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CHAPTER
Understanding
Colors, Histograms,
Levels, and Curves
IN THIS CHAPTER
Understanding color and how
Photoshop uses it
Understanding how to use
histograms to analyze colors
Using the Curves tool to
adjust tones
Selecting a color mode for
an image
Selecting colors in Photoshop
C
olor is the basic element for everything that you do with images. The
purpose of this chapter is to help you understand how Photoshop
perceives color so you can use the tools in subsequent chapters more
effectively.
Photoshop provides some very powerful tools to analyze, adjust, and select
colors in your images. This chapter discusses using the histogram to under-
stand the color composition in an image. Understanding the histogram is a
basic necessity to make the most out of tools such as the Levels and Curves
adjustments.
Another important aspect of this chapter is discussing the color modes pro-
vided in Photoshop and how to select colors based on those color modes.
The color modes give you an insight into how Photoshop perceives color and
consequently how to make the most out of the editing tools provided.
Color Basics
Color is the basic element of all images. The purpose of this section is to

discuss the nature of color in relation to the human eye to give you a good
foundation to work from. Understanding color helps you make better adjust-
ments and corrections to your images. Also, because Photoshop gives you
the option of working in several different color models, understanding color
helps you choose the best color model.
What is color?
They human eye can detect millions of different colors, but really, what are
those colors made of? Put simply, color is made of light. Light travels in a
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series of waves. Visible light is made of waves traveling between a specific set of wavelengths.
White light is light that contains waves of all frequencies and therefore contains all colors.
The human eye can distinguish the different wavelengths of the light waves. The wavelength of
each light wave determines the color that the eye detects. For example, light waves with frequen-
cies on the low end of the visible light spectrum are interpreted as blue, and light waves with fre-
quencies on the high end of the visible light spectrum are interpreted as red.
When the eye looks at an object, it is detecting the light that is reflecting off the object. Depending
on the nature of the surface of the object, some of the frequencies are absorbed by the surface of
the object and some are reflected into the eye, producing the colors we see.
Color, intensity, and the human eye
The eye detects color in light waves through tiny receptor cells in the retina called cones. Light
stimulates these receptor cells, and they transfer the data to the brain. Of the three groups of cones,
some are sensitive to the higher frequencies, some to the lower frequencies, and some to the mid-
dle frequencies of light. Therefore, no matter how complex the composition of wavelengths in the
light that the eye is receiving, the color is broken down into three basic components by the eye.
This is important as we discuss topics such as channels, histograms, and color management
throughout the book.
Another attribute of light that affects the colors we see is the intensity. Intensity is the strength of
the light reaching the eye. Basically, brighter light carries more intensity than does dimmer light.

Because the cones in the eye are stimulated by the light waves, less intense waves stimulate them
less, resulting in a limited amount of data being collected. This limits the number of shades of a
color that the eye can discern. Understanding this helps you when you are making adjustments
and correcting photos.
The eye overcomes dim lighting by using additional receptor cells called rods. In bright light, the
rods perform almost no function; however, in dim light, the rods transfer additional data to the
brain. The data from the rods is colorless, however, which is why we don’t see much color in very
low lighting. This also is why indoor photos taken with a flash appear much better than those
taken without a flash.
Note
The cones in the eye are most sensitive to colors on the upper end of the visible light spectrum. Therefore, colors
such as red, green, and yellow are affected less by reducing the intensity than colors such as blue and purple. n
Understanding Channels and Levels
Photoshop applies the concepts of digital color in a way similar to the way our eyes work. Digital
color is divided into channels and levels. A channel represents a specific color, and a level repre-
sents the intensity of that color. Using combinations of different levels of channels, Photoshop can
represent millions of colors.
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To illustrate this better, let’s look at how some colors are represented in Photoshop using the RGB
color mode (discussed later in this chapter). Using the RGB color mode, all colors are divided into
three channels—red, green, and blue, hence RGB. Each channel has an intensity level range of 0 to
255, where 0 is none of the color and 255 is full intensity of the color.
Using the RGB color model, the color red is represented as 255 in the red channel, 0 in the blue,
and 0 in the green. Similarly, green is represented as 255 in the green channel and 0 in the other
two. Yellow is represented as a combination of the red and green channels at 255 and the blue
channel at 0. To get black, all channels are set to 0; to get white, all channels are set to 255. In
this way, all colors can be represented as a combination of different levels of the red, blue, and
green channels.

