{"id":1159,"date":"2010-03-27T21:14:31","date_gmt":"2010-03-28T05:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/27\/photoshop-tutorial-black-point\/"},"modified":"2018-09-09T19:42:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T03:42:00","slug":"photoshop-tutorial-black-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/27\/photoshop-tutorial-black-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Photoshop Tutorial – Black Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

What makes a compelling photograph?\u00a0 Well, there are quite a number of things and one of them is \u201cBlack point\u201d.\u00a0 But before proceeding, let\u2019s take a quick step backwards.<\/p>\n

Photographs look better if they utilize most of not all of the inherent dynamic range of the medium, be that paper, a computer monitor or some other electronic medium.\u00a0 This is to say that the image has deep shadows, brilliant highlights and the full range of tonalities in between.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s the difference between a flat image and an exciting one.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a nice flat image.<\/p>\n

\"kolob_canyon_flat\"<\/a> Kolob Canyon Flat Image<\/p>\n

The first step in utilizing the full dynamic range of the medium is to set a black point.\u00a0 A black point is a very small area (or areas) of the image that is maximum black.\u00a0 You don\u2019t want these areas to be too big or the image will have blocked, muddy, featureless shadows and that\u2019s not a good thing (unless that is your intent).<\/p>\n

Photoshop has two tools you can use to set a black point \u2013 Levels and Curves.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to skip over Levels and go directly to Curves because it\u2019s the most flexible of the two.\u00a0 Note that you can also set a black point it Lightroom with the Blacks slider.\u00a0 But I prefer setting the black point in Photoshop, again because Curves is a lot more flexible than Blacks in LR.<\/p>\n

The adjustment will be done in an adjustment layer and never on the image itself (the Background layer).\u00a0 From the menu, select Layer | New Adjustment Layer | Curves\u2026.\u00a0 The Curves dialog opens.<\/p>\n

\"curves_black_point\"<\/a>Curves Dialog with Black Point Set<\/p>\n

To set the black point first check the Show Clipping check box.\u00a0 When you do your image goes white.\u00a0 Next, drag the black triangle to the right until small black areas appear on the white image.\u00a0 As you drag the black triangle the number in the Input box will change.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what the image looked like when the black points just started to appear.<\/p>\n

\"curves_black_point_img\"<\/a> Image with Black Points<\/p>\n

When you uncheck \u2018Show Clipping\u2019 you\u2019ll see the image again, now with the effects of the Curves adjustment applied.\u00a0 Click OK and your image now has a black point.\u00a0 And it also has a lot more contrast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"kolob_canyon_flat\"\u00a0Kolob Canyon Flat <\/a><\/td>\n\"kolob_canyon_black_point\"\u00a0Kolob Canyon with Black Point\u00a0 <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The difference in this case is dramatic.\u00a0 The image with the black point is a lot more interesting than the flat image we started with.<\/p>\n

One of the things that can happen when setting a black point is the whole image becomes a little too dark.\u00a0 The way we used Curves to set the black point darkened the entire image because every part of the curve was pulled lower.\u00a0 Sometimes this results in a pleasing image but more often the image ends up too dark.<\/p>\n

Correcting that is easily done in the same Curves adjustment that we used to set the black point.\u00a0 Double click on the Curves adjustment layer to open it again.\u00a0 Hold down your left mouse button (Windows) and run it over the image until you find a light area that you would like to make even lighter.\u00a0 As you do this a little marker will run up and down the curve, showing you the luminance of the area under your cursor.\u00a0 When you identify the area you want to lighten, hold down the CTRL key and click the left mouse button.\u00a0 A fixed marker will be placed on the curve.<\/p>\n

Now you can drag that marker higher and brighten the whole image.<\/p>\n

\"curves_black_point_mid_tone_adj\"<\/a> Curves Adjustment with Mid Tone Correction<\/p>\n

Notice the dot in the middle of the curve has been pulled up slightly so the curve is no longer a straight line but bowed slightly upwards.\u00a0 This will produce a slight lightening effect on the areas of the image with the same luminosity and the lightening effect will fall off on either side \u2013 the darker and lighter sides.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what the image looks like now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"kolob_canyon_black_point\"\u00a0Black Point\u00a0 <\/a><\/td>\n\"kolob_canyon_black_point_mid_tone_adj\"\u00a0Black Point with Mid Tone Adjustment\u00a0 <\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Adjusting the mid tones in this way doesn\u2019t affect the black point at all nor does it affect the highlights.\u00a0 It just brightens up the middle tonalities.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s it.\u00a0 This usually isn\u2019t the only thing you\u2019ll do in post processing.\u00a0 But this simple use of the Curves adjustment is a powerful first step on the way to creating a compelling image.<\/p>\n

To see another example of utilizing the dynamic range of the medium read Lightroom Tutorial \u2013 Expose to the Right<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To see more of my photographs click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Join me on a photography workshop.<\/a><\/p>\n

(17320)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What makes a compelling photograph?\u00a0 Well, there are quite a number of things and one of them is \u201cBlack point\u201d.\u00a0 But before proceeding, let\u2019s take a quick step backwards. Photographs look better if they utilize most of not all of the inherent dynamic range of the medium, be that paper, a computer monitor or some … Continue reading “Photoshop Tutorial – Black Point”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[13,270,10],"class_list":["post-1159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-how-to-articles","tag-photography","tag-photoshop-tutorial","tag-ralph-nordstrom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-iH","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1159"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3974,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1159\/revisions\/3974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}