Adobe Photoshop 2020: The Complete Guide Bootcamp
Lesson 35 of 118
Understanding Curves

Adobe Photoshop 2020: The Complete Guide Bootcamp
Lesson 35 of 118
Understanding Curves
Lesson Info
Understanding Curves
So now let's move on and look at other adjustments that are much more powerful than levels. Levels is very useful, but I think there's something that could be dramatically more useful. And that is, as I work my way down this adjustment menu, I get beyond levels and I find curves. Curves is the ultimate tonal adjustments. You can do things that no other adjustment conduce. And in fact, the other adjustments we use thus far are actually using curves behind the scenes to do the work that they dio. And they're just trying to present you with a simpler screen, a simpler interface to interact with. But if you want full control, you want to use curves. Now. Curves is something that is not easy to learn on your own, but I'll get you toe, understand how it works, and it will take you practice before you are good with it. But the practice, I think, is worth it because you'll get ultimate control over your images. So in curves, let's see how this works Well, if you look at curves, it's a diagonal...
line going across a grid, and at the bottom is a Grady int that has all the brightness levels you could have in your picture. And in fact, most of the time this Grady it will be reversed where black will be on the left. It's only because I have a, um, a grayscale picture that it's reversed. If I take this image and converted Targhee be the vast majority of images we're gonna work on will be RGB in. Therefore, if I go into curves after that, now you see black is on the left. Whereas a moment ago it was reversed. Why is that? Well, when you're working with gray scale, it's thinking about Inc And when you're working in RGB is thinking about light. The two are opposite of each other. Ah, 100% light is the same as 0% Inc and therefore it flips it. It'll make sense in a few moments. So we have that Grady. And at the bottom, then the diagonal line is just telling you how much light would be used to create the shades you see down here. So to create black, this is all the way at the bottom because you would use no light whatsoever to create something this bright. If you go straight up. You'd use this much light compared to the amount you could use, which is all the way to the top. And as you work your way this way, you see the curve above that diagonal line that IHS gets higher and hired. Indicate you'd use mawr and mawr, inm or light. And once you get to white, the curve is all the way at the top because you've maxed it out. You can't get any brighter than white, so you can't go any higher than that, so this would be as high as you could possibly go. The way I think of it is, since it's talking about light, I think about a dimmer switch if you go to your kitchen and you find that one of your, uh lights is on a dimmer, and it's not the kind that's a knob. Instead, it's the kind you push up and down. It's just like curves. If you move that dimmer all the way to the bottom, it turns the lights off in the room is solid black. You can't see a thing and listers windows. Then, as you move the slider up, you add more light into gets brighter. And once you max out, that slider is high as it can go, it's not possible to make the room any brighter without adding some other light source in. In the case of Photoshopped, the brightest we can get is white, so we'll get it all. The way to the top is white, so just think of it as picking one of these shades and then going straight up until you hit the diagonal line, and that tells you how far up the dimmer switch would be. You're not as high as he could possibly go because it's not white. You're not having lights turned off your somewhere in between. All right, then what can I do with this? Well, you can move your mouse on your image. And if you click this little hand icon that's in the lower left, then that means that if I move my mouse over my image, it should think about curbs. And so when I go over my image, you'll see a circle and curbs in. The only thing that circle is doing is it's telling me how much light is in the various areas. I put my mouse on top of. So if you're to go straight down from wherever that circle is appearing and you look at that bar that spans the bottom, it would be sitting directly above the exact shade my mouse is on. So it's just telling me how much light is in each area. Well, this doesn't sound too exciting yet. What if I want to make two of these bars exactly the same brightness level, but I want to leave all the other bars alone. I can do that if I want to take this bar and I want to take this bar, get them to be the exact same brightness level. I could do it very quickly and easily and curves, and then I can take the other bars and get them back, but where they used to be, This is close to that if you know what you're doing, and I haven't described enough yet for you to know what you're doing. But let me turn preview off years before here's after. Do you see those two bars that became identical? It looks like the brightest part of the image is getting a little too Ah, dark. So I have toe adjust that, too. But let's then say instead, I want to do the opposite. I want just those two bars to look more dramatically different from each other than they used to. Well, let's start over here and I want to make this bar brighter. Gotta turn on this little hand, make this bar brighter, make this bar darker. There is a greater difference between the two. I can easily do that. Then I want the other bars to go a little bit back to where they were. Not exactly, but closer. I have control over that kind of stuff, and I have none of that control. When I'm in levels or brightness and contrast, I can't click on my picture and say, Think about this brightness level and do something specific on Lee that brightness level
Class Description
AFTER THIS CLASS YOU’LL BE ABLE TO:
- Develop an understanding of how Photoshop works
- Create your ideal workspace
- Configure the essential preference settings
- Set up Adobe Bridge and Lightroom for optimal integration with Photoshop
- Navigate multiple images seamlessly
ABOUT BEN’S CLASS:
Adobe® Photoshop® 2020 is a feature-rich creative force, perfect for turning raw ideas into audience-wowing images. With Ben Willmore as your guide, you can master it faster than you think and take on a new decade of projects.
Ben takes you step-by-step through Adobe Photoshop 2020 as only he can. With an easy pace and zero technobabble, he demystifies this powerful program and makes you feel confident enough to create anything. This class is part of a fully-updated bundle – complete with 2020 features and more efficient ways to maximize the tools everyone uses most.
