How to Use Tone Curves to Make Quick and Powerful Edits in Lightroom and Photoshop

When you're working in either Lightroom or Photoshop, there are often many paths to the same destination, but some are more efficient and straightforward than others. This great video will show you everything you need to know about using curves.

Coming to you from Chelsea Nicole Photography, this helpful video will introduce you to curves in Lightroom and Photoshop. Personally, curves are probably my favorite adjustment tool, as they give you quick, precise, and powerful editing capabilities all within one function. Simply put, they're a graph of the luminosity values in an image. On the horizontal axis are input values and on the vertical axis are output values, and by varying the shape of this graph, you can control exactly how different luminosity values are affected by the adjustment. They make it exceedingly simple to dial in luminosity adjustments, but their usefulness doesn't end there. You can also adjust the curves of individual channels. By varying the amount of red, green, and blue in the shadows, midtones, and highlights, you can color-tone a photo quite easily. Although thinking in these terms takes a smidgen of getting used to, I really recommend taking the time to learn and practice the technique. Once you do, it will make your editing life much easier. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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Thanks for sharing