Adjusting levels with a white sunburst

Hi all,

If I have a macro photo and do a quick auto levels in PS CS (shot with a D100) it usually looks good. But when there is a lot of white in the photo, as in a wide angle image with the sun in it, the auto levels, and manual levels adjustment do not give me good results. Even with channle mixer and a few other tools, bring the image into realistic tones is hard to accomplish. As some of you know, adjusting the levels will blow out the white and simply does not do a good job on the image in general. When using my camera, I use my histogram display where the histogram is just shy of the right side of the Y coordinate, leaving me a slightly underexposed image that will need a slight tweak to bring it into realistic appearance.

Can anyone offer suggestions on how to make good color adjustments when you have a big sunball in the image? Also, if I do a quick magic wand on the white, then select inverse, the color adjusts fine with levels or curves, but there is an obvious line where the adjustment took place.

Any advice?

Thank you.

Joe

You can try using curves and fix/set the curve in the high values so that it doesn't 'move. Then just adjust the lower values. Might be worth a try.

Cheers

James

James,

Just smack my ass and call me Sally...what a dork I am. I use that PS feature for so many other things and my noggin went null and void on me regarding the sun burst.

Thanks for the quick, useful response.

Joe

That'll be five bux Joe...lol.

Cheers

James