Whether you’re a 20-year designer or you’re opening the app for the first time, this is the perfect way to learn and love using Photoshop. From retouching to masking to troubleshooting, Ben unpacks all the essentials and hidden gems, while giving you real-world examples to drive each lesson home. By the end of the class, you’ll feel eager to make serious magic with Photoshop 2020.
WHO THIS CLASS IS FOR:
- Beginner, intermediate, and advanced users of Adobe Photoshop.
- Those who want to gain confidence in Adobe Photoshop and learn new features to help edit photos.
- Students who’d like to take ordinary images and make them look extraordinary with some image editing or Photoshop fixes.
SOFTWARE USED:
Adobe Photoshop 2020 (V21)
Lessons
- Introduction To Adobe Photoshop 2020
- Bridge vs. Lightroom
- Tour of Photoshop Interface
- Overview of Bridge Workspace
- Overview of Lightroom Workspace
- Lightroom Preferences - Saving Documents
- How To Use Camera Raw in Adobe Photoshop 2020
- Overview of Basic Adjustment Sliders
- Developing Raw Images
- Editing with the Effects and HLS Tabs
- How to Save Images
- Using the Transform Tool
- Making Selections in Adobe Photoshop 2020
- Selection Tools
- Combining Selection Tools
- Using Automated Selection Tools
- Quick Mask Mode
- Select Menu Essentials
- Using Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020
- Align Active Layers
- Creating a New Layer
- Creating a Clipping Mask
- Using Effects on Layers
- Using Adjustment Layers
- Using the Shape Tool
- Create a Layer Mask Using the Selection Tool
- Masking Multiple Images Together
- Using Layer Masks to Remove People
- Using Layer Masks to Replace Sky
- Adding Texture to Images
- Layering to Create Realistic Depth
- Adjustment Layers in Adobe Photoshop 2020
- Optimizing Grayscale with Levels
- Adjusting Levels with a Histogram
- Understanding Curves
- Editing an Image Using Curves
- Editing with Shadows/Highlights Adjustment
- Dodge and Burn Using Quick Mask Mode
- Editing with Blending Modes
- Color Theory
- Curves for Color
- Hue and Saturation Adjustments
- Isolating Colors Using Hue/Saturation Adjustment
- Match Colors Using Numbers
- Adjusting Skin Tones
- Retouching Essentials In Adobe Camera Raw
- Retouching with the Spot Healing Brush
- Retouching with the Clone Stamp
- Retouching with the Healing Brush
- Retouching Using Multiple Retouching Tools
- Extending an Edge with Content Aware
- Clone Between Documents
- Crop Tool
- Frame Tool
- Eye Dropper and Color Sampler Tools
- Paint Brush Tools
- History Brush Tool
- Eraser and Gradient Tools
- Brush Flow and Opacity Settings
- Blur and Shape Tools
- Dissolve Mode
- Multiply Mode
- Screen Mode
- Hard Light Mode
- Hue, Saturation, and Color Modes
- Smart Filters
- High Pass Filter
- Blur Filter
- Filter Gallery
- Adaptive Wide Angle Filter
- Combing Filters and Features
- Select and Mask
- Manually Select and Mask
- Creating a Clean Background
- Changing the Background
- Smart Object Overview
- Nested Smart Objects
- Scale and Warp Smart Objects
- Replace Contents
- Raw Smart Objects
- Multiple Instances of a Smart Object
- Creating a Mockup Using Smart Objects
- Panoramas
- HDR
- Focus Stacking
- Time-lapse
- Light Painting Composite
- Remove Moire Patterns
- Remove Similar Objects At Once
- Remove Objects Across an Entire Image
- Replace a Repeating Pattern
- Clone from Multiple Areas Using the Clone Source Panel
- Remove an Object with a Complex Background
- Frequency Separation to Remove Staining and Blemishes
- Warping
- Liquify
- Puppet Warp
- Displacement Map
- Polar Coordinates
- Organize Your Layers
- Layer Styles: Bevel and Emboss
- Layer Style: Knockout Deep
- Blending Options: Blend if
- Blending Options: Colorize Black and White Image
- Layer Comps
- Black-Only Shadows
- Create a Content Aware Fill Action
- Create a Desaturate Edges Action
- Create an Antique Color Action
- Create a Contour Map Action
- Faux Sunset Action
- Photo Credit Action
- Create Sharable Actions
- Common Troubleshooting Issues Part 1
- Common Troubleshooting Issues Part 2
- Image Compatibility with Lightroom
- Scratch Disk Is Full
- Preview Thumbnail
Reviews
marianne
The short lessons makes it easy to find things. Clear explanations, structured content, great examples, handbook plus practice images - this class is worth x10 the price! I have seen many of Ben's classes and I'm so happy you created this one, love it
Madelaine Enochs
Ben's class has been extremely helpful for understanding how everything works in photoshop. I am so grateful for his classes. Easy to understand and thorough. Thank-you Ben!
Alessandro Zugno
In this class Ben Willmore gives an overview of all the tools present in Adobe Photoshop 2020, explaining everything very clearly and with practical examples. This course is useful for any type of photographer who wants to learn the use of Photoshop or improve their post production skills.