The “Levels” feature is used to adjust brightness, contrast and gamma of an image. If your editing software doesn’t have this option, it’s now time to look for better software. In the example below, I'm using PaintShop Pro 9 from Corel; it's a powerful and inexpensive editing program.

My original image was dark and low contrast. Had it been too light, I would have adjusted the left input slider. This would darken everything below that level. In fact everything below that level becomes black.


The preview window shows the result of your manipulations

However, I wanted to lighten the image of Michelle. To do so, I used the right input slider. This makes everything above that level white. I messed around until I found what I liked, something rather high key.

Adjusting the middle slider changes the gamma value. After a bit if experimentation, I decided to leave it as it was.

Note the “Original” and “Result” bars. The second one shows how there is a whole lot more white in the image now.

My final image far from perfect, but it’s a big improvement over the rather drab original.


Before and after images

I like using Adobe Photoshop Elements, the cheap version of Photoshop. Their levels control gives a view of the histogram. Often there are no values in the very black and in the very white. You can eliminate those values and the picture comes out a lot better.

Their newest version 3 has a lightening shadows and darkening highlights control which can save a lot of pictures.