How to Fix Photo Lighting & Color in Photoshop CS2
Each release of Photoshop brings new precision to its photo editing tools, and Photoshop CS2 was no exception. Adobe tweaked the curves tool in CS2 to be more precise and added a new version of Adobe Camera Raw for photographers bringing unprocessed photos into the program. But the core photo editing tools of Photoshop are in the Layers palette, which didn't change much in CS2. These tools are central to adjusting light and color in a photograph.
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Instructions
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Open a photo in Photoshop CS2 to work with. Make sure that your Layers palette is visible; if you don't see it, click "Window," "Layers." Now create a duplicate window for your image. Click "Window," "Arrange," "New Window For." This opens the same image in a second window; you can zoom in on one of the images to edit lighting and color in specific regions and see the changes to the whole window in the other. Arrange the two images on your screen so you can see both side-by-side.
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Click on the Layers palette and then click on the half-black, half-white circle along the bottom. Choose "Levels" from this menu to see the light information --- or histogram --- for your photo. When a photo is well-lit and evenly lit, the black bars stretch from the left to the right of the histogram (or from dark to light). If the histogram doesn't reach the left or right edge of this window, your photo is under- or overexposed.
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Drag the little arrows along the bottom inward to adjust the light levels. Move the black arrow on the left to the right to make the image darker and the white arrow on the right to the left to make the image lighter. Adjust the grey arrow in the center to balance the light. CS2 gives you a live view of your adjustments, so you can see how the light changes. Click "OK" to save your changes.
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Click the black and white button again and choose "Color Balance" to adjust colors. Drag each of the three sliders around to choose reds over cyans, greens over magentas, blues over yellows or other preferences. Click "OK" to accept your changes. Now click the black and white button again and choose "Hue/Saturation." Beside "Edit," choose a specific range of color to edit in the photo, or choose "Master" to edit the full image. Drag levels here to change specific colors as with "Color Balance," and click "OK" to save.
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Look in the Layers palette to see the adjustments as new layers. When you modify levels or color in Photoshop CS2, the program creates a new layer with the change. If you don't like how it looks, just drag the layer to the little trash can icon within the Layers palette and try again. Or click the eye icon to hide the changes and see the original image.
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Tips & Warnings
You can use the selection tools to highlight a specific area of a photo to modify with levels or color balance, too. Zoom in on one of your two images and select a specific area -- an eye, for example -- and then use "Hue/Saturation" to adjust the color of the highlighted area. You'll see the full changes on the zoomed-out image.
