Trick Photoshop

Step 1:  I Have opened this free stock photo. Let us see if we can improve them with the auto functions.

Step 2 : Click on Levels on the right hand panel of Photoshop CS4.

Step 3 : This dialogue box appears. You can see that there is an Auto button at the left.

Step 4 : Press ALT and click Auto. This dialogue box opens. I have highlighted Highlights. I will show you in a moment what I intend to do.

Step 5 : Click on all three Algorithms at the top. If you hover your cursor on the first option you can see Auto Contrast in brackets on the  first,  Auto Tone in the second and Auto Color in the third. I had shown in the earlier tutorial how to access the 3 options by going to Image and then to Auto Tone, Contrast and Color.

This was how the Histogram looked like before I clicked on Auto.

Step 6 : This is how the histogram looks after clicking Auto. The Black slider at the left points to the dark areas in the image and the White to highlights. The Grey slider in the middle points to the greys.

Step 7 : Highlight the Clip which is set to 0.10% in Highlights by default.

Step 8 : Press SHIFT and the Up Arrow on the keyboard. The Clip in Highlights increases to 0.20%. Everytime you do so it will increase by 10%.

You will notice a change in the Histogram. There is not much change in the Histogram in this particular image as there is no empty space at the left as in the illustration below Step 5. When you have a space at the left continue to press SHIFT and Up arrow keys till it disappears. You will notice a noticeable change in the image.

Step 9 : Now highlight the Clip of Shadows. It is set by default at 0.10%.

Step 10 : With the Clip of Shadows highlighted I have pressed SHIFT+Down Arrow. Now let us look at the image.  You can check the 'Snap Neutral Tones' box depending on your image. It is not needed for this image. It might also not be necessary to increase or decrease the percentage of Shadows.

The top image is what I started with and the bottom one is with Auto Tone applied. When you are in a hurry this is an easy method to make your photos pop.

Other Photoshop tutorials are here.