My contrast looks 'greyish', what's wrong?

A lack of contrast (i.e. no deep black or bright whites) usually produces flat-looking, lacklustre images. This is usually fixed quite easily with a simple contrast boost.

Low contrast photos are more common that those that are too dark. It's usually caused when the light meter 'overreacts' to the scene brightness. In this picture, taken at a local wildlife park, the slightly darker than average scene forced the meter to over-expose, and that's why the koala looks paler than he really was. Here, Auto Contrast (Quick/Expert Edit>Enhance>Auto Contrast) provided an instant fix, leaving a near perfect result. And a happier looking koala!

Here are some other 'instant' contrast fixes that are well worth trying out:

• Quick/Expert Edit > Enhance > Lighting > Levels. Start by trying the Auto button to improve the tone. If that doesn't work, manually...