8 Reasons to NEVER Use Levels in Photoshop!

[@PiXimperfect]

► GRAMMAR CORRECTION: At 14:15, the text should be "than learning basic ones" instead of "than learn basic ones." If grammar doesn't bother you, ignore this, haha.

[@asifansari872]

Sir can you understand me how much poweful pc by for ps🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@vimnadid]

@UMesh You commented only for this.... Seriously... !¡!

[@RajeevKumar-pd9mx]

Aye...english teacher, love it,😊

[@rudranilghosh2713]

Unmesh can you do some 3d tutorials? Maybe include cinema 4d too

[@stevemount]

OMG HOW DARE YOU TEACH US INCREDIBLY USEFUL INFORMATION FOR 15 MINUTES AND THEN MAKE A GRAMMAR ERROR. How dare you sir!

[@SniderJ]

Friendship ended with Levels, Curves is my new bestfriend

[@Peakplayzz]

Hahahah 😂😂 i can see that picture by reading your comment

[@ThunderStormMalamute]

Same! After 15 years lol wow. Thank you!

[@kocbilo]

*I understood that reference*

[@IDigress]

what a throwback

[@Tuggspeedmen]

LMMAAAOOO

[@Marta_z_Dabrowy]

Curves may be more complex, but sometimes simplicity is better. I like both options, but I must say it's Levels I use more often. They're fast and usually are enough for quick adjustments. Sure, if you need to spend hours digging on one picture, Curves are better. Still, I prefer Levels.

[@subratkumardas1881]

Best photoshop teacher found in youtube. Respect ❤️

[@MR_FRAME_FIT]

Yes 😃

[@satishsvernekar]

From my side too.

[@MrMadvillan]

he's partially wrong though. While you shouldn't use levels for 8bit work, its real purpose is for clamping and adjusting gamma in raw 32bit images. You can try it yourself - there is no curves option in 32bit color space. Its simply the wrong tool for the kind of work he's describing. It's like 'hey guys, you should ride a bike to school, rolling to school in a barrel is a terrible way to get to school, we should ban barrels. Why do barrels even exists.' derp

[@jynt_vrma]

@@MrMadvillan Alright, I converted an image to 32 bits, and still, I could use curves. Maybe you are saying something more advance that's beyond my understanding.

[@MrMadvillan]

@@jynt_vrma you’re right, it’s new for CC2021. however technically speaking it’s still limited to 0-255 which is 8bit color space or just what your screen can display. Regardless levels is a basic Lift-Gamma-Gain tool. It’s one of the most basic tool editors and colorists use for lossless editing. but this channel is more about finishing 8bit images, which levels isn’t appropriate for.

[@ArchieDeZ]

"I'm not level with you anymore" "why??!" "She has curves"

[@tanveerahmad2865]

Whenever i do anything in photoshop, i use Levels,,, I got a heart-attack while reading the title.

[@tarun0206]

😂

[@FactzGlobe]

🤣😂🤣

[@yamytheweird7705]

Same💀

[@TheComot]

🤣🤣🤣

[@blacknight7643]

No issue using levels....he is just saying comparatively Curves are better...overall, like Mr. Unmesh mentioned in the beginning of his video it is personal choice.

[@HeatherCashArt]

This was amazing! I'm definitely a levels girl, ever since I first learned Photoshop like 20 years ago! I love how you related curves to levels because curves has always been very confusing and intimidating to me. Since you related it back to levels, it makes sense to me! I'll be using curves from now on! ❤️

[@viz_ology]

Same 💯 expect that i m not girl 😄

[@mal-avcisi9783]

levels is for amateurs. pros use curves

[@christophergrove4876]

Same!

