The Basics of Curves + Tutorial
Curves is fantastic.
Curves is not scary.
Curves is not all that confusing, really.
I will teach you Curves, kay? Kay.
Curves will make you infinitely more productive graphics-wise. It adjusts the color of whatever you're working on, but it also can adjust the contrast of an image, as well as the contrast of a particular color. Cool, right?
Now we'll open the Curves palette.
IMAGE => ADJUSTMENTS => CURVES
That's a lot of fiddly buttons, no?
Let's do a breakdown:
CHANNELS
Channels - the tones of a particular color in an image.
Most of the time, you'll work with RGB (Red, Green, Blue) channels.
In Curves, if you only wish to work with the red tones in the picture, you'll want to use the Red channel. Green, the Green channel. Blue, the Blue channel.
THE GRID THINGER
Now, the grid thinger. That's the technical term. :P
The further left you click on the grid will control the black/darker portions of the image. The further right you click will deal with the whiter pieces of the image.
Sooo, to make the darker parts of an image lighter, you'll want to click on the grid further to the lower left and pull up. To make the lighter parts of an image darker, you'll want to click further to the upper right of the grid and pull down.
THE VERTICAL/HORIZONTAL BLACK/WHITE SLIDER THINGS
Notice I don't know the technical terms. Oh well...
Simple really. The bottom slider is the tones of the picture BEFORE changes.
The vertical slider on the left is the tones AFTER changes. Simple enough.
THE EYEDROP THINGS (SHADOWS, MIDTONES, HIGHLIGHTS)
These are nifty. They control the overall tones of the picture.
You can find them on the lower right of the Curves palette, below the "Options" button and before the "Preview" checkbox.
Basically, this gives you total control over what the darkest part of your picture is, what the lightest portion of your picture is, and the in between.
To set shadows, simply click on the Shadows eyedropper (the one filled with black color). Now you'll want to click the place on the image that is THE blackest.
Now click on the Highlights eyedropper (filled with the white) and click on the whitest part of the image.
To be honest, I don't really use the Midtones one, but if you want to set a Midtone, go right ahead. :)
Here's a nifty little grid I made to show you what pulling down/up on the Curves does to the color in each channel:
& that's the basics.
The BEST BEST BEST way to learn Photoshop is to just mess around with it. A LOT. That's how I learned. Technical terms aren't important. "Slider thingy" works just as well as "Midtones Function Grid" in my head.
I hope this helps somebody. :)
I'll add on a coloring tutorial to give a bit more explanation to how everything works out with a picture:
Let's start with this picture:
Yummy, no? :)
We crop it.
It's a bit dark.
We duplicate the layer, set the top layer to Screen @ 40% opacity:
Layer => New Adjustment Layer => Curves
RED Channel
= Input: 155 , Output: 104
BLUE Channel
= Input: 71 , Output: 82
= Input: 200 , Output: 167
GREEN Channel
= Input: 128 , Output: 123
= Input: 45 , Output: 58
RGB Channel
= Input: 176 , Output: 183
= Input: 94 , Output: 91
= Input: 59 , Output: 34
Now it looks like this:
Next we add this texture by sanami276:
Set it to Darken @ 70% opacity.
Done.
Curves is not scary.
Curves is not all that confusing, really.
I will teach you Curves, kay? Kay.
Curves will make you infinitely more productive graphics-wise. It adjusts the color of whatever you're working on, but it also can adjust the contrast of an image, as well as the contrast of a particular color. Cool, right?
Now we'll open the Curves palette.
IMAGE => ADJUSTMENTS => CURVES
That's a lot of fiddly buttons, no?
Let's do a breakdown:
CHANNELS
Channels - the tones of a particular color in an image.
Most of the time, you'll work with RGB (Red, Green, Blue) channels.
In Curves, if you only wish to work with the red tones in the picture, you'll want to use the Red channel. Green, the Green channel. Blue, the Blue channel.
THE GRID THINGER
Now, the grid thinger. That's the technical term. :P
The further left you click on the grid will control the black/darker portions of the image. The further right you click will deal with the whiter pieces of the image.
Sooo, to make the darker parts of an image lighter, you'll want to click on the grid further to the lower left and pull up. To make the lighter parts of an image darker, you'll want to click further to the upper right of the grid and pull down.
THE VERTICAL/HORIZONTAL BLACK/WHITE SLIDER THINGS
Notice I don't know the technical terms. Oh well...
Simple really. The bottom slider is the tones of the picture BEFORE changes.
The vertical slider on the left is the tones AFTER changes. Simple enough.
THE EYEDROP THINGS (SHADOWS, MIDTONES, HIGHLIGHTS)
These are nifty. They control the overall tones of the picture.
You can find them on the lower right of the Curves palette, below the "Options" button and before the "Preview" checkbox.
Basically, this gives you total control over what the darkest part of your picture is, what the lightest portion of your picture is, and the in between.
To set shadows, simply click on the Shadows eyedropper (the one filled with black color). Now you'll want to click the place on the image that is THE blackest.
Now click on the Highlights eyedropper (filled with the white) and click on the whitest part of the image.
To be honest, I don't really use the Midtones one, but if you want to set a Midtone, go right ahead. :)
Here's a nifty little grid I made to show you what pulling down/up on the Curves does to the color in each channel:
& that's the basics.
The BEST BEST BEST way to learn Photoshop is to just mess around with it. A LOT. That's how I learned. Technical terms aren't important. "Slider thingy" works just as well as "Midtones Function Grid" in my head.
I hope this helps somebody. :)
I'll add on a coloring tutorial to give a bit more explanation to how everything works out with a picture:
Let's start with this picture:
Yummy, no? :)
We crop it.
It's a bit dark.
We duplicate the layer, set the top layer to Screen @ 40% opacity:
Layer => New Adjustment Layer => Curves
RED Channel
= Input: 155 , Output: 104
BLUE Channel
= Input: 71 , Output: 82
= Input: 200 , Output: 167
GREEN Channel
= Input: 128 , Output: 123
= Input: 45 , Output: 58
RGB Channel
= Input: 176 , Output: 183
= Input: 94 , Output: 91
= Input: 59 , Output: 34
Now it looks like this:
Next we add this texture by sanami276:
Set it to Darken @ 70% opacity.
Done.