My Version of the "Basics of Editing" - Part II

So on the last post we got to the point where we have one (duplicated / non-original) image up on the screen and have created a duplicate background layer. 

For the purpose of this demonstration I've grabbed a different image that is a more typical landscape shot.

So the way I work is that I'm going to leave my background layer alone and do all of my editing with layers on the top of it.  This will make more sense as we go along, but for now just make sure you've clicked on the copy layer and that it's highlighted.

Probably 99.9% of the time the first edit I make (or at least look at) is "Levels".  Most digital images have a bit of a grayish haze in them.  It varies depending on the lighting conditions the photo was taken in and sometimes with perfect conditions you may not get it at all.  But most often it's there to some degree and you may not even realize it until you take a gander at the "Levels" tool...  So go to "Enhance", "Adjust Lighting" and "Levels".  As you can see from the screen shot above CTRL+L is the shortcut if you'd rather use that.

You'll then get the Levels box with lots of options, but for now we're going to keep it simple.  Just make sure the "Channel" has defaulted to "RGB" and that the "Preview" box is checked.

In some of the older versions of PSE  "Auto" would destroy the look of your photo more often than not.  However the later versions are smarter and I find that quite often "Auto" is bang on.  So give it a click and see what happens.  I'm quite happy with what it did for this image and for the sake of this exercise I'm going to hope that you had similar results.  It's a subtle difference but hopefully you can see that it has cleared, brightened and just given a bit more definition to the shot.  Regardless of the outcome of your photo, go ahead and click "OK" - just for the sake of the exercise.  You can always go to "Edit" - "Undo" later!

Now take a look at your layers panel.  You see the little eyeball is open on both layers in the first example.  If you click on the background copy's eyeball (example 2) it will shade the eyeball and draw a slash through it, making that layer invisible. So click on, click off --  easy quick way to compare the before and after of that particular edit.  You'll really see the value in this when we start building multiple layers.

This time I'm happy with "Auto", but there will be lots of times it just doesn't quite do the trick or doesn't even come close.  So surprise, surprise... next up we'll tackle "Levels Adjustments".