I’m putting together a montage of photos taken at a golf tournament. Some are inside, some outside, sun, shade, etc. I generally start by adjusting the levels in the original pics and saving them as PSDs or TIFFs. Is there a reliable way to achieve a fairly uniform brightness in the finished montage other than just eyeballing it? The final product will be a printed postcard (set up in inDesign); the pics are all 300 dpi or higher.
I’m not a Photoshop newbie-- I’ve been using it for about 10 years (I’m using Photoshop CS5, worked my way up from CS2)-- but don’t claim to know even close to all that it can do. Also not a photographer-- I’m a graphic designer.
I’d say Not Really – at least nothing better than putting several images on the screen at the same times and using your eyes. The traditional "auto exposure " mode for cameras is based on making the middle of the photo tonally equivalent to 18% gray – and that just doesn’t work for a field of snow, or a black velvet dress.
Modern cameras have much more complex auto exposure modes that try to identify faces and sky, but it’s still not as good as using a well adjusted monitor and skilled judgement.
I’m pretty sure Photoshop has an Auto Levels feature, which will put your exposure in the ballpark – but you’re better off making a few test prints and then using your eyeballs.
It’s the final result that matters, and what you’re trying to accomplish is to adjust the levels so that they LOOK LIKE they’re equivalent, regardless of how computer software measures them. Your photo montage will be viewed by actual people, and it’s only your own two eyes that can determine such things. When I work in Photoshop, I never let the software make decisions like this. Your own eyes and your brain are much more powerful tools than any computer software.