lain,

About the gamma box with slider...you are supposed to be a distance away from your monitor, but be able to reach the mouse to move the slider, squint with your eyes somewhat and determine at what point the entire area looks uniform. The box should disappear into its surroundings.

Try this...in PSE create a new document which is a long narrow rectangle. Choose the gradient tool from the ToolBox, select a black to white gradient. Beginning at the left edge of the rectangle, drag the cursor on a straight line to the right edge and let go. You should have a transition from black to white in the box. Now go to the bottom of the Layers Palette (which you should always have open on your PSE workarea), click on the blk/white circle and choose " Posterize". Choose about 20 steps in the dialog box which appears. Now that black to white transition should not be continuous, it should be a series of small boxes, each one a separate and distinct shade ranging from black to white.

If a monitor is properly adjusted, one should be able to see all the boxes. They should all appear to be slightly different. This is the ideal. (I confess however that I can never distinguish between the two blackest boxes). Perhaps it would be helpful to have this "Step Wedge" open when you run the Gamma utility.

I have a suggestion about your editing procedure. Generally using the Brightness/Contrast adjustment is not the best practice. You might find better results by pulling up a Levels Adjustment layer and move the outside black triangles inwards until they are directly below the beginning and end of the black histogram. Use the middle slider to control general lightness/darkness of the image, this is for the midtones.

Nancy

---edit: midtones meaning gamma

---edit: watch the image on your monitor as you move the triangles in the Levels Adjustment, you will see it change.

Iain Williams

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