Contrast. What’s that?
I went looking in dictionaries and some ‘pedias. Well, I guess that’s the reason why people dislike written explanations…
Look what the cat brought from the web:
Contrast (1)
The range of optical density and tone on a photographic negative or print
Contrast (2)
The range of difference in the light to dark areas of a negative, print, or slide (also called density); the brightness range of a subject or the scene lighting.
Really?…? Seems like these archives are quite historical…
Let’s bring it to our days.
When we refer to “Contrast” in an image, we actually mean we want our image to be “Contrasty”, which is a practical perception and a lot easier to explain and understand. A contrasty image, first of all, includes bright and dark areas. In addition, the difference in visual properties in this kind of an image, makes an object distinguishable from other objects and the background. In other words, a non-contrasty image is considered dull, boring and practically, bad (unless intended to be soft, from the first place).
So, what is the problem?
The problems begin when your image is not contrasty and you try to improve it. Photoshop offers 3 different commands that deal with contrast: Brightness/Contrast, Levels and Curves. Now choose the correct one.
OK. You’ve managed to figure out the differences between them. Suddenly you notice that each time you increase contrast of an image it also gains saturation. Who wanted that? When taking the “straight & narrow” way in Photoshop, this is a predictable side-effect. Now get rid of it… Other times you find yourself struggling with some stubborn highlights that keep getting to bright, over and over again…
Fine. What’s your solution?
We offer you the fastest and easiest tool to control contrast improvements in your image.
We call it PSKiss Contrast Farm.
When you open PSKiss Contrast Farm from the Filter menu, you get a simple window, divided to 4 categories, each one handles contrast improvement in a different manner. Let’s look at these examples and see how it works.
The first category – LumaCon
The options of this category let you enhance luminosity contrast without affecting saturation. Choose level 1 for a little enhancement; choose level 2 for more; choose level 3 for a rather strong influence on luminosity contrast:
The original image:
After applying LumaCon 2 – contrast has improved, colors are left untouched:
The second category – SatCon
The options of this category let you enhance contrast and saturation altogether. Choose level 1 for a little enhancement; choose level 2 for more; choose level 3 for a rather strong influence on the image’s contrast and saturation:
After applying SatCon 2 - contrast and saturation are improved. Use one of these options when you need this combined effect:
The third category – SelectiveCon
The four options of this category are set a bit differently than the options of the other categories of Contrast Farm. They are not linear, meaning that #4 isn’t a stronger version of #1. It is simply a different variation of selective contrast as I will explain with the following examples.
The original image:
Use SelctiveCon 1 when you want to brighten the midtones of the image while keeping the darkness of shadows and brightness of highlights:
Use SelctiveCon 2 when you want to darken shadows and brighten highlights but keep midtones out of touch:
Use SelctiveCon 3 when you want to darken shadows and midtones but brighten highlights:
Use SelctiveCon 4 when you want to slightly increase midtone contrast:
The fourth category – ColorBoosters
The options of this category let you add a lot of contrast to the image without protecting anything. Neither color nor details. These is the heavy artillery. Use it when you need to give your image a virtual CPR…:
This image was taken in one of the most colorful places, Venice Beach California. It was a very grey day, as you can see:
After applying ColorBoosters 1, it started to show some color:
ColorBoosters 2, brought out some more colors:
In this case, ColorBoosters 4, really got the job done:
Although these options are tempting to use, they might be dangerous to details in highlights and shadows, so use them smartly.
Use the Preview check box in order to see your image before and after applying ContrastFarm ColorBoosters.
In the next image you will clearly see the damage…
The original image:
ColorBoosters 2, did the right job:
ColorBoosters 4, seems to be over the top…:
The great thing about PSKiss filters is that you can apply then one after the other to a standard image and get a stunning picture.
To the next image we applied ContrastFarm SatCon2, then we applied Viveda (+2) and finally we used Clarté (+35) .
The original image:
After applying the 3 filters, one after the other (just a few second of work):
Don’t forget that PSKiss Contrast Farm, as all PSKiss tools, creates a separate layer leaving your original image untouched and unharmed.
Even after you clicked “Done”, you don’t need to start all over again any time you want to try a different setup.
Just go to the History panel. You will find all the setups you’ve tried in the dialog box.
PS Kiss filters, remember everything for you so you can be concentrated with what’s really important – your work!
If you like PS Kiss Contrast Farm press HERE to buy it now.
You might want to check out PSKiss Viveda and PSKiss Clarté which are complementary processes.
