Curves are by far, the most powerful and versatile color and tone manipulator in Photoshop. Many photographers like Erik Almas & Brooke Shaden swear by it, and is a major part of their workflow. Curves can be very intimidating at first, but once you truly understand how to use them, they will substitute the sliders of Brightness/Contrast, Color Balance, Shadow/Highlights etc. that you are used to.
In the newer versions of Photoshop, especially CS5 and above, there are many ways to use Curves. Photoshop Principal Product Manager Bryan O'Neil Hughes shows the lesser known tricks and techniques of using curves in this episode of the Photoshop Playbook. Watch this video to see how Curves can be your friend.
[via PetaPixel]
This is a pretty nice intro to curves. I didnt know about the on-screen picker, I've been moving the curve manually for so long.
I didn't know what those sliders on the historgram did. I've been using Photoshop for 12 years, and 9 times out of 10 I find something new even in the most basic tutorials.
My thoughts exactly James, Photoshop always offers some hidden 'secret level' to play with.
Can't wait to watch this when I get home tonight :)