Image/Adjustments method // Making changes this way is permanent. it’s good practice to duplicate your layer first. If you need to revert to the original, you can.
Adjustment layers allow you to apply grading edits to your layers without permanently altering the pixels. you can stack up different adjustment layers. You can change the settings for each Adjustment layer as you please.
Colour Fill // Fill an area with solid colour
Blending mode // Change the blending mode to suit your application.
Brightness // Lighter or darker.
Contrast // Increase or decrease the contrast.
Auto // Photoshop will have a crack!
Adjust the tonal range // to
Darken the darks // Move the dark arrow to the right
Brighten the lights // Move the light arrow to the left
Exposure // Acts like a camera exposure
Offset // Will brighten or darken the whole image evenly
Gamma // Affects the gamma curve, how the image is brightened through the tonal range. It acts like a brightness and contrast in one.
Hue // Changes the colour
Saturation // The strength of the saturation
Lightness // brightens or darkens your layer
Colourise // Lets you add colour to monochrome layers, such as Z Depth or a volume light pass
Gives precise control over colours in the Highlights, Mid-Tones and Shadows.
Add warmth // Increase the yellow and red in the highlights, increase the blue hues in the shadow areas.
Can be used for Bleaching grading effects // Add the Black and White adjustment layer, choose a screen or overlay blending mode.
Can be used to remove colours from layers to create an even image for a bump map // For example, to create a bump map from a road diffuse, you will need to eliminate the road lines. Adjust the colours in the adjustment layer to diminish the effect of any colours on your image.
Can be used to match image contrast while matte painting // Keep a black White Adj layer at the top of your layer stack. When you bring in a new image, turn on the adjustment layer, this will make it much easier to match the contrast and levels of the new layer to the tonal range of your image.