[@Hasanex]

The moment I saw the thumbnail I thought Oh Boy, he's gonna talk about how curves are superior in every way. I was right xD and I'm not disappointed

[@tutoringtube2174]

I was going to comment for the same

[@catcatcatcatcatcatcatcatcatca]

levels is great for doing some things awkward to do in curves, so that you would either way use two curves layers: For example: say you for printing don't want anything 100% white: you can do it with curves for sure, but for all future changes in the same curves layer, neutral, straight line would no longer be 45° - so you would want another curves layer. Now the first curves layer that only degreased your dynamic range by limiting max brightness by all means and purposes is locked to be a levels layer without visible number for your new max brightness. I would in such case use the levels layer, and the slider below. Aside from the midpoint slider, all other options in levels produce similar problem: you can change it in curves, but the layer is clearly not optimised to do such a simple thing, and for all future changes loses its key feature: 45° line means no changes in that area. You often end up using many curves layers anyway, so in that sense using one curves layers to do the work of levels seems sensible enough. But this curves layer would be crucially different, more basic adjustment in brightness, and for clarity should be named with some name reflecting that. And that is precisely what levels does. It replaces the most boring, uninteresting curves layers, and re-names them to "levels", so your actual curves layers are easily distinguished from them, even if you don't bother to rename them.

[@khalilmaknoun]

Hey, I use levels most of time with AO or Z Depth render pass ,it’s convenient for compositing with grayscale render pass.Curves do the job but it takes much more time .

[@hollyperret]

I’m still a beginner at photoshop and I use levels all the time. When I saw this I knew I had to watch it to see what I was missing. I wasn’t offended. This is enormously helpful. I think you just rescued my workflow.

[@imyasharya]

I think level exists just how you can do things in ways in any OS, one is CLI and another is GUI, giving freedom to the people what they're comfortable with. And also not having this feature doesn't make Photoshop less bloated because I have seen that similar features can be packaged into much smaller size written in the same language (i.e mostly C and C++).

[@MrMadvillan]

its a 32 bit tool for clamping and gamma. his argument is misplaced. what's more evident to me is how incomplete the coloring tools are.

[@ravikumar-wk4ji]

"Almighty Curves laughs in corner"

[@kamaleshwaranHC]

Lel

[@hasibgns]

Lil

[@jynt_vrma]

Lul

[@abhijeetgawade]

😂😂👍

[@debmalyadas6562]

Lol 🤣

[@robin_feni5448]

I'm a digital print operator. I use Konica Minolta bizzhub c7000 and Cannon C910. Level is so handy to finish job faster. Level isn't useless. You make tutorial and Reality in workplace have difference.

[@thatguynicky1979]

Dang Unmesh, that analogy that "Levels is like only having control over the treble, where Curves is like controlling the whole EQ" is fitting! Btw, it looks like your hitting the gym hard lately, apparently we got front row seats to your gun show with as well as our learning!!!

[@williaml1551]

When Unmesh says that selecting a point on the curve and moving it will only darken the highlight on the forehead for adjustment that isn't 100% correct. That adjustment occurs on everything in the photo at that tone level. That's why I choose to use targeted selections by various methods to only select the forehead.

[@girardjeremie1939]

I knew this video would be pertinent (like always!). Can't wait to try your horizontal curve, by the way, it looks so convenient to use!

[@melindawolfUS]

Ok, you've convinced me to try curves instead of levels. Thank you for the clear explanation and thoughtful demonstrations of the ways the two are different

[@Kurtolla1]

I was a bit enraged by the title of this video but as i watched i understood what the aim of the video is. I use levels quite often , mainly to get a simplified view of the colour structure of the image especially for litho printing and do very quick minor adjustments to to the overall composition of the picture. Thank you for all the interesting videos, keep t up.

[@surajitchoudhury7946]

Last statement "Equalizer one is wonderful.. love it.

[@cagno]

I always enjoy your videos, this one included. I have been using curves for years and appreciate you championing them. However, I use levels and curves together and it gets me better results than just using one of them. I tried your techniques on an image and it worked but I was still able to get better results by using levels first to adjust the tonal range and then color correcting with curves. Some images worked with just curves but most of the I images I tested worked better with both. I just think NEVER is too strong.

[@waynelytton7517]

My first 30 years as a Conventional photo lab techn at The National Geographic Society part of my duties was the use of densitometers and other devices ,along with control strips for quality control. After processing a control strip or setting up for a new strip these reading were hand recorded on a graph and a Curve created. Whether a part of chemical control or setting up a printer this was always a part of the process. So when Photoshop appeared we instinctively used the curves control in Photoshop because we were so familiar with what it was and what it did and how to control it ,that we used it for the same purpose in Photoshop. It wasn't until several years into the Photoshop world that we learned Curves was the most powerful tool and the one most recommended. In our previous conventional methods we had a tremendous base of technical knowledge that gave us a great head start to the Digital world. In my opinion this is one of the biggest problems with some new users of Photoshop if one don't know why something works it's hard to understand how something works.

