Auto Levels and Auto color stopped working right

[hullodare]

When I have an image opened in Photoshop 7 and I hit either Auto Levels or Auto color, the image always brightens now to an unattractive looking image. In the recent past everything was working fine. I would use auto levels or auto color and the image would become remarkably better looking. I noticed about a week ago that all I get now when I activate these two controls is the bright unattractive image. Also, If I use curves and take the black eye dropper and select the darkest point of the image....I used to get a much better yet slightly darker image. Now I get the same bright unattractive image as if I used auto level or auto color. If I use curves manually it works fine. It seems I have lost my auto levels and auto color for some reason. Please advise me on this if you can.

[Phil Scarsbrook]

hullodare, you might try resetting the options for your autocolor. The defaults are not the best settings. Open the curves dialog box, click on options and change the settings to the follwing:
Find Dark & Light Colors, Snap Neutral Midtones, Shadow Clip .05, and Highlight Clip .05. Then turn on the Save as defaults checkbox and click OK.

[Phil Scarsbrook]

Could you have changed your eyedropper setting in the curves or levels dialog box. Double-click the black eyedropper and see where it falls in the color picker. You might also try resetting your preference file. Launch Photoshop then very quickly hold down the ctrl, alt,and shift keys.

[hullodare]

Phil....I followed your advice on the ctrl>alt>shift idea and it worked perfectly. Thank you very much for fixing Photoshop 7 for me. You don't know how much it means to me to have everything in working order. You're the best.