Using Photoshop Curves for color and brightness
Without question, curves are the most powerful of the adjustment tools in Photoshop. They allow you to target very precise tones and colors and accurate adjustments, exactly where you want them.
Works on Photoshop CC as well as CS
If you aren’t using Curves, you are missing out on a huge chunk of the power of Photoshop. I know, a lot of people don’t use Curves adjustments because they aren’t sure exactly how they work. have a great way of teaching curves, that make them easy to understand, and I show you how in this video. For me, Curves are my goto adjustment when working with adjustment layers or even in Camera RAW. You can use curves to target very specific areas of shadow or lightness in your photos, so that you can brighten or darken the photo exactly where you like, without affecting the rest of the image. The same thing is true for colors. You can target and adjust colors specifically in their shadow or highlight regions to give you complete control of the colors in your photo.
Download the Grayscale bar I use in this tutorial.
or grab it from here (drag to your desktop)
If you like these kinds of tutorials, check out my Flagship training on Photoshop 202. (CS6 version available too) Photoshop Secrets: Photoshop 2020 for Digital Photographers walks you through each of the tools in Photoshop and explains how they work in Plain English. I show practical examples of doing all the tasks you need in Photoshop for working with images. All the same photos I use are included, so you can follow along with the almost 100 lessons, step by step. This is a 13 hour A-Z tutorial for beginner to Advanced. You will know Photoshop like th back of your hand, by the time you have consumed these lessons. Become a Photoshop Master today!
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You can get my free Layer Blending modes ebook along with dozens of exclusive Photoshop Goodies here