from the outer edges of black and white for each of the color channels. We want to adjust for any gaps at the outer edges color channel by color channel.


The RGB histogram for this photo is actually very choppy with peaks and valleys right across the range of values, and there is also very little information out to the right or the "white" end of the value range so it's probably going to be a good candidate for adjustment.

You could actually adjust the image for the RGB combination, but it's better to do it each color at a time as you will get better results. So next change the channel to Red from the channel dropdown:
You can see that there's a bit of a gap at the left and a larger gap at the right of the histogram. I moved the black pointer slightly in to the right, and I moved the white pointer towards the center quite a bit to a point where the histogram starts to rise.

Now I do the same thing with the green channel:

And the blue channel:

When I have adjusted each of the three color channels, I click OK. When you do that, Photoshop extrapolates the missing color information at the ends for you and fills in the gaps. Here's how the image looks now:
Quite a difference already!

Now I am going to adjust the Curves. Curves are a much more subjective adjustment as you won't be adjusting to a histogram as we just did with the Levels. Rather you will move the curves and make a judgment of where the best adjustment lies.

Create a new Adjustment Layer by right clicking the adjustment layer icon again, but this time pick Curves.
I always start out by slightly adjusting the white and black limits of the curve. Here's how I adjust the white limit - see where I have highlighted with yellow? I nudged that to the left until the input value changed from 255 to 250.

Then I did a similar thing with the black limit - I moved it slightly to the right until the Input Value reads 5.
Now click in the center of the curve line and continue to hold down the mouse button. A small square or handle with appear. Move it around until you find a point where the image looks more to your liking. If the image is too dark to start with, move it up into the "white" area. By doing this you are effectively increasing the exposure. If it is too exposed, move it down into the black quadrants and make the image darker. I found for this image it looked about right at one grid down along the vertical center line. Now you will see that what was a straight line is now curved, hence the name "Curves".

Click OK. This is how my image now looks. Isn't that great!
So by adjusting just these two simple things, Levels and Curves, you will greatly improve almost every photo you take.

Sunset Over the Grand Canyon #2

This is the same sunset as in this other photo of sunset at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Notice how much less color there is in the sky as the sun drops lower and with the longer exposure.

The first time I went to the Grand Canyon's South Rim I went with a group of friends and we took the Grand Canyon Railway from Williams. We had seats in the Parlor Car and what a time we had. I really recommend it to you. Plan on staying over in the Park a couple of nights if you can, and then get the train back to Williams. Here's the website for the Grand Canyon Railway.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm
1/200 secs at f/5.6
ISO 100

Sunset Over the Grand Canyon #1

I really love the national parks of the South Western United States. I'm lucky to live in Southern California as these wonders of the natural world are just a day's drive away. I have been to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon twice in the last 2 years and can't wait to go back.

Of course one of the favorite times at the Grand Canyon is sunset and crowds gather at favorite points overlooking the canyon to watch the fiery display that nature turns on each evening.

This happens to be one of my favorite photos. But what do you think? Please post a comment and let me know.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 165mm
1/800 secs at f/5
ISO 100

Pasifika 2007 Banner

The annual festival of South Pacific dance and culture known as Pasifika takes place at Western Springs Park in Auckland every March. The banner for the event is full of iconographic objects and images from the various islands. The bright colors of the collage of items makes for a very fun and pleasing work of art.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 18-55mm lens at 21mm
1/50 secs at f/20
ISO 200

Polynesian Guy with Turtle Tattoo

Turtles and shark tooth patterns are common in tattoos from the Polynesian islands of the South Pacific.

This guy at Pasifika in Auckland had a classic South Pacific Polynesian tattoo on his upper arm. If I had arms like that I might even consider some body art. Dreams are free!

For another version of this photo please see Polynesian Guy with Turtle Tattoo #2.

