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Editing an Image Using Curves

Lesson 36 from: Adobe Photoshop: The Complete Guide Bootcamp

Ben Willmore

Editing an Image Using Curves

Lesson 36 from: Adobe Photoshop: The Complete Guide Bootcamp

Ben Willmore

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Lesson Info

36. Editing an Image Using Curves

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Introduction To Adobe Photoshop

04:05
2

Bridge vs. Lightroom

06:39
3

Tour of Photoshop Interface

18:21
4

Overview of Bridge Workspace

07:42
5

Overview of Lightroom Workspace

11:21
6

Lightroom Preferences - Saving Documents

08:19
7

How To Use Camera Raw in Adobe Photoshop 2020

05:10
8

Overview of Basic Adjustment Sliders

13:09
9

Developing Raw Images

30:33
10

Editing with the Effects and HLS Tabs

09:12
11

How to Save Images

03:37
12

Using the Transform Tool

04:48
13

Making Selections in Adobe Photoshop 2020

06:03
14

Selection Tools

05:55
15

Combining Selection Tools

07:37
16

Using Automated Selection Tools

17:34
17

Quick Mask Mode

05:07
18

Select Menu Essentials

21:28
19

Using Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

13:00
20

Align Active Layers

07:29
21

Creating a New Layer

06:15
22

Creating a Clipping Mask

03:02
23

Using Effects on Layers

11:24
24

Using Adjustment Layers

16:44
25

Using the Shape Tool

04:39
26

Create a Layer Mask Using the Selection Tool

04:39
27

Masking Multiple Images Together

15:15
28

Using Layer Masks to Remove People

10:50
29

Using Layer Masks to Replace Sky

10:04
30

Adding Texture to Images

09:11
31

Layering to Create Realistic Depth

05:35
32

Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020

05:29
33

Optimizing Grayscale with Levels

10:59
34

Adjusting Levels with a Histogram

03:37
35

Understanding Curves

06:18
36

Editing an Image Using Curves

18:41
37

Editing with Shadows/Highlights Adjustment

07:19
38

Dodge and Burn Using Quick Mask Mode

07:14
39

Editing with Blending Modes

08:04
40

Color Theory

05:59
41

Curves for Color

16:52
42

Hue and Saturation Adjustments

08:59
43

Isolating Colors Using Hue/Saturation Adjustment

13:33
44

Match Colors Using Numbers

16:59
45

Adjusting Skin Tones

05:25
46

Retouching Essentials In Adobe Camera Raw

10:52
47

Retouching with the Spot Healing Brush

07:53
48

Retouching with the Clone Stamp

06:51
49

Retouching with the Healing Brush

04:34
50

Retouching Using Multiple Retouching Tools

13:07
51

Extending an Edge with Content Aware

03:42
52

Clone Between Documents

13:19
53

Crop Tool

10:07
54

Frame Tool

02:59
55

Eye Dropper and Color Sampler Tools

08:14
56

Paint Brush Tools

13:33
57

History Brush Tool

06:27
58

Eraser and Gradient Tools

03:06
59

Brush Flow and Opacity Settings

04:17
60

Blur and Shape Tools

11:06
61

Dissolve Mode

09:24
62

Multiply Mode

15:29
63

Screen Mode

14:08
64

Hard Light Mode

14:54
65

Hue, Saturation, and Color Modes

11:31
66

Smart Filters

11:32
67

High Pass Filter

13:40
68

Blur Filter

05:59
69

Filter Gallery

07:42
70

Adaptive Wide Angle Filter

04:43
71

Combing Filters and Features

04:45
72

Select and Mask

20:04
73

Manually Select and Mask

08:08
74

Creating a Clean Background

21:19
75

Changing the Background

13:34
76

Smart Object Overview

08:37
77

Nested Smart Objects

09:55
78

Scale and Warp Smart Objects

09:08
79

Replace Contents

06:55
80

Raw Smart Objects

10:20
81

Multiple Instances of a Smart Object

12:59
82

Creating a Mockup Using Smart Objects

05:42
83

Panoramas

13:15
84

HDR

11:20
85

Focus Stacking

04:02
86

Time-lapse

11:18
87

Light Painting Composite

08:05
88

Remove Moire Patterns

06:11
89

Remove Similar Objects At Once

09:52
90

Remove Objects Across an Entire Image

05:46
91

Replace a Repeating Pattern

06:50
92

Clone from Multiple Areas Using the Clone Source Panel

10:27
93

Remove an Object with a Complex Background

07:49
94

Frequency Separation to Remove Staining and Blemishes

12:27
95

Warping

11:03
96

Liquify

14:02
97

Puppet Warp

12:52
98

Displacement Map

10:36
99

Polar Coordinates

07:19
100

Organize Your Layers

11:02
101

Layer Styles: Bevel and Emboss

02:59
102

Layer Style: Knockout Deep

12:34
103

Blending Options: Blend if

13:18
104

Blending Options: Colorize Black and White Image

06:27
105

Layer Comps

08:30
106

Black-Only Shadows

06:07
107

Create a Content Aware Fill Action

08:46
108

Create a Desaturate Edges Action

07:42
109

Create an Antique Color Action

13:52
110

Create a Contour Map Action

10:20
111

Faux Sunset Action

07:20
112

Photo Credit Action

05:54
113

Create Sharable Actions

07:31
114

Common Troubleshooting Issues Part 1

10:23
115

Common Troubleshooting Issues Part 2

07:57
116

Image Compatibility with Lightroom

03:29
117

Scratch Disk Is Full

06:02
118

Preview Thumbnail

02:10

Lesson Info

Editing an Image Using Curves

So let me show you how to think about curves by working on some images. And when we do, we're gonna end up using adjustment layers because that's when they become when curves becomes dramatically more useful. So just in case you haven't used an adjustment player, let me introduce those to you first. Then we'll start learning how to think about curves and apply it to images, and I think that's when you'll get excited about what it offers. So in my layers panel, I'll go to the bottom. I'll click on the adjustment layer icon, and I'm going to choose, not curves right now just because I want to talk about adjustment layers. First, I'm gonna choose a choice called Black and White, which would take all the color out of my picture. I'm just choosing adjustment. That's obvious, then. This is an adjustment layer. It's an adjustment sitting in its own layer, and it's a Ziff. You're standing at the top of the layers panel looking down, and you're looking through the adjustment layer, and it is ch...