Tip
Often, when working with multiple images, images on multiple computers, or in different applications, you
need to make certain you use the same color in all places. If you note the level value in each channel, you can
easily reproduce the same color, no matter where you are working. For example, you may be working in RGB
mode and need to create specific color of blue where the red channel has a level of 26, the green channel has
a level of 74, and the blue channel has a value of 158. n
Each of the different color modes utilizes different color channels. However, all color modes use
the concept of varying levels of each channel to represent different colors or tones. Photoshop pro-
vides several tools that use the concept of channels and levels to adjust images and apply special
effects. Understanding how channels and levels represent color helps you utilize those tools in a
much broader scope.
Adjusting with Histograms
One of the most useful tools Photoshop provides when adjusting colors and tones in your images
is the histogram. Using histograms, you can visually see the composition levels in one or more
channels. At first histograms may seem a bit daunting to understand; however, after you under-
stand what is being represented, your Photoshop life will never be the same. In this section, we
discuss what histograms are and how to use the histogram tools provided in several areas of
Photoshop to quickly adjust the levels of channels.
Understanding histograms
At first glance, a histogram looks like the silhouette of a mountain range, as shown in Figure 4.1. A
histogram is really just a vertical bar chart. The chart is constructed by looking at each pixel in the
image and counting the number of pixels that contain a value of 0 for that channel, then the value
of 1, and so forth up to the value of 255.
Using the bar chart, histograms show how the levels of each channel are distributed in the image.
So what does this mean? It means that you have a visual representation of the color and intensity
distributing in your image.
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FIGURE 4.1

A histogram of the RGB levels of an image in Photoshop
You can interpret the visual data in the histograms in many ways to understand the composition of
colors and light in an image to help you make the most out of Photoshop’s adjustment tools. To
illustrate this, the following sections cover how to use histograms to determine the exposure and
color balance in an image.
Determining overexposure and underexposure in an image
One of the most useful features of a histogram is the ability to quickly determine how overexposed or
underexposed an image is. Some photos are obviously overexposed or underexposed, and others just
don’t quite look good due to overexposure or underexposure, but it is difficult to tell by just looking
at an image. Using histograms helps you quickly tell if an image is overexposed or underexposed.
Tip
When adjusting color, contrast, levels, and tone of an image, first check to see if the image is overexposed or
underexposed. You want to adjust the exposure first as discussed in Chapter 9. n
Images that are overexposed have mostly higher levels for all channels and almost no lower levels
because more light was recorded in the image. Therefore, the histogram looks like a mountain on
the right and not much on the left. Figure 4.2 shows an example of an image that has been overex-
posed. Notice that most of the data in the image falls to the higher end of the histogram.
FIGURE 4.2
A histogram of the RGB levels of an overexposed image in Photoshop
Images that are underexposed have mostly lower levels for all channels and almost no higher levels
because not enough light reached the image. Therefore, the histogram looks like a mountain on the
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left side instead of the right. Figure 4.3 shows an example of an image that has been underexposed.
Notice that most of the data in the image falls to the lower end of the histogram.
FIGURE 4.3
A histogram of the RGB levels of an underexposed image in Photoshop
Determining color balance in an image
Histograms allow you to ascertain the color balance in an image. Understanding the color balance

helps when you are trying to correct color and tonal issues in images. For example, if you look at
the histograms of an image that should be balanced and see that the image has a disproportionate
amount of red, you can easily adjust the red.
The best way to determine color balance in an image is to look at the histograms of each color
channel individually. Viewing the histograms of each channel shows how much of that color is
present in the image compared to the other color channels as well as a distribution of the levels of
each channel.
Note
When viewing the color channel histograms of an image, keep in mind what colors should be present. For
example, if you are working with an RGB image of a boat on the ocean with a blue sky background, you should
see lots of blue, but not much green, and almost no red. However, if the image contains people, with green
trees in the background and a blue sky, then there should be a fairly even distribution of red, green, and blue. n
Figure 4.4 shows the channel histograms of an RGB image. Notice that the red channel has almost
no values, and the values that are present are in the lower levels. Conversely, the green channel
contains lots of data and is fairly distributed. The blue channel contains a moderate amount of data
but is definitely skewed to the lower levels.
Obviously, the color levels in this image are not balanced, but what does that mean? Well, if the
image is of a green plant, then it just means that the image contains much more green than any
other color. However, if the image is a snapshot of a person’s face, then it means that their skin
tone is severely out of whack, and you’ve got your work cut out trying to fix it because you need
red to get the pink back in the cheeks.
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FIGURE 4.4
The color levels histograms of an RGB image in Photoshop
Using the Histogram panel
In the previous sections, we discussed the importance of using histograms in understanding the
composition of light and color in an image. Photoshop provides a Histogram panel that helps you
quickly view the important histograms of an image.

Using the Histogram panel, you can view the histograms of each of the channels, all channels
together, colors, and luminosity. You also can use the histogram tool to view histograms of specific
layers. In addition to the histograms, the Histogram panel can show you numerical statistics about
the level composition of each histogram.
Tip
When you are making adjustments or corrections that have to do with color, hue, tone, contrast, and so on,
view the Histogram panel for the image. Look at the overall histogram to check for overexposure/underexpo-
sure. Also, look at the individual channels to verify that the color balance is what you would expect for that
image. n
The Histogram panel, shown in Figure 4.5, is launched by selecting Window ➪ Histogram from the
main menu in Photoshop. The following sections discuss how to configure and use the Histogram
panel to view histograms and statistics.
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