This and other photos of people can be seen in either the broadband people photo gallery or the dial-up people photo gallery.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 18-55mm lens at 51mm
1/125 secs at f/16
ISO 200

How to Create Photoshop Actions

Automating Actions in Photoshop

Time for another Photoshop lesson, this time one on how to use Photoshop’s "Actions".

Back in July I posted this tutorial on creating picture frames with Photoshop. Let’s say you have lots of photos that you want to frame. You can do them one by one, and actually, once you remember the steps in my previous lesson, it doesn’t take too long to make the frame around your photo. But why waste precious time when you can automate these steps with Photoshop!

Photoshop has a feature called “Actions” that allows you to record the steps you take while working on a photo; later you can play back the same actions on any other photo. If you’re an expert with Excel and Word you will recognize this feature as a “macro recorder”.

An important step you need to take to successfully use Photoshop Actions for framing your photos is to start out by sizing consistently the photos you are going to run the "framing action set" against otherwise your frames will be all over the place if your photos are different sizes - the play back of the framing steps will work well only if you are playing them back with a photo that is the same size as the one your recorded the steps from.

Since photos are rarely square they will have an orientation of “portrait” or “landscape” so you will need to record two separate action sets; one to take care of photos with a portrait orientation, and another to frame photos with a portrait orientation. I typically prepare my photos for my photoblog from 8x10 photos and then I resize these down to a height of 500px before framing them. I don’t worry about the width since the photo will never be too wide for even the smallest 800 x 600px monitors if the height is constrained to 500px.

Having taken care of sizing your photos first, you can now move on to recording the actions for framing the photos. Here we go…

Here is the picture I am going to use to record the actions. It’s a photo of my friend Karen celebrating her recent birthday. I have sized it at 625px wide x 500px high. I’m ready to start recording.


By default, you will be on the History Palette. You need to change to the Actions palette by clicking its tab as illustrated below:


You’ll notice that there are already some “action sets” in the list under a folder called “Default Actions”. These come delivered with Photoshop. To start recording your own action sets you need to click the icon for “Create New Action” which I have highlighted below in yellow.


Give the action a name that is meaningful. I called it “Frame 625x500px.” If you want to be able to run the action set with a shortcut key, choose one of the function keys from the dropdown list. If you do that, you will be able to run the actions by simply typing the function key at the top of your keyboard that you pick here when you have a photo open in Photoshop. I normally don’t assign a function key but it can be a good idea if you will have just a few action sets you will use often.


Click the Record button to start recording your steps.

When you are in “Record Mode” you will see that the record button turns red . To the left is a rectangular button that will stop the recorder when you are done. (Note: If at any time you mess up badly and wish to start again, click the Stop Playing/Recording Button. Then highlight the Action Set that has the name you assigned it and click the delete icon (the trash can) and start over again. )

Now just follow the steps I gave you for creating picture frames with Photoshop in the July post. (Note that there are actually 3 separate posts in the How to Create Frames with Photoshop tutorial: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.) When you finish all the steps click the “Stop Recording” button. Your photo will be framed and your steps in framing it will have been recorded for playback later.

That’s it for recording an Action Set in Photoshop. Now you would need to do one for a portrait orientation.

Note there is nothing magical about the size I have used – you can use whatever dimensions you want, but you just need to use a consistent size and orientation to make this work. To run the action set on other photos, size them to the size you used when you recorded the steps first and then run the Action Set.

For example, I sized this photo of Milford Sound to 625 x 500px just like the photo of Karen I used when recording the actions above. Note on the actions palette that the “Frame 625x500px” set I just recorded is expanded so that each individual action is showing in a list.


You can close it up by scrolling up to the top of the set and then closing the tree:


Click the triangle and the set will close like this:


To run the Action set on the open photo I just have to click the Play button (make sure the Action set you want to run is selected by clicking it first before clicking the run button – it will be gray when it is selected).

Hey presto! Framed in about 1 second or less, depending on how fast your computer is.


