Jay Arraich’s Photoshop Tips - Curves, Levels, or Contrast/Brightness?


	Curves, Levels, or Contrast/Brightness? page two First, I’ll show you the Curves details. In Photoshop v. 6.0, I chose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves. In version 5.5 you would choose Layer > New > Adjustment Layer and then pick Curves from the dialog box’s menu. I decided I would like to increase the contrast between the water spout’s top right corner, #4, and the background, š. To do this, I need to steepen the curve where those dots are located. Dots #1, and #5 were spots that I did not want to change. I would like to keep the curve the same where they are located. I wanted to watch the area below #2. A little contrast increase here would be fine, but too much would lose detail. Below are the dots I placed on the curve, with corresponding numbers added to the image detail so you can see where they are. On the left, in the next illustration you can see the full dialog box, with those five dots in place. To the right of that is the final curve I made. I added more dots to keep the curve from moving in areas that I didn’t want it to move. Finally, below the curves, you can see the details from the result. At the left, is the close-up with the curve applied. At the right is the original, unmodified image. I thought I did a reasonable job with the curve, but you can see there is some posterization in the details.	back next start Tips 7 Tools 7 Palettes
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	I will show you a comparison of the full before and after images at the end. Next, we will look at Levels. *Continue on page three*
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