in today's video i want to share an easy way to color grade your photos using a simple
levels adjustment and because you find the levels adjustment in many software packages you can use
this technique with any of them hello i'm robin whalley welcome to lenscraft in this video i'm
using a levels adjustment layer in affinity photo and i've already opened the image that i want
to color grade let's add the levels adjustment by clicking the adjustments icon at the bottom
of the layers studio panel this displays a list of available adjustment layers and i can select
the levels option you can see the new layers being added at the top of the layer studio panel and the
levels dialogues open when we color grade an image we adjust the tones and colors in that image to
create a style the levels dialog gives us control over the image tones by adjusting the master
channel if we click on the dropdown we can see there's also adjustments for separate red green
and blue colour channels of the image this allows us to control the colours in the image as well
let's start by editing the tones using the master channel in the levels sliders
when i move the black level to the right you can see that it makes the image much darker
what's happening is that any pixels in the image that are darker than the slider value turn black
in this example if i set the black level to a value of 50 percent any pixels that are darker
than the mid-tone gray will turn black the other pixels that are lighter than the mid-tone grey
are then redistributed across the histogram you can see this in the studio histogram panel
remember the histogram shown in the levels dialog reflects the layers below the levels layer in the
image the histogram you see in the histogram panel reflects all visible image layers including our
levels adjustment the white level works in the same way as the black level when i set that to
a 50 value any pixel in the image lighter than the mid-tone gray becomes white the remaining pixels
in the image that are darker than a mid-tone gray are then redistributed across the histogram
if i use the gamma slider in the center we change the image brightness so that the overall image
becomes even lighter or darker now watch what happens when i move the output black level to
50 percent it makes the image appear faded and the darkest tone in the image is now a mid-tone gray
you can see this reflected in the histogram studio panel which shows there are no pixels
on the left half of the histogram the output white level does the same thing but for brighter pixels
when i move that to 50 it sets the brightest pixels in the image to be a mid-tone gray which
you also see reflected in the histogram panel now let's use this information to produce a
matte faded look for the image all we need to do is move the output black level to 10
and the output white level to 90 percent then i'll increase the gamma slider to a value of around 1.2
to give the image a slightly darker appearance to counter the fading when i turn the levels layer
visibility off and on you can see the effect it's having now let's look at how to adjust the colours
in our image starting with the red colour channel this time when i move the black level to the right
setting the value to fifty percent it removes red from the image then when i move the white level to
fifty percent it adds red to the image the output levels do the opposite of these input levels
for example once the black level removed red from the image the output black level adds it
and whilst the white level added red the output white level removes it now there is a subtle
difference between how we add and remove colour from the image using the input and output levels
notice the difference if i add red using the white level compared to the output black level
this is because the output black level is affecting the darker pixels in the image
increasing their red component but the white level is affecting the lighter pixels in the image to
increase the level of red in those this gives you a lot of control over the pixels you're
adding and removing red from the other slider we should look at here though is the gamma slider
when i move the gamma slider to the right it reduces a level of red in all the image pixels
but if i move it to the left it increases the level of red in the same pixels we can
use this information now to produce a different atmosphere for our image by adjusting the colors
start by moving the black level to around 10 percent to reduce the red in the darker pixels
this creates an interesting color effect but i can see a little bit too much red in the image still
i'll tweak that by moving the gamma slider to the right to a value of around 1.2
this further reduces a level of red but this time from the entire image now i'll change to adjusting
the green channel because it feels like there's a little bit too much green in the image i'll reduce
the level of green in the shadows now by five percent allowing the shadows to shift towards a
blue tint for this image i don't need to change the blue channel but if i wanted to i could use
the controls in the same way instead i'm going to go back to the master channel and move the output
slider to 15 the shadows feel a little light they're becoming blocked up and moving it to 15
lightens them if i turn the levels layer visibility off and on you can see how the color
grading has completely changed the atmosphere of the image something else you can do to further
enhance this technique in affinity photo is to use the blending range controls if you're not sure how
to use them watch this video next you'll find that by combining the two techniques you have
complete control over the color grading effect thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe