PS Question about a gradient contrast...

kepople

I was converting an old photo to B&w last night and could not figure an easy way to do this.

The photo was darker on one side due to lighting, it gradually lightened over the entire image.

Soooo, I was trying to increase the conrast level and brightness over the gradual range. I tried a selection with a large feather, but it was not accurate. Seemed to me I should be able to create a gradient fill, and fill it with contrast.

Suggestions as to how to pull this off?

Thanks
Kirby

cletus

Hiya Kepople

I didn't have a faded photo handy, but I did have this for an example:


I'm going to use a gradient to darken up the background in the top of the image, while not changing the foreground.

I clicked on the create new fill or adjustment layer button in the layers palette:

From the menu that popped up I selected gradient. In the Gradient Fill dialog I setup a black to transparent gradient that would run from top to bottom:

I then clicked OK to close the dialog. In the layers palette I clicked on the mode dropdown:

and selected darken. I then adjusted the opacity of my gradient fill layer:

until I got a result I was happy with:


You don't have to use a gradient fill laye like I did. You could just use a normal layer and use the gradient tool to paint a gradient into. With that done you can change the layer blending mode and opacity to get a look you're happy with.

edgework

Try putting your gradient (white to black) in a new layer, running opposite to the shift in the image. Put that layer in either Soft Light or Overlay mode, and adjust opacity to taste. You'll flatten things a bit so once you have a relative balance, you'll probably want to put a curve adjustment layer on top of everything and bring back the contrast overall.