Levels problem - HELP!

[rustyduck]

Suddenly having a problem with levels. I have been using the eyedroppers to make color corrections in levels. Has been working great... suddenly not working. The shadows (black) dropper makes the picture go very dark and the highlight (white) dropper then totally blows out the picture. It's as tho it is driving the contrast up very high. Have double checked the preferences. Even reloaded the software. Same problem. Anyone have a suggestion?

[Jodi Frye]

you actually need to 'delete' the preference file. One way to do that is to hold down alt+ctrl+shift a split moment afer launching the editor. A window will appear asking if you'd like to reset your settings.....say 'ya' and the program will load with default settings which should fix it. It's a quick three finger/launch thingy....you may or may not get it the first time you try.

[rustyduck]

You are right, I didn't get it the first time I tried... or the 5th... or the 79th. Another suggestion please?!?!?!

[Wendy]

Try it this way ...

Hold down the 3 keys with your left hand before you click on the icon to open the Editor ... see if that works:)


Wendy

[MikeH]

Try it this way ...

Hold down the 3 keys with your left hand before you click on the icon to open the Editor ... see if that works:)

Yes, that will work - just hold the three keys down, then launch the program...

Mike

[rustyduck]

OK, I followed the suggestions... thank you very much for those, and it did open a properties window this time. But it did not give me any options about resetting any settings, just options about compatibility. Any other suggestions?

[Wendy]

Tou need to do it whilst opening the Editor ... it sounds as though you may have been opening the Organiser??


Wendy

[rustyduck]

I open straight to the Editor.

[Jodi Frye]

To delete file manually;

C:Documents and settings\Your user name here\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements>3.0>editor>delete prefs file.

[rustyduck]

Thank you everyone for trying to assist me. I finally have been able to delete the preference file with Wendy's last post. But the problem has not changed. Levels is not working the way it did until two days ago... the black dropper drives the shadows totally black and the white dropper blows everything out. Interestingly, PSE2 still works properly... just inconvenient to use both.

[rustyduck]

I am noticing that even auto levels is not behaving normally. It's as tho its preferences are totally out of whack. It is actually making some photos worse.

[Carbone]

I remember some problems, under version 2, with the EXIF information, where some commands just didn't provide the expected results. Try to set the option for PSE3 to ignore EXIF, see if this solves your problem :

Prefences / Saving files / under the File Compatibility section, Ignore Camera Data (EXIF) profiles

Hope this helps!

Ray

[Wendy]

I just had another thought ... is this all images or just one? and how is it when you just move the levels slides to where the histogram starts and ends, does that still give high contrast images?

Also, check the mode of your image and make sure that it is in RGB or Grayscale.


Wendy

[Carbone]

As a group, we sure don't lack any imagination in solving issues :)

[Wendy]

Ray,

I guess sooner or later we will hit on the right solution :)


Wendy

[rustyduck]

Let's see if I can discribe what is going on... auto levels slightly takes brightness out of the picture. It also compresses the histogram slightly, ie, it brings the ends of the curve inside the window, infact sometimes actually cutting off the ends of the curve.

I can manually adjust color and brightness with the sliders going thru the RGB, red, green, blue curves.

Attempting to adjust color with the eyedroppers is the most severe problem. The black dropper drives the shadows solid black. The white dropper then blows the picture out... looks like contrast at 110%. The curve goes flat. I have checked the dropper preferences and they are at nominal values.

I have deleted and reloaded the software. I have deleted the preferences. Nothing has made any difference. And this all started suddenly a few days ago after using the program with no problems for months.

[sandie]

How about not using the droppers to do your levels and use the Histogram with is very easy and you can use RGB or do each channel separately( not a good solution). I was told to leave the droppers alone and do levels with the histogram. Try it you may like it.