Curves

WOOO! Over 300 members! Don't tell anyone but, out of all the groups on DA you're my favorite

Curves allow you to adjust the colors, brightness, and contrast in your picture. I am NOT going to go very detailed into this, it's just a basic how to. If you would like to comment some more tips and tricks feel free. Just be sure it isn't already mentioned.


Step 1: Make a new curves layer by selecting the circle that is half black and half white and clicking on curves. (Note: if you want you could make a new layer for every color you edit). One layer is enough for all the edits you need however.


Step 2: Look at your picture, this picture is looking a bit yellowish. We can either add colors, or subtract them. I'm going to add colors. So I click the button that says RGB and select Green. Since I'm adding colors I move the line over to the LEFT, a crosshair cursor will appear when you are interacting with the green curve layer. To subtract colors, take the bottom left of the line and move it left, or take the top right and move it down.


Step 3: Repeat this step with the RED and BLUE curve layers until you are satisfied with the results. (Note: You can also choose auto and see what Photoshop would do, and then adjust it however you want)


Step 4: Go to the RGB curve layer to adjust brightness and contrast. I made a small S curve to darken the shadows and lighten the highlights. (NOTE: If you go curve crazy you can really mess up your image, most of the time all you need is a little adjustment)


Help Photoshop has tools to help you see what colors are dominant in your photograph with the color sampler tool. Click on the eyedropper tool and pick color sampler.


Next: Place marks on the image. I like to place one where my darkest shadows, lightest highlights, and mid ground are. A tab will pop up labeled info, from there you can see what colors are most abundant in your image.

Don't have Photoshop? Photobucket.com allows you to edit curves when you upload a picture to their server. Simply click on your picture, click edit, click "see much more"..., and go to the tab labeled "Geek."

*I know my edit isn't perfect I was just making a quick demo. There is a lot of things about curves, and if you're really interested I would suggest doing more research on it.*