Curves: Photoshop’s own Swiss army knife

THE CURVES ADJUSTMENT LAYER IS A POWERFUL TOOL, OPENING UP PRECISE CONTROL OF BRIGHTNESS, CONTRAST, COLOUR AND EVEN SPECIAL EFFECTS.

PHOTOSHOP IS A vast editing program capable of amazing image transformations, but there are a number of its basic tools every photographer needs to understand. Curves is one of them, because of the many effects this single tool can achieve.

Curves is an essential editing tool for photographers because of the precise control over brightness, contrast and colour it provides. Thanks to four channels, including one that covers the other three together, you have everything you need to help make your shots look their best without the need to fill up the Layers panel with multiple Adjustment Layers.

Our start image is too light, and too warm in terms of the colour balance. You’ll fix both of these issues while adding a retro colour effect before boosting contrast in a localised area of the image.