anging your view of what's underneath. In this case, it's a black and white adjustment layer, so as you look through it. The color information that's found underneath can't be seen because it's absorbing all that color. Well, when you have an adjustment layer like that, remember, I went to this icon half black and half white circle to create it. You also get a mask, which is this white box, and we have a separate lesson about layer masks, which is what this is. And so if you haven't seen that lesson, you might want to look for it. It's part of the complete guide, and I'm gonna come here and grab my paintbrush tool. Since we already have white in the mask, I'm going to switch the color on painting with to make sure it's black. There's a little double arrow here I can click on to do that. And now, wherever I paint with black, it's gonna remove my adjustment. And so therefore, the image will come back to full color. So I'm gonna come in here and just paint where I want your I toe look. And if I released my boss button and you look in the layers panel, you'll see the black paint that I'm applying. It's only showing up in the layers panel when I released the mouse button, because it just is trying to make sure photo shop is speedy when I'm painting and that it's not trying to update things which could slow it down. So here I'll let go again and you'll see the layers panel update. But when I paint with black, the main thing is, is I'm removing the adjustment, preventing it from applying wherever it is I'm painting. Therefore, I can only get it in certain areas of my picture. And so we're gonna end up using adjustment layers when we're applying curves, because then afterwards, I can paint with Black to indicate where I don't want it to be applied. And so I'm going to remove this adjustment layer by dragging it to the trash. I just clicked on its name, dragged into the trash, and let's start using curves and see what we can do with this picture. And we can also, if you'd like, use brightness and contrast in levels because there are also available as adjustment layers. So, for instance, brightness and contrast, What I would like to do is dark in this area right here. Well, in brightness and contrast, how do I do that I have a brightness control, and when I move it, it darkens everything. It doesn't allow me to target this area, to be specifically precise about it. Or I would like to make this area the difference in brightness between that area and the area that's behind it in space mawr similar to each other, that would be lowering the contrast between those two areas. I do have a contrast control here in brightness and contrast. The problem with it is it thinks the difference between a bright area in a dark area is 50% gray. Anything brighter than that is considered a bright area. Anything darker than that is considered a dark area. Well, what if this area and this area were both darker than 50%? Great. Well, if that was the case, I don't think it is. But if it waas adjusting contrast would cause both of those areas to brighten or darken. The main thing is, I don't have any control here to say, How can I get those two areas more similar in the same is true. If I throw away this adjustment layer and I come in here and use levels in levels. How do I tell it to darken this in Brighton that specifically I have a slider over here on the right, which will brighten everything, force more years, toe white. We got the middle one, which will brighten and dark and everything. But the relationship between those two areas will remain the same. Let's throw that away. It's on Lee when you get into curves that suddenly you have control. The key, though, to using curves is to always have the little hand icon turned on. You can just click on it, and as long as it's got a dark background, it's turned on. But I use it every single time. I use curves, so if you go to the upper right of curves, there's a little side menu you can access right here in one of the choices in there is auto select targeted adjustment tool. That's what the hand is called. It's the targeted adjustment tool. So if I turn that on now, if I go back to the side menu, you'll find a check box next to it to indicate it's on. That means every single time I ever get into curves, the hand icon will be turned on automatically. What the hand icon does is if it wasn't turned on, then you could have whatever tool you previously were using over here in your tools panel active. And if you move your mouse on top, your image. That's what it would be thinking about. Clicking on that icon means Let's de select whatever tool was previously active in our tools panel, so that now we have something specific to