Curves

The first post-processing lesson was about manipulating tonal range and balance through the levels control. With Levels, you can change the black point, white point, and midpoint (aka gamma). With the possibility of doing this for each of the channels separately, this is often all the control you need. There are times, though, when you need finer control over different parts of the tonal range. Here is where the Curves control comes in. This lesson will explain what the curves control does, and demonstrate three common situations in which it can be used effectively.