Now I make contrast and brightness adjustments and I do this with the Adjust, Levels tools under the Image Menu (use only this tool, not Adjust Brightness/Contrast). On the histogram, set the left and right sliders [A, B] to the first actual points on the histogram where the dark lines begin. You can also move the sliders beyond the marks to enhance contrast and brightness even further. Try it and see what you get. Then adjust the mid-point slider [C] to desired lightness (I find that images usually print out darker than they first appear, so I usually lighten them up a bit). When you're adjusting levels this way, always set Preview box OFF [D]; this way your entire screen shows the effect of the adjustment you are making and by clicking on the upper bar of the Levels box [E] you can contrast this adjustment with what the original image looked like. If the Preview button is checked this feature won't work.

If your image has an unwanted color cast to it, you can go into each of the individual colors and adjust the histogram for that color until you get your desired effect (in the Levels box, look under Channel RGB, click on arrows to the right). Otherwise you can use Color Balance (see next demo).

Click OK to keep the changes. Again, remember, always make these adjustments only once. Don't go back and try to repeat the process because it only leads to degraded images. If you go back into Adjust Levels after saving the changes you just made you can see the histogram now has gaps in it. This shows that actual image data has been removed, which is what you are doing when adjusting levels.

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