curves active. And now you come out here into the image and I want this to be more similar to that in brightness. All I gotta do is move my mouse over this area. If you looking curves, do you see a circle in that circles moving? If I move my mouse around well, that indicates exactly how much light is in this area. And if I click the mass but watch what happens to that circle, it just turned into a little dot. That's like adding a dimmer switch on your wall that's going to control how bright that area is, where my mouse is. I'm gonna also move my mouse to the darker area behind, and I'm gonna click, and now I have the equivalent to two dimmer switches. Those dimmer switches air telling me how much light was in those two areas. And so if I come in here and look, you can tell that one area was brighter, cause this is higher. It's like in your kitchen having the dimmer switch turn really high, just not all the way as high as it could go. And then the other area is using less light because it's dimmer. Switches lower. Well, all we need to do to get those two areas toe look identical is to get those two dots to be the exact same height. And if I were to move this dot up to get there, it's like taking a dimmer switch and moving it up. You're gonna brighten things war. I could take this, not instead and move it down to the same height as the other. Well, if you take a dimmer switch and you move it down, what happens to use less light and things get darker or I could meet somewhere halfway, move the upper one down and the lower went up. That's going to make the brighter is get darker because I'm moving. It's dimmer switch down and the darker areas get brighter. It's your choice. Just look at the image and say, If you wanted those two areas to look more similar, would you do it by darkening this part or bright Ning that I think I dark in this? So I'm just gonna pull this down. It's the same height as the other, but then we got to just get rid of this little part here that loops down. So I'll add 1/3 dot Try to get him now. Do you see that these areas are identical? It's not that that's what I needed. I wanted less of a difference between the two. I don't need them to be identical. So let's put this back up there and I'll just watch it as I just to say Okay, somewhere around there, they're starting to look more similar. All right, let's just start working on this image and I'll show you the way I think about curves in general, most the time in curves. If I want to brighten or darken something, I use one dot I click on the object that I want to broaden your darkened and I think in my mind. I have a dimmer switch and I move it up. If I want Brighton down if I want to darken when I do that, though the entirety of the curve is gonna move up or down in. So afterwards I'll end up painting on the mask with black to say I don't want it to affect these areas. And therefore I can limit what part of the image we're working on. If, on the other hand, I want detailed toe pop out of the image, not just brighten or darken something, but have detail jump out, then I'm gonna be adding two dots on my curve. Ah, look at whatever object it is that I'd like to detail to pop out on. And I'll add one dot on the bright part of that object in one dot on the dark part of that object. And then I'm going to make them more dramatically different height. So let's see how that works. So first I want to brighten something. If you look in the right side of this photograph, you see one little bitty chick over there all by itself. Well, I want it to be brighter than it currently is. So I'll go over here and do curves adjustment layer that hand tools turned on automatically because we have auto select target adjustment tool turned on. I'm just gonna come all right over to it. I'm gonna click, and now it's like, have a dimmer switch in my hand. I'm gonna pull it straight up. I'm ignoring the rest of the picture. Just looking at that chick in bringing it up until I like its brightness. Let's say right about there. But now if you look at the curve we're ending up with you, see a dot that was added to the curve right here. That's the data added. It's working on whatever was this brightness level and it's brightening it up. But the rest of the curve changed along with it. So now I grab my paintbrush tool and I'm gonna paint with black wherever I didn't want that to happen. So wherever I paint with black, the image goes back and in fact, I'm gonna paint across the entire picture because then I can just zoom up on the chick in paint with white because whites, what allows the adjustment to apply, and then I can come in. Just say OK wherever I paint here, where should apply, and I can get it