Note: You can delete any individual steps or change the values for the individual steps in the list by clicking them and typing over the values or clicking delete. Your changes will be applied just to the individual step you have highlighted. It’s pretty easy to learn more about Actions by just playing around with them.

That’s it for my tutorial on how to create action sets in Photoshop. This is a great utility tool that will greatly increase your productivity in Photoshop. You can use if for any sets of actions that are repeatable with the same values.

(c) John Corney 2007

Hummingbird Calypte Anna #2

The previous post I made of a photo of a Anna's hummingbird was taken side-on and the feathers of the neck and head are a brownish black. Here we see our little beauty, whose official name is "Calypte Anna", facing us which shows how the color of his neck and head features display as a bright rose. I presume this scares off other competitors for the nectar feeder as they come barrelling down on any intruders.

It is quite inexpensive to feed hummingbirds in your yard. Once you have bought the feeder from your local garden nursery or hardware store, you can make the nectar yourself at home with ordinary white sugar. Here's my recipe for hummingbird feeder nectar: make a 25% solution of white sugar and water. That's it! So for example, I make 8 cup batches at a time, so I first of all measure out 2 cups of sugar and then add 6 cups of warm water to make up a total of 8 cups. Stir it for long enough to dissolve the sugar. It doesn't need to be colored; I know in the stores it's sold with red food coloring in the solution, but the hummers will be attracted by the fake flowers and colors on the feeder itself. Do NOT use powdered (icing) sugar!

How do you attract hummingbirds to your garden feeder? Well, first of all you have to live in an area where hummingbirds live. In warmer parts of the US some varieties, such as the Anna pictured above, don't migrate at all and you will delight in seeing them in your garden year-round. In colder parts, you may only have them during a season. So, presuming you live in an area with hummingbirds, just buy a feeder, fill it with nectar solution, and hang it from a tree branch or other convenient spot. It may take a few weeks for the birds to find it, but once they have, you'll have them as long as you feed them. And once you start, you shouldn't stop as they will come to rely on you especially in the winter and spring.

Bird Photo Gallery - Broadband Flash Gallery

Bird Photo Gallery - Dial Up Optimized

Cannon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm
1/30 secs at f 5/6
ISO 400

Anna's Hummingbird #1

Anna's hummingbirds live in my garden here in Southern California year round. I encourage them with hummingbird feeders in my garden and the action is non-stop year round. Visitors always delight in the show. This year has been the best ever. I guess my garden must be "on the map"; in the spring there were up to 5 birds feeding at the same time.

It seems to be that in the spring during breeding season they are less territorial and feed together, but as the year progresses into summer, a dominant bird will take ownership of a feeder and stand guard over it from sunup to sundown clicking away all day long. It's a battle royal, and at times the birds actually manage to get a hold of each other and I have actually seen them wrestling on the deck! I kid you not. Mostly it's a matter of dive-bombing interlopers, and some of them will not give up easily. One night evening last week I just couldn't believe the fights going on out there with kamikaze pilot hummers bombing each other with a great cacophony of angry sounds to go with it. There are times when a bird will fly up vertically to what seems like a hundred feet or more and then will dive at immense speed making an incredible high-pitched whizzing sound with his wings.

This is a photo of one of the bosses in the garden right now. That's him standing sentry over "his" feeder. From the side their necks and heads look dark brown to black, but when they face you the light catches their features and turns them an iridescent rose color. The next post will show that. And I'll also share with you my recipe for the nectar for a hummingbird feeder.

Bird Photo Gallery - Broadband Flash Gallery

Bird Photo Gallery - Dial Up Optimized

Cannon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm
1/80 secs at f 5/6
ISO 400

Elderly Woman Near Cook Islands Village

I snapped this shot of an elderly woman taking a break on the grass at the Pasifika Festival in March. This was taken near the Cook Islands village.

