It is the single most common mistake we see when new photo editors start playing with their images.  Let me start by saying ” I don’t blame them”, whenever you bump up the contrast is makes your image burst of the monitor.  The adjustments to your new file will also “burst” off the page, literally.  One of the biggest short comings in this digital photo world we live in is that your printed matter will never match your monitor perfectly.  As printers we can get very close but nothing will every have the brilliance in illuminated colors like you see in your monitor, and transparencies are the next closest thing.  However, most of us do not have large light boxes on the walls of our home to display our prints.  Let’s get back to the problem at hand:  Adjusting your contrast will really brighten your picture on the screens and give your image that pop and look as to be razor sharp, but what it really has done is made the lighter areas lighter, and the darker areas darker, and the mid tones are forced to go one direction or the other.  The final result with all of this is typically “hot spots” or areas that look pure white, and what has really happened is that when you turned up the contrast you have taken what little digital information there was in the lighter areas and thrown it away, “POOF” they are gone, and once you have saved the file this way, there is no bringing them back, even if you try decreasing the contrast after you have received your unsatisfactory prints. If you have Photo Elements or Photoshop there is a video here showing me editing the same images listed below: http://www.mastercolorcanvas.com/helpfulvideos.html It is really very simple to do this adjustment:

1. Open your original file in Photoshop
2. Go to “Image” on your tool bar and scroll to “Adjustments”
3. Select “Levels” and the histogram of your color balance will appear

Once your “Levels” control panel is open it is simple to make the adjustment that will give your image that extra snap, but yet maintain the “hot” or heavily lit areas of the photograph.  Notice your Histogram looks like a “wave”.  Start by simply moving the triangle under the right side of the histogram to the left so that it is just inside the “wave”, next do the same with the left side triangle, moving it to the right so it is just inside the wave.  The left side of the histogram represents the dark tones of the image and the right side the lighter tones.  After you have done the extremes, move the triangle in the middle to adjust the mid tones.  You can play with moving each and then clicking the “preview” square in the bottom right corner.

The histogram above is not a perfect model, the perfect histogram will resemble  more of a “bell curve”, but the sample above does show that even in a really dark picture you can bring back the detail in most areas that were dark, but yet not “blowing” out the white areas.

If you use this method of correction, I know you will be happier with the results!