Adjust Tonal Range and Correct Color with Photoshop Elements

The vast majority of problems from which digital photographs suffer fall into two categories: tonal range and color. Such interrelated problems include not having enough contrast, having too little detail in either the shadow areas or the highlight areas, dull colors, or colors that are simply not correct. Whether the problems result from bad lighting, incorrect camera settings, or poor exposure, you can often improve your images with Photoshop Elements.

Photoshop Elements offers an array of features that you can use to adjust your digital images. By far, the most popular tool for making corrections is Levels. Levels enables you to fine-tune the dark, midtone, and light pixels in
an image and view the results immediately. You can use the Levels dialog box to fix both tonal range and color problems.

You can also apply a variety of specific filters to lighten, darken, and blend layers in an image. You can apply lighting commands such as Shadows/Highlights or use layer blend modes such as Multiply or Screen to improve the appearance of a photo.

When deciding how to fix a tonal range or color problem, start by duplicating the Background layer. Adding layers enables you to experiment with various features and editing techniques without making permanent changes to the original image. You can even use adjustment layers that will enable you to go back and make adjustments to settings you made earlier in the editing process without suffering any image degradation.