Auto Levels, Color Correction, Contrast

[Anonymous]

First see the sunflower I just posted in the non-reef photo thread.

Now look at this photo. They are actually two different shots, but shot with the same settings and look practically identical unmodified. For this photo, I set auto-levels, auto-color correction, and auto-contrast in Photoshop.

HD

 

[Anonymous]

I think the high amount of black space threw off the auto-levels, and the extreme contrast (with yellow being relatively close to white) threw off the auto color correct. I bet auto-contrast barely affected this photo.

Interesting to see what the computer does with it though!

 

[Anonymous]

Yup, and it also threw some blue into the center of the flower.

 

[azcaddman]

the problem with auto levels, it expands each channel to fill the range, but isn't smart enought to recognize that there may be little or no actual use of that color in the picture.

thats why it rarely works for underwater photo's also, due to lack of data in the red channel.

another thing that helps 'auto' corrections on photos like this, use a quick mask to hide the black area, then the function only 'sees' the area inside the mask, ignoring the black background.

 

[Anonymous]

Hm. I have no idea how to do that. I still don't understand masks in Photoshop.