marnie

In our last tutorial, we discussed Curves. Today we'll be talking about Levels. Levels can be used in the exact same way as Curves, though the interface is a little different. The cool thing about Levels is that you can actually see a visual map of your image and the colors displayed within.

As with the last tutorial, all the caveats still apply. Your mileage may vary. I'm no expert, blah blah blah, color correction is subjective, etc.

I've chosen a photo and opened the Levels dialog box by going to the IMAGE menu, to ADJUST and choosing LEVELS. You can also access this option by pressing [CTRL+L] or [CMND+L], depending on your computer platform.





This picture of Thea seems a little dark in the three-quarter tones (those between the middle and shadow tones). Her face, next to the couch, seems a bit muddled and lacking in detail. When I pull up the Levels palette, I see my impression confirmed. Let's take a closer look.


Click image to see the tonal ranges

Here we see a graph of the distribution of pixels. On the left, indicated by a black slider, is the shadow area of the image. This image has a large majority of its pixels between the midtones and shadows. At the far right, the highlight point shows absolutely no pixels. We don't have any pure white in this image.

From the Layers palette, I can move those sliders, under the graph, to adjust the tones in the image. We have two sets of sliders we can move. The top set of sliders consists of three tonal ranges. On the left, shadows, in the middle, midtones, and on the right, highlights.

The bottom set of sliders has just a shadow and highlight slider
Marnie is a 1961 English novel written by Winston Graham, about a young woman who makes a living by embezzling from her employers, moving on, and changing her identity. She is finally caught in the act by one of her employers, a young widower named Mark Rutland, who blackmails her into marriage. Her compulsive stealing and sexual frigidity sends the troubled woman to the brink of suicide and she eventually must face the trauma from her past which is the root cause of her behavior.

It was the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's suspense film Marnie in 1964, where the setting was changed from England to the United States of America, details of the story were changed and the ending was changed to a more optimistic one.

In Tony Lee Moral's book Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Winston Graham revealed that the inspiration for "Marnie" came from three real-life incidents:

His younger child's babysitter was a goodlooking girl who was constantly taking showers and getting letters from her mother about dangers of getting involved with men;
A newspaper article about a woman who changed her appearance as she moved from job to job stealing from her employers;
A wife with three children whose husband was away at sea, slept with many sailors, became pregnant, killed the baby soon after it was born, went to trial and was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity. Soon after that, her young daughter started stealing things.
THOMAS was four when Marnie was born, old enough to know that the"wonderful present" Mummy was bringing home from hospital simply meant he was being bumped out of the spotlight.

His anger took the form of monstrous tantrums, which made him a hard child to love.

In trying to compensate, Thomas's mother spoiled him, making his tyranny worse.

Marnie, on the other hand, was a bountiful, caring child; a natural giver, loving and lovable.

She and her mother were close and when the children's father died, Marnie and her mum became even closer.

Thomas grew up with a thorn in his side named Marnie, and a chip on his shoulder caused by her relationship with their mother.

Marnie's thorn was having a person in her life that didn't like her.

She idolised Thomas, never understood why he disliked her, and spent a lifetime trying to get him to change his mind.

The more giving she was, the more bitter and hateful his response.

The fact that there was nothing he could do that was hateful enough so she wouldn't forgive him only added to his frustration.

When their mother was on her deathbed, Marnie called Thomas to advise him that if he wanted to see her before she died he'd better come quickly.

He accused her of being overly dramatic.

Two hours later she died.

When Marnie called to tell Thomas he flew into a rage, accusing her of being a "regular little Florence Nightingale" posing as the dutiful daughter so that everyone would think she was so wonderful.

He told her it was her possessiveness that robbed him of a mother.

At the funeral people thought Marnie was crying about her mother, but it was her venomous brother who had broken her heart.

People who have never experienced jealousy find the behaviour of those who suffer from it alien.

Marnie doesn't ask for, expect or need acknowledgement. She has a sense of abundance that comes from within.

People of the same nature appreciate her generosity and can thank her out of their own generous nature.

Then there are those too mean-spirited to acknowledge any contribution made to them.

It's not in them to say "thank you" because it feels like too much to give away.

And then there's Thomas. Marnie's goodness makes fun of him.

It sends up how incapacitated he is at giving of himself.

He has watched the rewards of love and appreciation Marnie has received all his life.

But he doesn't understand, believe or trust her altruism. She must have a hidden motive, because he would.

He thinks she has herself on a pedestal. His viciousness is an attempt to pull her down.

The tall poppy syndrome is about people like Thomas who are so emotionally impoverished that the people on their hit list are those who are the opposite.

They experience someone else's gain as their loss, and want to level them.

In order to come to terms with the relationship with her brother, Marnie will have to allow for Thomas's response to her.

He'll always resent her.

It's not about her, it's about him.

Marnie decided to stop trying.

She could understand and have compassion for Thomas's meanness, but at a distance.

Snakes aren't bad, but it's not a good idea to lie down with one.

As far as she's concerned, sadly, it's over.

Q: I know we love each other but my boyfriend and I have fought to the point of stand-off. Can separation help? If you want to start again with the same partner, where do you begin?

A: In a therapist's office.

Stand-offs are caused by poor or "stuck" communication. Individual therapy can teach each person the relationship skill they're missing.

In joint counselling, each person gets to state their point of view and the therapist can interpret and restate it to the other person in language they can understand.

When they finish they have greater individual relationship skills as well as the tools they need to formulate a fresh start