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Adjusting color samplers, Understanding color adjustments, Before making color and tonal adjustments – Adobe Photoshop CS3 User Manual

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PHOTOSHOP CS3

User Guide

156

To view the color values under the color samplers, look at the lower half of the Info palette. To place additional
color samplers in the image while the adjustment dialog box is open, Shift-click in the image.

The Color palette also shows the color value of pixels under the eyedropper.

Adjusting color samplers

Once you’ve added a color sampler, you can move or delete it, hide it, or change the color sampler information
displayed in the Info palette.

Move or delete a color sampler

1

Select the Color Sampler tool

.

2

Do one of the following:

To move a color sampler, drag the sampler to the new location.

To delete a color sampler, drag the sampler out of the document window. Alternatively, hold down Alt (Windows)
or Option (Mac OS) until the pointer becomes a scissors and click the sampler.

To delete all color samplers, click Clear in the options bar.

To delete a color sampler while an adjustment dialog box is open, hold down Alt+Shift (Windows) or
Option+Shift (Mac OS), and click the sampler.

Hide or show color samplers in an image

Choose View > Extras. A check mark indicates that color samplers are visible.

Change the display of color sampler information in the Info palette

To display or hide color sampler information in the Info palette, choose Color Samplers from the Palette menu. A
check mark indicates that the color sampler information is visible.

To change the color space in which a color sampler displays values, move the pointer onto the color sampler
icon

in the Info palette, hold down the mouse button, and choose another color space from the menu.

Understanding color adjustments

Before making color and tonal adjustments

The powerful tools in Photoshop can enhance, repair, and correct the color and tonality (lightness, darkness, and
contrast) in an image. Here are some items to consider before making color and tonal adjustments.

Work with a monitor that’s calibrated and profiled. For critical image editing, this is absolutely essential.
Otherwise, the image you see on your monitor will look different when printed.

Whenever you make a color or tonal adjustment to an image, some image information is discarded. It’s best to be
judicious regarding the amount of correction you apply to an image.

For critical work and maximum preservation of image data, it’s best if the image you work with is 16 bits per
channel (16-bit image) rather than 8 bits per channel (8-bit image). Data is discarded when you make tonal and
color adjustments. The loss of image information is more critical in an 8-bit image than a 16-bit image. Generally,
16-bit images have a larger file size than 8-bit images.