exactly how it like I'm not gonna be as precise as I usually would be with painting, because I just takes more time and I want you to learn about curves instead of just learning that I'm a good painter. Zoom out, command zero. Just zoom out controls in windows. Now, if that's too bright now that I've painted it in, all I have to do is either go here in curves and grab the DOT that's already there and pull it straight up and down. It's a dimmer switch, so it works just like a dimmer at home. There we go. And then, if I turn off the eyeball for the adjustment layer, here's before there's after the other way I could have lessened. This is instead of adjusting the curve that's here, I could lower the opacity of the adjustment layer. This means how strongest the adjustment gonna be when it's at 100%. I get 100% of what I dialed in, uh, in when it's less than you get less than what you asked for. So I could have lowered the opacity instead. Now let's work on other areas. In this case, I now want your attention to go over here. And I'm gonna do that by making the detail that is in this guy jump out. Usually the way you make the detail in something jump out. Did you get a greater difference between the bright and dark areas? So I'm gonna do a new curves adjustment layer that hand tools turned on and I'm going to click on two parts of this. I'm gonna look for which area do I want the detail to pop out in? And I'm thinking about kind of this area, so I'm gonna add two dots, one for the dark part of that area. But I didn't mean toe get what I just did. I accidentally had two fingers on my track pad, which made it have a little ah, dialogue, Papa. And then I'm gonna go for the bright area. So now I have two dots, those air to dimmer switches, and I just want to make the difference in height between the two more dramatic. If I move the upper of the two dots straight up, that's gonna take the brighter area and brighten it more. Ignore everything except for the bird. Then if I want to, I don't have to. But if I want to, I could take the dark area and bring it down to make it even darker. But I don't think that's gonna help. It's dark enough then I didn't want that to affect the entire picture. So I'm going to fill this mask with black to say, Get it off my picture Because any part of a layer mask that's black prevents the adjustment from applying. One way of getting a mask that's already existing to turn black is to choose this command that makes a negative out of something. So if it used to be white, it'll be black. And if it used to be black, it will be white. And now I grab my paintbrush painting with white, and I paint in the change wherever it is. I wanted it, so I wanted your eye to be drawn right over in here, so I paint that in. I could bring it up here to It'll probably work fine. He's got to be careful right now. I have a soft edged brush And if I get too close to the edge of the picture or used too large of a brush, I'll get a little glow around him. So I just need to be precise with where I paint. I'm gonna hide this adjustment layer by turning off its eyeball. There's before going back on theirs after you see the detail just pop out of that thing. How did I do that? Any time we want the detail pop out, I add two dots to my curve. I look at whatever object it is or area where I want the detail to pop, and I added out for the darkest part of that and another dot for the brightest and I'll get two dots. Then I'm gonna make him or dramatically different in brightness. And if you move the upper dot up, you're gonna brighten that part, move the lower dot down you're gonna dark in that part depends on the picture. As far as what should be done. Just look at the image and say, Would this thing need to be darkened? Or would it need to be brightened? And if I glance at it, it's dark enough in the dark areas. There was no need to move anything down. All right, then there's a check over here on the side. My eye goes to it, and I don't want to. I want to make it harder to see that. Make it harder to see the detail. So I'm gonna create a curves adjustment layer, and we're gonna do the opposite of what we did to the main character in here. I'm gonna add two dots again. One to the dark area of that object, one to the bright area of the object. And I'm now going to make them more similar to each other. That means we have two dots. The higher dot is for the brighter area. Lower dot is for three darker area, and I want to get him closer to the same height. If I made it exactly the same height, we just have a gray area. We wouldn't have any variation. So I look at this little guy, the chick there, and I say, would I like to darken it or brighten it? To