[@ivangutierreztellez803]

Change log in the Next update in photoshop 22: -We have just deleted levels. -other minor fixes.

[@RobertDettmanImages]

🤣🤣🤣

[@f3rzz476]

😎F

[@EmmaArtois]

I love you Unmesh! This was so helpful for my experienced beginner skill level. Thanks for the thorough explanations and thoughtful thinking process.

[@kokomon_desu]

i'm not an expert in color grading or color correcting, all i do just click here n there not knowing what i'm doing. so i say level gives me limited move so i don't get wild in the process. i tried multiple times working with curves and just messed up things >.< but it's pretty clear now after i watch this and i'm grateful to find this gem.

[@treadingtheboards2875]

I have spent the last week or so getting rid of color casting on scanned photos and slides, using levels I have had around 80% success, but there have been some that levels just wont do anything. Yesterday my son told me that curves works better and showed me, then this morning I found your video, thank you so much for posting this brilliant tutorial.

[@KanishkGupta]

Looking at the pumped up biceps😁 we are hoping to see some fitness tutorial soon too😉

[@thefuzzman2379]

I swear if you had a podcast I could listen to it to put me to sleep. NOT because I think you are boring. NOT AT ALL. but that silky smooth voice of yours is just so calming. Your tutorials and videos are great. You are a great teacher and your direction is very clear. Thank you.

[@edwardcottrill584]

You should make a full video of the watercolour effect tutorial (starting around 11:00) -- it was very difficult for me to find this again! 😊😊

[@MidwestModjewski]

Your analogy at the end about the Bass/Treble knobs VS Full Eq. is SPOT ON!

[@ShinDongJi]

Just dropped by to say Thank you Unmesh. I am one of those people you mentioned who live and die with levels. My knowledge with curves is mediocre, but this really got me hooked to it. All the best and Stay safe!

[@deekshagoyal8086]

To piximperfact i came here to learn photoshop but always forgot that and focus on your voice your voice goes directly into my ❤

[@iMoOnshine]

I noticed you never put your adjustment layers to a layer mode here. E.g. when you use the luminosity mode for your curves adjustments, it won’t affect your colours much but only, obviously, the luminosity (brightness, darkness). Like this you avoid unwanted colour changes and don’t have to readjust those.

[@jcscobucci]

Unmesh always surprising us with his videos about Photoshop and this one was not different. The comparison between the Levels and Curves adjustment tools enriched my knowledge of these two adjustment tools, and even more showed me that I can only use the curve tool and permanently forget the Levels adjustment. Adobe may rethink and eliminate it in its next Photoshop updates. Thank you very much for this video.

[@jameselliott983]

Crystal clear explanation. I thought I was taking the easiiest route, and I was missing too much. Great. Thanks.

[@wayneswatson53]

You sir, are a photoshop genius! So many helpful videos. Thank you!

[@ThisIsJessPaul]

That audio equalizer metaphor at the end was so perfect. Like every PixImperfect vid, I learned more about Photoshop in a few minutes than I knew working with it for a decade. Thanks, Unmesh!!

[@SableRaf]

I’ve been using photoshop for 20 years and you still blew my mind with that scrubby hand tool 🤯

[@ultranova3315]

Wait ...... Photoshop has existed for 20 years now !?

[@dondonnillo]

@@ultranova3315 25 years actually

[@sanjibdey61]

Never found curves useful, I grown up in this field watching you using that mighty curve tool....so I love it from beginning.... ❤️❤️☺️☺️

[@elliottcobin1468]

I’ve had this discussion with a friend. Additionally, the exposure and the brightness/contrast adjustments are not necessary since curves can do anything they can do.

[@Muovinen]

Well, anyone who uses those two tools are tools themselves! All hail curves, the king of light!

[@NekoGMV]

thank you♥

[@TheGazmondo]

Point number 7 is possibly one of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard for years in photography. Probably your best and most useful videos to date !!

