If you take away only one concept from this entire tutorial, let it be an understanding of how to adjust Gamma and bring out the best in your Wallpaper images.
Wallpaper Tutorial: Gamma Correction

Adjusting Gamma vs. Adjusting Your Monitor

Different computers often display the same image at different levels of brightness. These differences are a function of your monitor, video card and even the program you are viewing the image in.

You could adjust your monitor's brightness and contrast, but that affects everything, not just the image that is too light or too dark. The wallpaper may look great, but your programs may then be too dark or too light. The best solution is to apply Gamma Correction to the image.

Gamma is not an easy term to define. Charles Poynton, author of "A Technical Introduction to Digital Video" calls Gamma "...a mysterious and confusing subject, because it involves concepts from four disciplines: physics, perception, photography and video." Fortunately, you don't have to understand the technical side of Gamma Correction to improve how your Wallpaper images look on your monitor.


"Normal"

"Dark"

"Light"

Study the three images above. On the author's computer, the "normal" image looks most like the original photograph. Even though the images may look darker or lighter on your computer, you should still be able to see that some details are missing in the "dark" and "light" versions of the image.

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