PS levels question

Eric&SusanEric&Susan Registered Users Posts: 1,280 Major grins
edited May 24, 2005 in Technique
Today I got Popphoto in the mail and as I was looking through it I noticed in the Digital Toolbox section that the author recommends setting you RGB master points in the levels adjustment layer to 245,245,245 for whites and 12,12,12 for your blacks. Now he says it is so when your making levels adjustments it will help in not going to far and making mistakes. So my question is has anyone ever heard of this? Do you do it? and why? Thanks for any input.

Eric
"My dad taught me everything I know, unfortunately he didn't teach me everything he knows" Dale Earnhardt Jr

It's better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for who you're not.

http://photosbyeric.smugmug.com

Comments

  • adrian_kadrian_k Registered Users Posts: 557 Major grins
    edited May 24, 2005
    it's a couple of years since I read it but in one of Scott Kelby's books he describes this technique to compensate for inkjet printers not being able to print the whole gamut. I don't seem to remember it made much difference.

    Maybe I'll go back & re-read, his books are very good at explaining the 'whys'.

    <EDIT> I went back and reread Kelby's explantion. He says it is to negate the colour cast inherent in every camera. Nothing to do with printers - sorry.

    Eric&Susan wrote:
    Today I got Popphoto in the mail and as I was looking through it I noticed in the Digital Toolbox section that the author recommends setting you RGB master points in the levels adjustment layer to 245,245,245 for whites and 12,12,12 for your blacks. Now he says it is so when your making levels adjustments it will help in not going to far and making mistakes. So my question is has anyone ever heard of this? Do you do it? and why? Thanks for any input.

    Eric
    -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
    Adrian
    my stuff is here.....
  • Eric&amp;SusanEric&amp;Susan Registered Users Posts: 1,280 Major grins
    edited May 24, 2005
    I have Scott Kelby's PSE3 how to book and it is great. I scanned through it and didn't see anything about these level settings. I did read the whole book when I first got it and don't remember this.ne_nau.gif


    Eric
    "My dad taught me everything I know, unfortunately he didn't teach me everything he knows" Dale Earnhardt Jr

    It's better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for who you're not.

    http://photosbyeric.smugmug.com
  • ginger_55ginger_55 Registered Users Posts: 8,416 Major grins
    edited May 24, 2005
    I just gotta say it: don't believe anything you read as an "always do" thing.

    I read, in one of my books or mags, what you did about the levels settings. Don't know where, had forgotten all about it, don't use it anymore.

    Scott Kelby screwed up big time on the sRGB vs the Adobe 1998 color space thing.............I love his books, own them. But don't think he is god. Not sure who is. That is bad at my age.

    g
    After all is said and done, it is the sweet tea.
  • colourboxcolourbox Registered Users Posts: 2,095 Major grins
    edited May 24, 2005
    I could be wrong on what they meant but those sound to me like the traditional black and white points for press output. Not inkjet, monitor, or any other type of output. Did the article mention anything about press?

    According to the principle of dot gain there are some dots you can't reproduce on press and those happen to be very light and very dark dots. Ink tends to plug up or not be there, which screws things up. So you pull back from the absolute black and white. Those numbers were drummed into everyone's heads when the only time digital output went for quality was when it was going to the press (back then your other choices were dot matrix, laser, or awful business inkjet).

    You don't want to cut your output levels off like that for monitors or today's photographic inkjets, which can reproduces tones and colors better than most presses. You'll just handcuff your images to the limits of an old technology. Also, you don't have to mess with output levels for today's printers because all that compensation is built into the color management profile that describes the device. For instance, when you choose an Epson paper profile, the dot gain and output level handling for that paper and ink combo is coded into the profile and taken into account by the driver.

    Again, this was a guess, but that may be where those numbers came from.
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