Adjusting

B4 How to adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation

In this module, you can learn how to make your pics look their very best. When you master fixing the light, contrast, and colors you are done with uploading dark and bland photos with slightly faded colors.

Since Google Maps often display your images in tiny sizes on smaller screens, we generally ought to add a bit more brightness, contrast, and saturation than we normally would. This will make your shots stand out as better pics between the billions of photos on Google Maps.

What are brightness, contrast, and saturation?

Brightness refers to the overall lightness or darkness of the image. Increasing the brightness will make every pixel lighter/brighter.

Increasing the contrast will make the darker areas darker and highlights brighter. This results in more separation between dark and bright areas. Decrease contrast, and you bring the shadows up and the highlights down to make them closer to one another.

Saturation refers to the intensity of a color. The higher the saturation of a color, the more vivid it is. The lower the saturation of a color, the closer it is to gray. Increased saturation makes an image more flashy, splashy, and colorful. Photos with low saturation can look faded, pale, and tired.

Below you will see flickering animations showing the effects of each type of adjustment. Studying them carefully is the second-best way for you to learn.

"--" means VERY LOW brightness, contrast, or saturation

"-"  means LOW

"0"  means ZERO adjustments (picture directly from my camera)

"+"  means HIGH

"++" means VERY HIGH brightness, contrast, or saturation

You can compare the progression and also compare each section directly with the unchanged image as it flickers. If you prefer non-flickering illustrations you can find them all right here.

Try to become familiar with how brightness, contrast, or saturation affect photos. This will come in very handy when you need to figure out what adjustments your photos need. More light? More contrast? More color? Or less? Often adjustments will be a combination of all three components. So you need to be able to spot the effects of each type of adjustment.

First, you will see flickering comparisons of brightness, contrast, and saturation on a portion of my photo of Glostrup Church. Further down, you will see the equivalent comparisons on a portion of one of my very colorful images from Stelling Paper & Pens. This will allow you to compare the effects of the adjustment types over a wider color scale. Try answering the questions to further your insights.

Brightness

Here you see the effect of turning the brightness down and up. No change in the center slice.

Notice:

How everything gets darker or lighter.
The sky is blown out as brightness is increased.
At very high brightness the contrast also goes down.

Contrast

Here you see the effect of turning the contrast down and up. No change in the center slice.

Notice:

Higher contrast makes the image "harder".
Less contrast makes the image look faded and pale.
Differences in the asphalt.
Clouds and tree branches are blown out at "++"

Saturation

Here you see the effect of turning the saturation down and up. No change in the center slice.

Notice:

No saturation is equal to a black and white photo
The colors are exaggerated at "+" and "++"
Which level would you prefer to see on Google Maps?

If you find it difficult to see the difference between Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation this illustration might help you out. Look carefully and study the differences. There are huge differences except when you compare very low contrast and high brightness. They can be hard to distinguish.

Now to the more colorful flickering examples. Feel free to skip ahead if you already understand and know how to adjust Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation. In this shop, you can get very colorful stationery and matching envelopes.

Brightness

Questions:

Would you add extra brightness to "0" before posting this image on Google Maps?
Have you ever needed to lower the Brightness of an image?
When increasing the Brightness what would you normally also add? Contrast or Saturation?

Contrast

Questions:

Do you think extra contrast should be added to most images for Google Maps?
Does very high Contrast or Saturation look more pleasing in your eyes?

PS: You can find non-flashing versionsof these illustrations here.

What would you choose if you only could add either more Contrast or more Saturation to this image relative to the "0" version?

Saturation

Questions:

In what details do you see the difference between "+" and "++"?
What is the difference between lowering the Saturation and increasing the Brightness?

Again this helps you see how the extremes are very different.

The real fun starts when you mix the three components Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation. It's almost an art form. Don't hesitate. Play with the sliders and experiment. In Google Photos you can always reset all adjustments and start over if you need to. Have fun.

Question:

How can you tell the difference between Contrast "++" and Saturation "++"?

Before adjustments

After adjustments

Study the differences between the before and after pics. What differences do you notice? I find the look to be more dull and dark before and more attractive after adjustments without looking overly processed. Which version would you prefer to see on Google Maps?

Photo credits: Keith Richards (center pic)

Bright, vibrant colors are preferred

Source

How do I know if it's brightness, contrast, or saturation that's missing?

Only experience from adjusting a lot of pictures will make you able to predict what adjustments a picture needs. So start moving the sliders and see what makes it look better. This is the best way to learn.

I find that increasing the brightness and adding some contrast is always a good starting point.

How to adjust the brightness, contrast, or saturation using Google Photos

Watch one of the videos below and learn how you can make adjustments in Google Photos.

Video: Adjusting (Android version)

Learn how to use Google Photos to improve your images before uploading them to Google Maps. This video shows you how to adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation on an Android phone.

Full screen is recommended (21:55 min).

Video: Adjusting (Desktop version)

Learn how to use Google Photos to improve your images before uploading them to Google Maps. This video shows you how to adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation using a Desktop computer.

Full screen is recommended (22:07 min).

Better brightness, contrast, and saturation can hugely improve your photos, but be careful not to overdo it. Overdoing your adjustments is discussed in the next module. Just hit "Suggested next page" below.

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