[@CarlVirtudazo]

I learned a lot! Thank you. And I love how you used the treble and bass knobs against a full equalizer as an analogy!

[@PresencePhotography]

You just changed my editing style for the better! I love the way you break it down and make it fun

[@andimihailescu]

I use Levels for prints. It is way easier for me, as a direct photographer. I don't over edit and complicate with the exposure in post, I just modify it a little bit for the final print, because the ink on the photographic paper darkens the image. This way, it takes very little time to do it, it is simplier. It is not useless.

[@Shmeeeps]

You answered questions I had about Curves that I was too embarrassed to not know, after using Photoshop for over 20 years. Finally saying goodbye to Levels!

[@cornelisvanbrussel3186]

You have convinced me my friend. I was always working with Levels because Curves looked scary to me... Hahah.. But now you have given me comfort to begin to learn everything about curves. Thank you!!

[@MrMadvillan]

its the tool that takes the longest to master so the sooner you get started the better. one way to demystify curves is to toggle through the presets so you can see what high contrast v low contrast curves look like. btw levels is for 32 bit work like clamping and gamma and shouldn't be used on 8bit images anyway. He kind of missed the point but no don't use level if its not 32 bit or raw.

[@cornelisvanbrussel3186]

@@MrMadvillan thanks man!

[@vidalstudio]

00:56Razón # 1: Todo lo que tú, puedes hacer con los niveles; tú, lo puedes hacer con las curvas y, mucho Más.

[@PL-808]

I agree you can do all with curves. You can still combine curves to make overall tonal/contrast/color adjustments together with levels to (manual) set the black- and whitepoint. I use it at the “end” of editing. Of course you can do it with curves as well, but I think levels is a simpler tool for maximizing contrast in the end of the editing. Press alt (Mac) when adjusting, then you see when clipping highs/lows. Then it works perfect 👌 in my opinion. Happy photo editing, with or without levels! 😊

[@Cirocoleman]

Great tutorial!! Concise, easy to understand and, as Mr Spok used to say - Logical!! Nice analogy at the end, too. Trouble with most software is that there are sometimes too many options to choose from so you end up just using the basic stuff. It might be simpler if Adobe simply removed Levels and others of the same ilk. As you say, just learn to Master the one - the 'equalizer' asit were!! I've been using Photoshop for awhile now and in all honesty hadn't really even 'seen' those other aids that make Curves the obvious choice. A new convert!!! Cheers!!

[@jdnelms62]

I've been doing Photoshop work for 30 years and rarely use Levels for anything other than clearing up gray areas in masks and alpha channels. Ironically, I do use an airbrush set to overlay in my masks and alpha channels. That's a trick I learned watching your videos!

[@Stratelier]

The flipside is that for simple, broad adjustments the simpler tool can be just faster to use (sometimes even by magnitudes). Just as a traditional painter likely wouldn't claim that the greater precision of a small paintbrush renders their larger brushes redundant, right? Also, yes, "GIMP" is commonly pronounced with the hard G (as in "ghost").

[@ClemKlootShoops]

Just wanted to say your presentation style is exemplary. You are a precise and clear communicator and an excellent educator. Keep up the great work.

[@mohunrr]

The only difference that I saw between curves and levels is that in curves, the entire range can be retained while playing in between whereas in levels, the range is shrunk. Thanks for the elaborate description of curves and its uses vis-a-vis levels.

[@eleonorara5316]

I saw many videos of you. You are a SUPER TEACHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The best I have seen until now. You make everything to look easy! Thank you for your knowledge sharing! 🎖🎖🏆

[@Film_Fog]

There is one thing that Levels can do that Curves can not. On a Mac, hold the option key while moving the slider. A very useful tool for finding the min/max threshold. Is there a better way?

[@billgz7841]

Wow the treble-bass analogy at the end summed it up perfectly for me. SOLD. Thanks for great informative video.

[@xenosys480]

I already knew everything he said in this video, from his other videos, but it's just so soothing to watch him talk about curves so enthusiastically

[@catarodriguez2264]

Thank you for all these amazing free content!!

[@ivadimus]

you are so professional! Simple, easy, smooth, amazing!