Tattooed Polynesian Guy at Pasifika

Tattooing is a traditional art form in Polynesian culture that was a mark of rank and warriorhood. Tattooing was an incredibly painful and drawn-out process in which the skin was actually chiseled! In pre-European days, the ends of pointed sticks were used to carve the flesh and rub ashes and charcoal into the wounds. Once the European settlers arrived, the sticks were abandoned in favor of actual chisels. And people complain today about how much it hurts! (More here about the origins of tattooing in the South Pacific and the art of Charles F Goldie, an early New Zealand artist who painted portraits of Maori with traditional tattooing, including ta moko, the face tattoo).

This photo was taken at the Pasifika Polynesian festival in Auckland in March 2007

Canon EOS 20D
1/50sec at f/5.6
ISO 100
Canon 70-300mm lens at 70mm

Cook Islands Dancer

Action on the stage at the Cook Islands Village at Pasifika 2007. A young Cook Islands woman dances traditional dance in bright orange headdress and grass skirt.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm lens at 22omm
1/400s at f5/5
ISO 100

Samoan Youth

This young man was preparing with his friends for his moment of fame on the stage at the Samoan Village at the Polynesian dance festival called Pasifika in Auckland in March this year.

Canon EOS 20D
1/30sec at f/20
ISO 200
Canon 70-300mm lens at 300mm

Faafafine Performing at Pasifika Festival 2007

The Samoan "village" at the Pasifika Festival in Auckland in March 2007 was by far the biggest of them all. No wonder, since the Samoan community is the largest non-indigenous Polynesian community in Auckland. (The Pasifika Festival, by the way, features the Polynesian races of the south Pacific island, and does not include the Polynesian natives of New Zealand, the Maoris.

As mentioned in the previous post, Fa'afafine at the Pasifika Festival 2007, fa'afafine are cross-dressing Samoan males. They took the stage at the Samoan village before a very large crowd. This photo is of one of the fa'afafine performing with her group.

Faafafine at the Pasifika Festival 2007

Fa'afafine (fah-fa-fee-neh) is a Samoan word that translates literally as "like a woman" and describes males who identify as female.

I can't find much information on fa'afafine on the web at all, but Wikipedia's entry on fa'afafine states: "Fa'afafine fall in the general and vague category called transgender...They are often sexually attracted to non-transgender men, although some decide to marry heterosexually"

A link from Wikipedia to Radio ABC Australia has a rather idealized 2005 piece on fa'afafine (Samoan boys brought up as girls)

A paucity of information on the web about fa'afafine is made up for by the ubiquity of fa'afafine in New Zealand (and I presume Samoa) whenever groups of Samoans gather for fun. I have been at barbecues in New Zealand that have evolved into impromptu shows of fa'afafine entertaining the guests with antics consisting of a combination of traditional dance and "camp" to the delight of the guests.

The Polynesian dance festival "Pasifika" which I had the pleasure of attending in Auckland this past March for the first time featured a group of fa'afafine who performed for the large crowd gathered at the Samoan village. In this photo I caught them hiding behind a tent nervously awaiting their turn on the stage.

Samoan Beauty Queen at Pasifika Festival

Pasifika is an annual Polynesian festival held in Auckland in early March. All the many and varied Polynesian groups gather at Western Springs Park west of downtown Auckland and celebrate their cultures with traditional dancing, entertainment, and food. It is the largest Polynesian festival in the world, which isn't a difficult feat for Auckland which enjoys the largest population of people originating from the South Pacific Islands in addition to the native Maori people of New Zealand. The Maori name for New Zealand, by the way, is Aotearoa.

This photo is of a contestant in the Samoan beauty contest. And quite a beauty she is too.

You are invited to share your impressions of this and any of my photos by posting a comment below. I appreciate your feedback.

Swan #2

This is the same swan as the one I posted back in June. The photo was taken at the Desert Springs Marriott Resort near Palm Springs, CA. There is a large lake the skirts the hotel which is populated by numerous swans and other bird life. This swan happened to float by in front of my room.

