Fixing Overall Tonal and Color Problems With Levels In Photoshop Elements 5

Step 6: Double-Click On The Threshold Adjustment Layer's Thumbnail To Bring Back Its Dialog Box

We're going to correct the darkest parts of our image (the shadows) next, but just as with the highlights, we first need to find the darkest areas of the image, and for that, we need the Threshold dialog box back. In the Layers palette, double-click on the Threshold adjustment layer's thumbnail, just as you did a moment ago with the Levels adjustment layer:

This brings back the Threshold dialog box. Click once again on the slider at the bottom and this time, drag it all the way to the left:

Your image will turn completely white. Then, begin slowly dragging the slider back towards the right, and as you drag, you'll start seeing black areas appearing in the image. These black areas are the darkest parts of the image. Stop dragging once a black area appears that's large enough for you to click inside of:

Click OK to exit out of the Threshold dialog box.

Step 5: Click Inside The Black Area With The Black Point Eyedropper

Now that we know where the darkest part of the image is, we can correct any tonal and color problems in the shadows simply by clicking on that black area with the black point eyedropper. To do that, we need the Levels dialog box again, so double-click on the Levels adjustment layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette:

This brings the Levels dialog box back up. Click on the black point eyedropper icon in the bottom right corner of the Levels dialog box to select it:

Then, with the black point eyedropper selected, click on the black area in the image, which will fix any tonal and color problems in the shadows. Just as when we clicked on the white area, you can zoom in on the area if you need to by holding down Ctrl+Spacebar and dragging a selection around the black area, then click inside it with the eyedropper:

Once you've clicked inside the black area, click OK to exit out of the Levels dialog box. If you've zoomed in on the image, press Ctrl+Alt+0 to quickly zoom back out.

With just a couple of clicks of the mouse, we've now corrected any tonal and color problems in the highlights and shadows of the image.

Step 6: Delete The Threshold Adjustment Layer

We don't need to have our Threshold adjustment layer longer, so go ahead and drag it into the trash bin at the top of the Layers palette to remove it:

With the Threshold layer now gone, this leaves only our original image and the Levels adjustment layer, and we can now see our image once again, this time with the tonal and color corrections we've made. If you want to see "before and after" views of the image so you can see the improvements you've made, simply click on the layer visibility icon (also known as the "eyeball icon") to the left of the Levels adjustment layer in the Layers palette, which will temporarily turn the layer off and show you the original image. Click the icon again to turn the layer back on and see the corrections:

Here's a comparison of my image showing "before and after" views. The left half is the original image, and the right half is the image after making the corrections:

There's only one thing left to do, and that's brighten the midtones a little, which we'll do next.