My Photographic Process Part 2 - Curves

This is part two on my photographic process.

After making sure I'm happy with the details of the photo. I move on to adjusting the colors. As you can see from the original photo, it's a bit dull. There's a bluish tint which makes the photo too cool for my taste. Basically for me, it feels like there's a thin veil of gray in front of it.

What I do here is adjust curves first. You can use levels, but I prefer to use curves as I have more control over the final look of the photo.

Basically, what curves does it to adjust the contrast, brightness and levels in one setting. What I'm doing when I'm adjust curves or levels it to make white look white and not grayish white and to make black look black and not a dull gray. At least that's what I try to do when I adjust curves and levels.

In this photo, since there is no white or black, I'm trying to make the colors look as close to what I saw in real life.

You can adjust curves by going to the menu on top. But I prefer to adjust curves from the layers menu. This way, a new layer is automatically created and the original image is not affected.

Layers is like putting a transparent film on top of the original photograph and adjusting the colors and whatever else you'd like to adjust on that layer. That way, if you make a mistake or change your mind, you can just delete the layer and all your changes are gone without affecting the original image.

This is where you go to adjust the curves in the layers window. Click on the circle with the half black and half white icon. A menu will pop up and you can choose what you want to adjust. Once you click curves, a new layer is create and you can adjust the curves.

After you click curves, this will open. A square grid with a diagonal running through it. What you adjust is this diagonal. Go ahead, play with it and see what happens.

What I usually do is just adjust the diagonals up or down along the grid. Sometimes I adjust them left and right, but that would depend on the photo and that happens less than the up and down adjustments.

So the first thing I do is create a point near the bottom left square and move the diagonal line down.What this does is darkens the photo a bit and increases the contrast. If you compare this photo to the one above it, the dull bluish tinge has been reduced.

Next I click on the upper right square and move the diagonal up.

When you move the upper right diagonal up, it brightens the photo. Adjusting this point left or right also adjusts the contrast. Play around with it until you're happy with the result.

Usually, I get an S-curve. This is not always the case and it depends on what photo you took. Sometimes, the lighting is just right that no adjustment is necessary. There are also times that no matter how I adjust it, it just never looks right. At that point, I know the photo is bad and I don't bother with it.

As you can see with this adjustment, the photo looks a little better. The colors aren't as dull as the original. The shadows are deeper and the clouds have more definition.

Once I'm happy with the result, I click ok and this is what you will see.

A new layer is created with the label "Curves 1". If I change my mind and want to adjust curves again, I just double click this layer where the square grid icon is to adjust it again. Don't click on the curve name because it will come up with a dialog box asking you to change the name. Don't click on the blank white square because a different dialog will come up which isn't what you want.

If you click on the eye, it will make the layer invisible so you can see the original photo. Click the eye again to make it visible.

If I change my mind and decide I want to remove the adjustments I did with the curves, I just drag the curves layer down to the trash can below.

The next part will deal with color balance.