Bird Photo Gallery - Broadband Flash Gallery

Bird Photo Gallery - Dial Up Optimized

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 70-300mm at 300mm
1/2500 sec f/5.6
ISO 400

Getty Center Fountain at Night #2

Here's another shot of the fountain on the plaza at the Getty Center taken at night. Here's my other photo of the fountain on the plaza at the Getty.

Canon EOS 20D
Canon 18-55mm lens at 25mm
1/5 sec at f/8.0
ISO 800

Echinacea Purpurea at the Getty Center Gardens

The central gardens at the Getty Center in Los Angeles were designed by artist Robert Irwin. (Getty Center The Central Garden) Irwin who conceived of the palette and structural layout worked with landscape design firm Spurlock Poirier to pull off this spectacular garden. The buildings, by the way, were designed by architect Richard Meier.

Visiting the Getty is as much an outing to be in awe of the architecture and the gardens as it to be in awe of art. To tell you the truth, I personally get more out of the buildings and the gardens than I do of the art. The art, of course, is highly specialized since John Paul Getty collected "antiquities". However, the Getty is building a substantial photographic collection currently and always has a large photographic exhibition running, and the "current exhibitions" are typically not focused on antiquities and are very compelling.

The photo of a coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) was taken on my recent visit there. The garden was in full-bloom and if you've never been and live in the LA area or will be visiting, the Getty Center is well-worth the visit in so many respects.

Canon EOS 20D
18-55mm lens at 55mm
1/40 sec at f/9

ISO 400

Getty Center Garden Reeds

One of the most frustrating things about posting photos to the Internet is the need to "optimize" the file size so that the images don't take too long to load. And you need to consider that many people are still using dial-up to access the Internet, so if you want people to spend time looking at your photography, you have to basically size the images for the slowest connections. This means converting your files from an uncompressed format, to the standard compressed image file format that we all know as jpeg.

The frustrating thing is that in doing so you lose so much image information that was was a bright and varied palette ends up flat and "dumbed-down" in terms of its color range. Then there's the whole range of monitors out there too, some with millions of color available and well-calibrated, to those that are best suited to rendering text, not colorful images.

This photo of reeds in the garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles is a case in point. The original photo has a rich palette of color consisting of greens, blues, some red, and yellow. Turn it into a jpeg file and it becomes very gray. It was so bad that for the first time I even spent some time trying to adjust the colors of the jpeg image. Still, its a mere shadow of the original. This photo will print beautifully from the uncompressed file, and will greatly exceed any expectations gained from viewing it online.

Just so that you can get some idea of what the original looks like, I have created a small tiff file of the photo - small for tiff, that is; 400x500p pixels with a mere 75dpi resolution. It's 800kb nonetheless, but if you have the bandwidth or time and would like to see it, here's link to it: photo of Getty Garden Reeds tiff format. You will be prompted to open or download the file so don't be shocked if that happens. Hope you like it.

Canon EOS 20D
18-55mm lens at 35mm
1/15 sec at f/11
ISO 400

405 Freeway from the Getty Center

405 Freeway at Night from the Getty Center

The Getty Center is located on the western side of the 405 freeway just as it rises into the Sepulveda Pass from L.A.'s Westside. At the southern end of the Getty there is parapet that runs out to the edge of the site overlooking a cactus garden and the 405 freeway. This is where I took this photo.

In the lower left of the photo you can see the classic shape of the old Holiday Inn Hotel, but which since 2006 is now a boutique hotel known as The Hotel Angeleno. In the distance are the lights of what I believe is Century City, but I am not 100% sure of that. Perhaps if you know the area well, you could post a comment confirming or correcting me.

Getty Center Fountain at Night

I've been to the Getty Center many times, but a recent visit there was the first time I've been there at night. Of course that afforded some new and unique opportunities for my camera, like this shot of the fountain in the main plaza area. Got some nice reflection on this.

