Harness the Power of Curves for Creative, Dynamic Photos (VIDEO)
If you overlook Curves when editing your images you’re missing out on one of Lightroom’s most powerful tools that can easily be mastered, even by inexperienced users. Today’s beginners guide from the Adobe Lightroom YouTube channel explains how to get started today.
The goal of Instructor Kenneth Hines Jr. is to help you spend less time at the computer and more time behind the lens by offering straightforward tutorials on topics like color grading, new tools and techniques, the benefits of presets, and more. Today’s four-minute episode reveals the basics of using Curves to apply precise enhancements to brightness, contrast, and color.
Kenneth is an accomplished photographer, Zeiss Ambassador, and respected educator who kicks of the lesson like this: “There are two ways you can adjust the tonal values of a photo with Curves in Lightroom—using the Point Curve or the Parametric Curve,” and he begins with the latter.
He pulls up an indoor photo of NY’s dramatic Oculus building with its wide range of light values. He then demonstrates how the Parametric Curve is the perfect choice for balancing out the shot. It’s a simple matter to drag up or down anywhere on the Curve to either lighten or darken the image.
You’ll notice a few sliders in the panel for making similar adjustments, but Kenneth explains why the Curve itself provides you with far more accuracy and control. And Kenneth’s effective workflow is super simple to emulate. Next on the list is Lightroom’s Point Curve and Kenneth explores situations in which when this option is a more appropriate tool, and he illustrates exactly how it works.
This time his example is an overly dark outdoor shot captured at the iconic Lincoln Memoria in DC. You’ll see how to employ multiple control points (up to a maximum of 16) to make super-precise adjustments to the Curve. Kenneth recommends starting with three points: one for shadows, another for midtones, and the third for correcting inaccurate highlights—either up or down.
Lightroom also includes a targeted adjustment that enables you to make on-screen modifications to the Parametric or Point Curve. This trick lets you selectively determine which part of the tonal range is adjusted—whether you’re perfecting contrast or another key attribute.
Be sure to visit Kenneth’s instructional YouTube channel for more great editing advice. And don’t miss our earlier tutorial from another post-processing expert who reveals a “secret” Lightroom masking technique for nature and landscape shooters who want to create spectacular natural-looking photographs.
