[Tutorial] Levelling Tutorials

[kenjimaru]

Yeah -- mean machine is here - yaaaaaaaaaaaarrr. So as the pirate king directed here is one tutorial i found on levelling. I found this on Shannaro forums (Original Link: Go Here (http://www.shannaro.com/forums/showthread.php?p=44868))

by chiresakura
Please read before submitting test pages!!

As Shannaro’s newest cleaner, I recently went through the training process and made all the mistakes that new cleaners make. To save the staff some time, I thought I’d pass along the advice I was given. I’ll start with LEVELING.

If you go through the 'Join Shannaro!' thread, you'll see how many submissions are over-leveled - mine included http://www.shannaro.com/forums/images/smilies/custom/sweatdrop.gif . We all over-level at first, so don’t be embarrassed. It’s difficult to know when you’ve over-leveled a page when you don’t know what to look for yet.

Before doing anything, I recommend making a duplicate layer of the background layer and doing all your level adjustments on the copy. That way, the raw will be untouched in case you want to go back and try again. Never change levels on a page that has already been leveled! Bad things happen http://www.shannaro.com/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif

Here is an example of a raw page:

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1824/examplebar5.th.png (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=examplebar5.png)

Pretty dull and gray, isn't it? Leveling is a process that makes light grays look white and dark grays look black. In Photoshop, go to the Image menu → Adjustments → Levels. These are the levels for the raw page:

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7276/levelsb01lx9.png

This graph shows you the distribution of pixels on your page. If there are a lot of bars on the right side, you have a lot of white. If there are a lot of bars on the left side, you have a lot of black. The middle represents grays.

Make sure the channel is set to GRAY since we are working in grayscale. If it's not, go back and set the mode to grayscale.

First we'll deal with the big peak on the right side. These are the pixels that should be white, but instead look gray. Let’s make them white by sliding the little white triangle to the left. Stop near left base of the peak. As you move the triangle to the left, the pixels that were light gray become closer to white. If you go too far, you will over-level. Notice the number in the third input box decrease from 255 as the slider moves.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/4620/levelsb02gs9.png

Now the page should look pretty washed out since we just made the pixels whiter. To fix this, let's focus on the left side of the graph. Take the little black triangle and slide it to the very beginning of the black peak. This makes the dark gray pixels appear darker.

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5181/levelsb03ju7.png

Now we need to adjust the gray slider to the right to make the whole page a little darker. Be careful because it's easy to over-level! Zoom into the page and watch the lines as you adjust the sliders. You don't want them to become too pixelated! You just want to darken them up a little.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/5170/levelsb04tc1.png

If you over-level, then all your grays pixels are converted to either black or white and this makes the lines look pixelated. Gray pixels make lines look smooth (anti-aliasing and such). The trick here is to remove the grays we don't want, but keep the grays we do want.

Here are examples of what it should look like and what it shouldn't look like.


Good: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/1280/examplebgoodqc0.th.png (http://img163.imageshack.us/my.php?image=examplebgoodqc0.png)

Bad: http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/1766/examplebbadlj3.th.png (http://img163.imageshack.us/my.php?image=examplebbadlj3.png)

Layer these pages in photoshop so you can compare the differences.





Notice that there is still some dirt in the white areas. Sorry, folks, but you'll have to remove this by hand using the brush tool. Same with the blacks - they will almost ALWAYS have to be inked over by hand. Don't try to use leveling to get rid of all the dirt!

Also, when in doubt, under-level. It's easier to fix a page that has been under-leveled than one that has been over-leveled.

Here are a couple more raws. Open them in Photoshop (or other program), adjust the layers, and then click on the spoiler button when you think you have it perfect.

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4034/example01bm7.th.png (http://img444.imageshack.us/my.php?image=example01bm7.png)



http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/1809/levels11uh3.png

http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4236/picture8tn1.png

FYI - The small spike to the left of the black peak is the thin black border around the raw image. Ignore this when adjusting levels.





http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/9527/example05dp7.th.png (http://img413.imageshack.us/my.php?image=example05dp7.png)


The input levels should be: 51 / 0.95 / 156




http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/875/example03ch6.th.png (http://img105.imageshack.us/my.php?image=example03ch6.png)


The input levels should be: 58 / 0.65 / 209




http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/7039/example04rs5.th.png (http://img131.imageshack.us/my.php?image=example04rs5.png)


No leveling needed! This was a trick question http://www.shannaro.com/forums/images/smilies/tem.gif. A lot of the time, our wonderful admin provide us with wonderful HQ raws.





You can discuss this as well as post other Levelling links you find on the web. This should help before FH writes tutorials - yeah!!!

[venicia777]

You have been really busy - havent you - kenji :yo:

This saves me soo much work. If you find more tutorials post them here. The more tutorials you find the better and easier it will be on me to know what tutorials to write.

[kenjimaru]

Thank you -- pirate King :whoo:. Now i am more charllenged to look for more tutorials and post here. More and more cleaning related tutorials. Which will involve a lot of reading and getting background info on scanlating and cleaning- --- yaaaaaaaarrr!!!!