There’s more to contrast than black and white points – increasing or decreasing contrast can be a powerful creative tool
Before
Contrast, or even a lack of it, can be a much more important element in the overall look and C feel of a photo, whether you’re working in colour or black and white. At its most basic level, an increase in contrast is simply increasing the black and white points – the level where pure black and pure white are displayed. Of course, in many situations, you wouldn’t want to push these points that far because you’d lose detail, but it’s the easiest explanation of what’s happening.
Controlling contrast is often seen as a basic part of image processing and it is to some degree because it’s often applied and then forgotten about. But there are multiple ways of adding and subtracting contrast alongside other effects for a more creative approach. What’s more, you can also use different Blending modes to change the way Layers behave visually, which adds a degree of additional creativity and, ultimately, control.
1 Natural colour
Click on the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and select Curves. When the dialog opens, left-click around three-quarters of the way up the curve and drag the point up and to the left, then place a point a quarter of the way up the curve and drag it down and to the right to create an S-Curve. Close the dialog and change the Blending mode from Normal to Multiply so only contrast is increased and not saturation. Now you can adjust Opacity to control the strength.
2 Add haze
Create a Levels Adjustment Layer and when the dialog opens, drag the black Output slider to 35 and the white Output slider to 235. This will add haze and redu
