using curves

[j_c]

Can anyone recommend a good tutorial/learning guide for using Curves? I can never seem to get the look I want when using it and I think I need to understand it better.

 

[Ysarex]

Curves in what application?

Joe

 

[j_c]

sorry, CS2

 

[480sparky]

Curves in what application?

Joe

Curves is curves.

As a rule of thumb, use the Curves to set your black & white points, and most images can be improved by introducing a slight S into the curve.

 

[MiFleur]

Check out this blog post, it covers the subject quite well

Photoshop tutorial: Tonal range and the Curves tool

 

[Ysarex]

Here's another link that covers the subject:

Jay Arraich's Photoshop Tips - Curves Are an Abomination

Joe

 

[mmaria]

Curves in what application?

Joe

Curves is curves.

As a rule of thumb, use the Curves to set your black & white points, and most images can be improved by introducing a slight S into the curve.

Well, I have to disagree.

I used cs5, now I use cs6. Even between those two there were some improvements in curves. Don't know anything about cs2 but I am definitely sure that something is changed . But for the basic understanding of curves, it really doesn't matter what program you use it (gimp has also curves).

Curves are the most powerful tool in ps and you can do almost everything with it.

Tutorials I found of curves weren't enough, then I watched Creative LIVE with Ben Willmore and he made them so clear and easy, and told stuff no one mentioned before.
You can get easily overwhelmed if you want to dig deeper.

I use curves on every image. It's one of my favorite tools.

 

[amolitor]

I wrote this ultra-simple guide, which you might or might not find helpful:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...-gallery/335473-using-curves-adjustments.html

 

[amolitor]

Here's another link that covers the subject:

Jay Arraich's Photoshop Tips - Curves Are an Abomination

Joe

What an astonishingly narrow and inaccurate view of photography! Apparently Jay didn't read any of Adams discussion of developers, reducers, and so on.

 

[Overread]

I'd strongly suggest checking out the following two websites - a large list of articles covering a wide range of elements of capture and editing in photography (including curves).

Ron Bigelow Photography Articles

Photo Editing Tutorials

I'd also avoid Jay Arraich's Photoshop Tips, that article reads like someone who spent 5 mins with curves and just dragged the curve madly without much thought and has classed it as "arty" and given up. It doesn't read like he's spent much time with the tool and even less time trying to teach others. Best thing is to learn how to use a tool to a good degree and then you can make the personal choice on if you do or don't use it

 

[j_c]

thanks everyone! i will go check these out

 

[480sparky]

Well, I have to disagree......

Interesting how you say you have to disagree, then proceed to explain what I allude to in my post.

 

[mmaria]

Well, I have to disagree......

Interesting how you say you have to disagree, then proceed to explain what I allude to in my post.

when I was writing that, I was doing other stuff also, who knows what I was thinking....sorry

 

[Ysarex]

Here's another link that covers the subject:

Jay Arraich's Photoshop Tips - Curves Are an Abomination

Joe

What an astonishingly narrow and inaccurate view of photography! Apparently Jay didn't read any of Adams discussion of developers, reducers, and so on.

Sometimes a completely radical and/or seemingly off-the-wall viewpoint can be good to disrupt complacency and get you to carefully look for questionable low-level assumptions and/or re-examine habitual behavior.

Curves is a mainstay photo editing tool that photographers are taught and accept often without careful examination. Everybody's using it and all the Youtube videos demonstrate how helpful it is -- me too me too.

Digital photo editing is always double-edged. Whenever you make an adjustment to a digital photo that you think makes the photo better, you should also be thinking about what you just did that caused harm. If the good outweighs the bad then you proceed. But understanding that you are always doing harm as you do good should lead you to a very careful examination of the tools you use. The question is begged, "Can I get the same result with different tools and if so are some tools better than others when we weigh them for their good/harm ratio. If different tools produce similar results are there subtle variations not only in the good/harm ratio of the tool, but also in the quality or character of the result? Curves is commonly used to alter contrast in a photo. In Photoshop how many different ways are there to alter contrast and how do they all compare?

A second consideration is whether the tool you're using does only one thing or more than one thing. How good are you at handling three things at once? For example, one of the most common uses of curves is to introduce an S curve to raise the contrast in a photo. When you do that, do you also intend to increase color saturation? Ron Bigelow's articles that Overread referenced are very detailed and very good overall. He needed 5 chapters to cover all that he presented about Curves and yet he failed to mention throughout the entire set that a Curves adjustment that increases contrast will also increase color saturation. So many times I have seen one of my students make a Curves adjustment to a photo to increase contrast and then asked her/him, "So why did you raise the color saturation like that?" Is Curves a good way to alter color saturation? If not then why are you doing it? Can you raise contrast without increasing color saturation? Just what specifically does the tool do? Curves is a tool that often does two or three things at once. When you use it and it's changing three things at once, are you concentrating on all three of those things? This is how photo editing spirals out of control.

Of all the different double-edged tools that you can use in Photoshop, Curves has one of the sharpest back edges. And that should lead you to look carefully at the alternatives that may provide a better overall good/harm ratio or maybe only do one thing at once.

Joe

 

[amolitor]

This is actually a point where GIMP wins. You can, albeit with a little effort, perform operations like curves in HSV-land, and peel out the resulting values (or whatever). Effectively.

This is basically a problem with every tool, though. I guess you can argue that curves is nastier than other tools, but they all do a bunch of stuff to a picture, while essentially advertising one of the effects as 'the thing they do'. It's kind of an inevitable consequence of the way the universe works.

Jay's post didn't go in to any of this, though. It was just some ranting, backed up with some vague remarks about light and some incorrect remarks about Ansel Adams.