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Photo Tip: Add a Little Contrast to Your Photos

Contributed by neufrona on May 31st, 2008 Categories: Photoshop

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One of the factors that can often make the difference between a photo being eye-popping mind candy and lackluster visual soup is the appropriate amount of contrast. Photographically speaking, contrast is the difference between the light and dark areas of an image. The less difference, the less contrast and the more difference the more contrast, one of the few things in the confusing world of photography that has a direct and logical correlation. In some images, such as foggy landscapes, low contrast is the goal. For other images, low contrast makes the image look muddy, washed out and lifeless. Depending on the nature and direction of the light source and how the light is interacting with the atmosphere, digital camera sensors naturally capture some images with less contrast and others with more contrast. Images that come out of the camera with more contrast are not usually a problem since our eyes and brains see it that way automatically. However, digital images often have too little contrast as captured by the camera. Fortunately, digital imaging software such as Photoshop gives us tools to bring low contrast images back from hazy obscurity. Below I will outline a few simple techniques to put some pop back into your low contrast images.

Open a low contrast image in the photo editing software of your choice. I use Adobe Photoshop, so my tips will be specific to that software, but most programs use very similar approaches.

Check the levels. In Photoshop, go to Image>Adjustments>Levels (or type control + L) to open the Levels dialog box. The histogram shows you the spread of color values in your image. The highlights are on the right and the shadows are on the left. If either end of the histogram doesn

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