accomplish this? I don't think I need to darken it. It's already close to black in the darkest areas. So it's the bright areas that I want to darken up. That means go for the higher, not hire means mawr light. Remember, it's like a dimmer switch. So grab that higher dot Just pull it straight down. If I move it to the left or right, it all it's by accident. That would be like going in your kitchen and grabbing for the light switch that controls the light above your sink and you accidentally grab the one for the hallway. You're not going to get what you expected. You always want to add a dot and if you're going to move it most the time you were straight up or down. So I've done that. I don't want it to affect the entire picture. So I want the mask to turn black so it doesn't apply anywhere. I use this command right here so often that I use the keyboard shortcut command I on the Mac control I am Windows. I'm gonna type that. That means invert. Then I would grab my paintbrush and I'm gonna paint right on that guy. And if I hide the adjustment layer, here's before See how he jumped out. There's after now. He's kind of disappearing, and it's just a little too much. I could either back off on the curves adjustment or go up here to my opacity slider in lower it toe. Lessen the effect. Good enough. But what we're doing here is we're adding contrast if we make it steeper between two dots and we're reducing contrast if we're making them similar and height. But unlike using brightness and contrast, the adjustment with brightness and contrast, it's thinking about specific brightness levels all the time. Like 25% gray is a let's say, highlight in 75%. Gray is a shadow, and you can't have it deviate from those. But here we get to plug in exactly what should be brightened in exactly what should be darkened. So we look at an object when we say, Let's look at the bright area of it in the dark area. Add dots for it. Neither make it steeper between the two to make the detail pop out or make it more similar to make it harder to see the detail. So lots of things I could do here I want a dark in the road that's in the distance, so curves adjustment layer. If it's just darkening. One dots fine, just one dot pull straight down, then I don't want it to apply to the entire image. So I typed command. I remember that's invert control. I am windows. I grabbed my brush, and if I paint with white, I can paint in the change and I can darken up that road. You just have to be careful with your painting, which I'm not doing right now, because I'm trying to get you to learn about curves, not about how to paint. But now if I hide that adjustment, turn it back on, you can see the darkening effect, and I could just be more careful with my painting to be better at it. So there's all sorts of things we can do with curves, but it's my favorite adjustment. It does take a while to get used to, but I think it's really worth it.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Lessons 1 - 6 - Handbook 1: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop
Lessons 7 - 12 - Handbook 2: How to Use Camera Raw
Lessons 13 - 18 - Handbook 3: Making Selections
Lessons 19 - 24 - Handbook 4: Using Layers
Lessons 25 - 30 - Handbook 5: Using Layer Masks
Lessons 31 - 38 - Handbook 6: Using Adjustment Layers
Lessons 39 - 44 - Handbook 7: Color Theory
Lessons 45 - 51 - Handbook 8: Retouching Essentials
Lessons 52 - 59 - Handbook 9: Tools Panel
Lessons 60 - 64 - Handbook 10: Layer Blending Modes
Lessons 65 - 70 - Handbook 11: How to Use Filters
Lessons 71 - 74 - Handbook 12: Advanced Masks
Lessons 75 - 81 - Handbook 13: Using Smart Objects
Lessons 82 - 86 - Handbook 14: Photography for Photoshop
Lessons 87 - 93 - Handbook 15: Advanced Photo Retouching
Lessons 94 - 98 - Handbook 16: Warp, Blend, Liquify
Lessons 99 - 105 - Handbook 17: Advanced Layers
Lessons 106 - 112 - Handbook 18: Actions
Lessons 113 - 117 - Handbook 19: Troubleshooting Issues
Practice Images 1: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop
Practice Images 2: How to Use Camera Raw
Practice Images 3: Making Selections
Practice Images 4: Using Layers
Practice Images 5: Using Layer Masks
Practice Images 6: Using Adjustment Layers
Practice Images 7: Color Theory
Practice Images 8: Retouching Essentials
Practice Images 9: Tools Panel
Practice Images 10: Layer Blending Modes
Practice Images 11: How to Use Filters
Practice Images 12: Advanced Masks
Practice Images 13: Using Smart Objects
Practice Images 14: Photography for Photoshop
Practice Images 15: Advanced Photo Retouching
Practice Images 16: Warp, Blend, Liquify
Practice Images 17: Advanced Layers
Practice Images 18: Actions
Practice Images 19: Troubleshooting Issues

