Adobe Community: Levels Problem

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Dec 23, 2006

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1. Noel Carboni,

Jun 29, 2012 7:52 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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A screenshot might help, as I tried adding a Levels adjustment layer to several different images just now and am unable to reproduce the problem. In every case, I am able to select the color channels.

The question is whether it's a bug that's happening on your particular system, or whether you've done something inadvertent that makes adjustment of the color channels impossible. I can't think of what that might be.

-Noel

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2. JennasPhotos,

Jun 29, 2012 8:42 AM in reply to Noel Carboni

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Okay, at first everything's fine. I add a Levels adjustment layer to my image. I can choose from the drop-down lists, nothing's grayed out. I then activate the crop tool, hit enter a couple of times to apply the crop, and now this is what the properties panel shows:

I can drag the sliders around, but can't choose from the drop-down list, etc.

I'm on a Dell Vostro, Windows 7, intel core i5-2450M CPU @ 2.50 GHz, 4GB RAM, 64-Bit OS. This is the second machine that I've tried this and still had the same problem on.

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3. charles badland,

Jun 29, 2012 9:12 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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Hmm. You have a little warning sign in the levels pane. I only see that briefly when I clip the AL. Not sure, but my bet that has something to do with this.

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4. JennasPhotos,

Jun 29, 2012 9:16 AM in reply to charles badland

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You mean the little icon that gives a 'Calculate a more accurate histogram' tool tip when you hover over it? I'm pretty sure that has nothing to do with it. Or do you mean something else?

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5. charles badland,

Jun 29, 2012 9:21 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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Nope. I was wrong.

I'll keep trying to reproduce.

Can you post an entire screen grab in case there are other clues?

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6. JennasPhotos,

Jun 29, 2012 9:30 AM in reply to charles badland

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Sure can...

Ok, beginning. Everything's fine.

Then I activate the crop tool, hit enter once. The only thing that strikes me as funny is the layers panel.

Then I hit enter again to apply the crop, and this is what it looks like.

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7. charles badland,

Jun 29, 2012 9:40 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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Thanks.

Yeh, thre Layers Panels acts different now with new crop tool, so that is normal.

I don't have a clue, sorry.

You have installed on 2 machines and see this same thing?

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8. JennasPhotos,

Jun 29, 2012 9:43 AM in reply to charles badland

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Yep, tried my coworker's- did the same thing as mine.

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9. charles badland,

Jun 29, 2012 9:59 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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So... the CS6 trial was independantly downloaded from Adobe site on two separate machines. With seperate specs?

I've tried different ways to reproduce (Mac). And Noel can't reproduce either on PC.

huh.

Smarter people than me will have to help you.

Good luck.

edit:

You have your workspace set to Motion. Any change if set to Esentials?

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10. JennasPhotos,

Jun 29, 2012 10:37 AM in reply to charles badland

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No, in fact I usually have it on Essentials, and it still happens. And I'm not sure Noel tried to crop and then adjust the levels, he just said he added an adjustment layer and it worked fine...

Thanks for trying though

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11. JennasPhotos,

Jun 29, 2012 10:55 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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Okay, I'm seeing something else. When I perform the crop, the adjustment layer was the active layer. This creates a problem. If the Background layer is the active, selected layer, and then I perform the crop-- the Levels layer will be fine!

So okay, I can work around it- but it still doesn't really make sense.

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12. acresofgreen,

Jun 29, 2012 11:03 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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I can reproduce your results, but only by doing something that is counter-intuitive.

1. Open image

2. Create Levels adjustment layer

3. With Levels adjustment layer still active, select Crop tool

4. Press return - then I get the Background thumbnail and the preview shown in your middle screenshot

5. Press return to commit crop

6. The levels adjustment layer has the characteristic you describe - the drop-downs are greyed out. If I open a new image and add a levels adjustment layer, the drop-downs are stilled greyed out.

I say this is counter-intuitive, because of step 3. Normally, I would crop an image before adding an adjustment layer. And even if I did add the adjustment layer first, I would not leave it selected before cropping. It is the background layer I want to crop, so I would select that before activating the crop tool. For these reasons, this strange behavior is not a problem for me. I would never run into this problem with my normal workflow.

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13. JennasPhotos,

Jun 29, 2012 11:13 AM in reply to acresofgreen

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Thanks, I did figure that much out. But I still say the behavior doesn't make sense.

And to each their own; I like to crop the image last sometimes.

Also I don't think of it as cropping 'the background layer' or any other layer, but the whole entire image, so in my mind it didn't matter which layer was selected. Except now I realize that it does because of the way it's programmed.

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14. Paulo Skylar,

Jun 29, 2012 11:29 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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I can also confirm the issue (PC, CS6).

Workflow aside, this behavior is not what one would expect nor is it the way previous version worked. Once the levels behavior is messed up it is persistent and any other image which had a levels layer is also affected. You can return the levels layer back to normal by double clicking on the levels layer (not the icon, not the name), which brings up the Layer Style dialog. Ok or cancle out of that and things are back to normal.

Seems like a genuine bug to me.

Paulo

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15. acresofgreen,

Jun 29, 2012 11:34 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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I saw too late that you had already figured out that it was the selection of the adjustment layer before cropping that was causing the problem. Regarding the order of cropping: I try to do my cropping first because I don't want parts of the image that I will be cropping away anyway to influence the adjustments I apply to the core image.

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16. charles badland,

Jun 29, 2012 11:39 AM in reply to Paulo Skylar

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Can't seem to reproduce on a Mac.

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17. acresofgreen,

Jun 29, 2012 11:48 AM in reply to charles badland

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Right, I forgot to mention that I reproduced it on Windows 7.

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18. JennasPhotos,

Jun 29, 2012 11:51 AM in reply to Paulo Skylar

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oo... thank you for letting me know about going in & out of the Layer Styles dialog box. That is helpful in case I am in a hurry and do a crop on an adjustment layer on accident in the future or something.

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19. Paulo Skylar,

Jun 29, 2012 11:53 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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Yes, it's sooo... much better than having to shut down & reopen.

Paulo

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20. charles badland,

Jun 29, 2012 11:55 AM in reply to JennasPhotos

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Even though I can't reproduce, i agree with Paulo that it reads like a bug to me too. It should not matter what Layer is targeted when you commit a crop.

Jenna, you should go here: http://feedback.photoshop.com/

and file it. Describe your steps to reproduce and what happens as opposed to what you expect to happen.

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Dec 23, 2006

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21. Noel Carboni,

Jun 29, 2012 12:34 PM in reply to charles badland

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It isn't really necessary to post on that other forum. Chris Cox and the other Adobe folks will see it here.

-Noel

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22. Chris Cox,

Jun 29, 2012 12:53 PM in reply to charles badland

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I think this is another example of a bug we've already fixed and are testing the fix for.

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Photoshop General Discussion

Levels Problem

Jun 29, 2012 6:16 AM

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