millerbenny-moved: PART TWO: LEVELSfirstly i want to say that reading these in order will be immens
millerbenny-moved: PART TWO: LEVELSfirstly i want to say that reading these in order will be immensely helpful to you. i’ll be referencing previous ones and assume in future tutorials you know how to use the layers i already went over.in this tutorial i’ll discuss the basics of the levels layer and show you how i personally use the layer for my gif colorings. this isn’t a layer i rely on too heavily (mainly bc i’m more comfortable with the curves layer) and i don’t generally use it for brightening gifs (see the previous tutorial on curves linked above), but i just want it to be clear that it can be used for that even if it’s not what i personally use it for!because of that i’ll also be describing how i took this gif: and got it to look like this: with just a levels layer. (if you’ve read the curves tutorial this coloring should look familiar! i tried to make the coloring as close to the previous one to show you can achieve the same thing with either layer)firstly we need to add the levels layer so you can again do this one of two ways:1. the adjustments window (if not already open go window > adjustments)2. the black & white circle at the bottom of the layers windowthe concept of using a levels layer is very similar to a curves layer, i just personally find it a little more difficult to visualize what’s happening in the actual settings.this is what our levels window looks like:we have three different sliders, black, grey, and white. black: moved to the right darkens darks/blacks grey: moved to the left lightens everything, moved to the right darkens everythingwhite: moved to the left lightens lights/whitesfor example if i just move the black slider to the right:or the grey slider to the right:or the grey slider to the left:or the white slider to the left:the changes are extreme, so we want to use a mix of these to get a more natural look to the brightness/darkness of the gif. play around with the sliders, move them until you like how they look. if using the grey slider always use the black slider as well since it washes out your gif and you’ll want some depth added back in.for example, if i move the grey slider to the leftwe get this, as shown above:if i then move the black slider to the right:(tho as you can tell this is messing with the reds in his face and in his hair)we could then move the white slider to the right if we wanted it brighteryou can also use the levels layer to adjust color, like in a curves layer, by switching from the RGB setting to red/green/blue.again like in the curves layer, i use the white eyedropper tool to adjust the colors and brighten the gif. i selected the same spot as before:and this was my result:now adjusting the colors further is what makes me prefer the curves layer over levels. in a curves layer you can visually see each of the colors you’re adjusting:but in a levels layer, you don’t see that.when adjusting these color-specific settings you want to focus on the grey sliders. by moving them to the left, you enhance that color. so after using the white eyedropper tool i just moved the sliders around in each setting until i liked how it looked—a good majority of photoshopping is trial and error unless you have done it so many times you know exactly how it’ll adjust the overall color of the gif.like in my curves tutorial, i added more red & green and took away some blue (moving the blue setting’s grey slider to the right instead of the left)then i can go back to the RGB settings and move the sliders around to get the brightness i want like i explained above.after doing so i get my final result:now as i’ve said, i personally use a curves layer to make a gif brighter, so what do i use levels for? well sometimes adding brightness to your gif can wash things out, so i use the black slider on the RGB setting to darken the darks a little.here’s my gif after the curves:and i’ll add a levels layer and set the black slider to 25 (i generally use the setting of 10 but for this one i decided to go a little darker)you can see that there is a difference if you watch his face as he moves, since i do have this set up like the other gifs, before levels on the left and after on the right. it doesn’t look like a huge difference, but it helps with some gifs more than others, so just as a rule of thumb for myself, i’ll add at least a setting of 10 on the black slider on every gif i make. just in case. of course if i need more i’ll do more.but that’s about it for levels! i’m sure there’s more to it, but again, these tutorials are what i know and how i use them. i’m still learning new things in photoshop and i’ve been giffing for about a year and a half.as always my other tutorials can be found here and if you have any questions, feel free to stop by my inbox and ask, follower or not xx -- source link
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