Datasheet

20 chapter 1 Tools for Building Your Masterpiece
With the image open, click the Create New Fill Or Adjustment Layer icon at the bot-
tom of the Layers panel. A menu will appear with a series of selections representing the
types of adjustments you can make.
Choose Levels from the menu. A Levels adjustment layer will appear in the Layers
panel (see Figure 1.43).
Select the Levels adjustments, and the Adjustments panel will change to give you a
standard levels layout; you can make your Levels adjustment as you would if you were oper-
ating from the Image
Adjustments Levels dialog box. Figure 1.44 shows a standard
adjustment, moving the left slider to where the color information begins. Click OK to accept
the adjustment.
I use this particular adjustment to darken the washed-out area of the brain, in particu-
lar the pink fleshy parts. I’m not sure that I want to adjust the gray area. By painting in the
white mask with a black brush, you can wipe away the adjustment to that area, leaving the
rest of the brain corrected (see Figure 1.45).
Lets say you would like to create a mock-up of this brain for a presentation of some
sort. You have found the gray just doesn’t cut it, and the brain seems at on the projector.
It’s time for a color overhaul. By adding a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer that effectively
colors the entire brain blue (see Figure 1.46) but then hiding most of the image except those
areas you want to have colored with the mask, you can dramatically alter the appearance of
the piece (see Figures 1.47 and 1.48).
Figure 1.43 The Levels
adjustment layer is in position
and ready to go to work.
Figure 1.44 Levels
are adjusted in the
standard way.
Figure 1.45 Use the paint tools to
mask areas you do not want to be
altered by the adjustment layer.
Figure 1.46
Use Hue/
Saturation set
to Colorize to
change the hue
of the entire
brain to a bluish
color.
Figure 1.47
Painting may also
reveal alterations
to areas and leave
others alone.
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