Adobe photoshop elements User Manual

he color and tonal correction tools in 
Photoshop Elements are used with images 
that were taken with a digital camera or 

scanned. You can correct the colors in an entire 
image, or just portions of an image.

It may be necessary to correct the color and tone 
in an image for several reasons. The original 
photograph may have a color cast caused by using 
incorrect film or lighting. Or the scan may have 
been imperfect—scanners can introduce color 
casts or artifacts. Or the colors in your original art 
may be out of printable range. 

Complete the following steps to correct the color 
balance and tonal range of an image:

Use Adobe Gamma to 

calibrate your monitor. Otherwise, the image on 
your monitor may look very different from the 
same image when printed or when viewed on 
another monitor. (See “Calibrating your monitor” 
on page 66.)

View the image at 100% before 

making any color corrections. The accuracy of 
color corrections may vary if all the pixels in the 
image aren’t visible. 

Look at 

the image’s histogram to evaluate whether the 
image has sufficient detail to produce high-quality 
output. The greater the range of values in the 
histogram, the greater the detail. Poor scans and 
photographs without much detail can be difficult 
if not impossible to correct. Too many color 
corrections can also result in a loss of pixel values 
and too little detail. (See “Checking scan quality 
and tonal range” on page 84.)

Begin tonal corrections by 

adjusting the values of the extreme highlight and 
shadow pixels in the image, setting an overall tonal 
range that allows for the sharpest detail possible 
throughout the image. This process is known as 
setting the highlights and shadows or setting the 
white and black points. (See “Adjusting tonal 
range” on page 85.)

Setting the highlights and shadows typically redis-
tributes the midtone pixels appropriately. When 
pixel values are concentrated at either end of the 
tonal range, however, you may need to adjust your 
midtones manually. It is not usually necessary to 
adjust midtones in images that already have a 
concentrated amount of midtone detail.

After correcting the 

tonal range, you can adjust the image’s color 
balance to remove unwanted color casts or to 
correct oversaturated or undersaturated colors. 
(See “Using the Color Cast command” on 
page 92.)