Ratings and Reviews

Noel Ice
 

I am an avid reader of photoshop books, and an avid watcher of photoshop tutorials. I have attended (internet) several hundred of presentations. In the course of this endeavor, I have found my own favorite photoshop websites and instructors. Creative Live is probably the bargain out there as well as among the top three internet course sites. I have to say with great enthusiasm that the best Photoshop instructor is Ben Willmore. There are many great ones, but truly, he is the best I have come across, and, as indicated above, I have watched literally 100s of tutorials on Photoshop. I have seen all of Ben's courses, I think, and among them, this one is the best by far, and that is saying a lot, because that makes this course the best course on Photoshop to be found anywhere. I am going back and watching it twice. Not only is it comprehensive, but Ben is so familiar with his subject that he is able to explain it like no other. This is crème de la crème of Photoshop classes. I have been wanting to write this review for some time because I have been so thoroughly impressed with everything about this class!

ford smith
 

Highly recommended if you want to take your Photoshop skills to the next level. Ben Willmore is clear, concise, and professional. He also has a good speaking voice that is not distracting but also keeps you engaged. Lastly, I would recommend that as you become more advanced, increasing the speed of the video (one of the options given on the menu)...especially if you've gone through the course once before and maybe want to watch it again. The double speed is very efficient as you become more advanced in Photoshop. Thanks for the help Ben!

a Creativelive Student
 

Wow. I cannot communicate the value of this course!! The true value in this course is how the instructor identifies workflows you'll need before you'll ever realize it, repeats important information without it becoming annoying, and explains the "why" behind the techniques so well that even if you forget the exact method, you can figure it out via the principles learned. Excellent value, excellent material, excellent instructor!!!

Student Work

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