[@wilco737]

THanks a lot for that insight. I usually used levels for basic edidint and then for more details I went to curves. Now I can save that one step. Thanks again. Was very helpful

[@gangstagrandma]

You explained the difference perfectly (never mind the grammar). I'll be using curves from now on. I never really understood before this video. Thank you.

[@ChasingPhotography]

Great video and while mostly true, the phrase "Levels is a less sophisticated version of Curves" is not the right comment. Levels are there mostly for offset printing and global adjustments, thats mostly why they exist. Levels are a global adjustment for tonality and showing clipping ranges when you use the alt key to split the Levels sliders. 25+ years in print and you nailed the strength of curves, but for offset if I need to adjust overall ink flow on an image, its Levels. This easily gets lost in image editing for screens only.

[@thedutchagency6825]

HA. I've been using Photoshop for about 20 years now, but at some point you just 'do what you always did', what you are used to. Since this week I've just put on your videos on another screen while Photoshopping, and I've already learnt so much new details and little tricks that drastically improves my workflow. Thanks a bunch my friend!

[@huihgujtg]

This is the most important channel in the history of KZbin. Thank for being here for us.

[@mildheadwound]

The main reason you would use levels is for practicality. If you work in an environment, where a single file has to be passed around through departments and artists, it is easier to interpret the levels as to what they do to the image, versus curves, which as mentioned can get quite complex. Even if you layer multiple curves, and name them, 'levels', or, 'contrast', etc, but the next person using will have no idea, and may treat the layer as a levels, which would be wrong. This actually happens a lot in the industry, and with some people's files, you almost need to go into image forensics, where as if you keep layers specific to their function, (in this case levels for contrast control, and curves for colour control). As a matter of fact, using your own analogy, when you get a new album, do you adjust your eq, for each song, or do you hit the bass expander on, and let the album play? Curves is too unnecessarily complex for many jobs, and makes interpreting what it is doing just that much more obfuscated.

[@Snowrite]

It’s like you just showed me there’s a door in the wardrobe and it leads to Narnia. Curves just got a whole lot more magical! Thanks Unmesh!

[@aungmyinthu8239]

I use level to boost "Quick Selection". When the image have white background and a person have brighter skin, bright cloth, I use level to boost contrast and sharpness to help "Quick Selection" faster. In that case, I don't use layer adjustment, I just apply on image.

[@royz_1]

I used levels until now because it's really easy to use. Your comparison between the two tools will help me remember what each point of the level is for. Thank you!

[@marcmartel2829]

You, sir, are a master communicator. Really enjoying your channel.

[@goomyz]

The most important reason is Levels discards whatever detail falls outside the adjustment triangles. This was much more critical before adjustment layers were invented, but it still needs more emphasis.

[@angellarva]

I have never used levels in general imaging processing but for astrophotography processing it is my main tool.

[@dusanstevic89]

This video completely blew my mind as to how the colour correction thought process should work.

[@Polskaracer]

This Guy is the Godfather of Photoshop!!! Love your Videos !!!

[@lightpicture2465]

I just started to learn curves yesterday . This video is so full of information . Thank you

[@SixStringSamur4i]

The reason that you prefer curves is simply rooted in your age. Younger people learn to work more intuitively with programs like Photoshop. Older ones like me had to understand the physics behind a picture to understand what they are doing. For instance, when you worked on a drum scanner, you actually had to read and understand a histogram. That's what levels does. The waveform of the histogram tells you all you have to know about the picture, especially its problems. So it's not about what tool is better, it's more about your approach. If you want to play around, use curves. If you can read histograms and want to repair/ enhance photos instead of being artistic with it, use levels. That being said... your videos are great, and I learned a lot of stuff from a younger guy like you 😉

[@satishsvernekar]

Myself use lavels all the time. But there are so much advantages of using curves. Thanks Unmesh for uploading this vdo, showing the advantages of curves.

[@2pointSummer]

I completely agree with you, I haven't touched levels for years now. But I do see a reason why someone would, and the one reason is that you can do simple and quick adjustments easier and faster with levels. Using curves for a very quick and very minor adjustment would be like using a katana to slice some bread. you can do it with levels a tad faster. I personally do it with curves just as easily and just as quickly as I would with levels, but that's just me and I can totally see why someone would use levels for that instead of curves.

