Levels or Curves

[RandySmith]

When post processing ... do you prefer one over the other ? Why ?

When I'm running a batch process on football games, I seem to like levels a little better than curves, but can see a graphical distribution of the light better using curves to know where saturation point might be ... however, final adjustment using either way doesn't seem much different to me (visually on-screen of course) ....

Thanks for any thoughts.

Randy

[The Loft Studios]

Using Curves enables you to have more precise control over the image.
Levels is quick and easy.
So, it really depends on how important your image is to you.....

When doing Wedding Images for Clients to just simply view, I use Levels.
To process the images for their final Prints and/or Album, I use Curves.

[BeccaJ]

If I'm bored i fiddle with both....lol...im no help.

[canoflan]

Think of it like this. You can run a batch using auto levels, but you cannot with curves.

I agree with Mark; however, frankly, if you shoot RAW, all this would be handled in your RAW converter and use curves to tweek if you bring into PS at all.

[my3peas]

Personally, after processing in RAW, I finish it off with a slight levels adjustment in PS. I find that Levels brings a richness to the images that I've not been able to achieve in RAW.

[RandySmith]

I agree with using RAW. For portraits and landscapes yes, that is what I prefer. However, peewee football is tough to process so many images with RAW, with majority of sales 4x6 or 5x7's anyway. Okay, thanks for the inputs. Appreciate the thoughts.

Randy

[Duffy Pratt]

For all practical purposes, Levels is simply a Curve with two endpoints and a midpoint. You can move the endpoints in, and you can move the midpoint up or down. So there is nothing you can do with Levels that you can't do as well with Curves. There is alot you can do with Curves that you can't even begin to approach with Levels.

Duffy

[jeffkohn]

I'm not a big fan of curves for tonal manipulations. It may be a powerful tool but it's also a PITA for anything much more trivial than a gentle s-curve. I might use Levels for setting the blackpoint or a slight shift in the placement midtones. Outside if that if I need to do non-trivial or localize tonal edits I'm far more likely to move over to LightZone.