Canon EOS 20D
70-300mm lens at 75mm
1 sec at f/13 ISO 800

Hummingbird and Bromeliad Flower

Finally! In my first post of one of these photos of a pink bromeliad flower I had mentioned how I had seen a hummingbird feeding on the flowers the Sunday before last in the morning. Of course I just had to capture a photo of that and set up my camera and tripod ready to catch the guy next time he came back. Of course he didn't and my Sunday passed by with me spending most of it waiting behind my camera and growing more and more frustrated. I had even taken the two hummingbird feeders from my yard inside the house to no avail. Another week and another weekend of frustration have past. Today I was working from home so set up outside on the patio and put the camera back up. I actually got a few shots this morning but at that time the plant was in deep shade and obviously to eliminate as much blur as possible the exposure had to be very fast. To be able to take a shot in low light and with a very short exposure you have to really crank up the ISO setting. I had it at 800, so the photos are very grainy. But actually I am thinking they look sort of artistic so I am going to print them nonetheless just to see.

Anyhow, late this afternoon when I was almost ready to pack everything up and come inside, I happened to be delayed by a phone call from a friend, and while on the call along came my wily friend and with full sun shining on him and the flower. I quickly excused myself to my friend, looked through the lens, found it just happened to be trained on the exact flower the bird was supping from, and shot! Finally a respectable photo of the elusive character. I hope you like it! I feel it's been worth the wait, and I have a new-found appreciation of the patience required of nature photographers.

If you would like prints of this or any of my photos, please contact me using the link at the very bottom of the page. I can accommodate a range of sizes and papers. This photo would look exceptional on Kodak's metallic paper.

I welcome any comments on this and all of my photos. Just click the "Comments" link at the end of the post.

Canon EOS 20D
1/250 sec at f/5.6

70-300mm lens at 300mm
ISO 200

Red-Winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird (agelaius phoeniceus)

San Diego Creek runs through the city of Irvine from the east to the south-west where it enters the "Back Bay" of Newport Bay. It is certainly an urban creek with stretches of it that are cemented, and others that are mostly natural. The last stretch of it passes by the Irvine Ranch Water District's "wetland" where the water is diverted through a series of ponds to remove nitrates and other pollutants before sending it on its way into Newport Bay. The ponds known as the San Joachim Wetlands have been landscaped with native California plants, and are frequented by hundreds of water birds. The Audubon Society has an office and visitor center there, and it is a wonderful place to visit and hike around.

Despite the predominance of concrete along long stretches of the creek, bird life abounds. One stretch of the creek between Jefferey and Sand Canyon was until recently a micro-environment replete with birds of all kinds; mallards, herons, hawks, avocets, and many others that I don't recognize. A reed had naturalized in this stretch of the creek over the last couple of years, and this past spring red-winged blackbirds that build their nests in reeds moved in in force.

I actually ride my bike past this stretch of the creek on my way to work, and it was a joy each morning and evening riding by the birds which have a beautiful song that they call out to defend their territory. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of birds nesting in this stretch of the creek in the spring. And then along came the Irvine Company, The Evil Empire of this area of Orange County. It appears that somehow they own this stretch of the creek and while the birds were still nesting they sent in gangs who cut the reeds down. Now they have heavy equipment in the creek bed having completely destroyed the habitat and my fear is that they are going to cement the creek.

This photo was one of the many I took one Saturday morning this past spring.

Bird Photo Gallery - Broadband Flash Gallery

Bird Photo Gallery - Dial Up Optimized

Pink Bromeliad #4 aechmea fasciata

This beautiful bromeliad is flowering in a pot on my patio at the moment. I guess it must like my garden. I had it sitting under some trees in a pretty shady but bright spot for most of the last year since one of my neighbors moved and gave it to me. Once I saw all the blooms coming I moved it into the sun while it puts on its show. Its common name is urn plant or urn flower, and its botanical name is bromeliad aechmea fasciata. These plants are related to the pineapple, did you know?