[@thefoofanman]

Best explanation on curves. Now i think i am comfortable using the curves. Thank you

[@StephenEhrlichPhotos]

You are a Photoshop master. I look forward to your tutorials. Always great tips.

[@gcprost]

I have been using Photoshop for over 20 years, but I learned some things about curves that I didn’t know. I don’t think I ever used levels on a photo; however, I still use levels to retouch scans of documents before I OCR them.

[@jaredskeen6986]

Ok the scrubby hand sold me… that’s so simple!!!!

[@Glenao_]

i always like everytime u explain and share anything in youtube . its so easy to understand how you talk . and i see most people even not everyone said they could use photoshop because of watching your youtube channel .

[@firworks]

That scrubby hand is incredible. I can't believe I never knew about it.

[@edkelly145]

Tip I learned from another KZbinr: In LR go to the bottom Calibration Tool and set blue to 100%. If you have a sky in the photo go back up to Saturation and pull the blues back down. In some images the results are fantastic. It's a great starting point for many images. Don't be afraid of playing with Calibration Tool.

[@mcleere1]

A million thanks, I have always skipped using 'Curves', wow, really, thanks, this is big...

[@markhahn8012]

Levels is just a simple curve adjust. Once you understand this, it can be used well with curves. Use levels for simple endpoint and midpoint adjustment, then use curves on top of it for more localized adjustment. Almost everything is a curve and most important to understand, but using with levels can be powerful. Same can be said for contrast and brightness sliders. For complex curve adjustments, a simple adjustment can be used to make a better starting point before doing the fine tuning in curves.

[@emilyd.l.6127]

I need to "Level"-up, "Curve is now the Key♥ Thank you again, Unmesh! I'm a fan!

[@colorwithkurt]

Fantastic info! Thanks so much, Unmesh.

[@riffraff778]

The more I follow your channel, the more I use and understand the power of that curve tool! Very instructive, as always! Thank you Unmesh!

[@thomascollins8001]

I always used levels because it was quicker. Curves will be my new go it. I blow out detail all the time!!! I love your channel and God Bless.

[@Haz1Art]

Yea this are definitely not for everyone, or specificly every type of editing job. The fact that Levels are simplified version of curves are exactly what I need. I dont need all those extra adjustment when im working with most of my job that require me to edit over 600 images. Levels get the job done by half the time than working with curves. There are times to use these tools, levels or curves, even when YOU PERSONALLY think they're not. I dont like the tone in this tutorial. Its like you're so personally attached to it. When you should just treat it as tools to optimize your workflow. They're just tools with same function suited for different situation. Same case with the Magic Wand. That thing saved me a lot of time by a huge margin compared to using Object Selection tool where I have to go back fix the selection even on a high contrast images.

[@ArtDigitalMediaTV]

I agree that curves is a superior tool overall. There really is only one instance where I use levels. I have an action I created 2-3 years ago that uses levels, that I still use to this day quite frequently. It's just for a very simple task that I happen to have to do a lot, and the limited levels sliders actually make it a lot easier/faster to tweak than trying to manipulate curves for that one task. You don't always need all the complexity of curves. Sometimes the simplicity of levels is actually a benefit, depending on the situation. I have absolutely no reason to update that action into curves instead. But yes, I never use levels for larger and more complex tasks.

[@jswanson859]

This video is FANTASTIC! Curves rocks. Thanks for sharing. I needed these tricks.

[@llchan]

The title should be “Why you should learn to use Curves?”

[@idontwantacallsign]

That is also what I learned 15 years ago. Thanks for cementing the facts. Just gotta love this channel💚💚

[@Lacucarachito]

Everything I learned im photoshop came from you. Everytime I watch your vids I feel like you are my personal professor in photoshop

[@bluejay3945]

You have to be the Einstein of photo editing. If there’s an eye dropper in GIMP in curves my wife has agreed to bake her world famous sour cream softie cookies for you. Excellent explanation of a tool that scared me as much as my mirror reflection these days

[@matteagle6914]

Im using levels so much and i will try to change that from now on. Nice shirt btw!

[@lancelenoir2875]

Great analogy at the end.