We often use Curves in our workflow. It’s a staple in almost every genre of photography. But how often do you venture into the beautiful world of color or RGB Curves? Probably not as often as you’d care to mention.
No worries, I didn’t either. At least not until I realized how to use them effectively in my images. The color curves are just as difficult to tame as the RGB or luminance curve. But once you get the hang of them, they become just as second nature.
It would be best if you thought like a painter first. It’s a lot like mixing colors on a palette. Next, you must understand the color curve’s function and how it affects the image globally. It will add color. It doesn’t care much about the perceived color in your photos like HSL and Selective Color.
Let’s dive in, and you’ll see how all this comes together.
•Chapters•
00:00 Introduction
01:12 How the Curve works
03:23 The Color Curves Explained
05:45 Practical Application with Color Curves
06:42 Color Principles – Perceived Color & Actual Color
09:33 Painting with Curves
14:00 The Challenge! Can you do it?
17:09 Closing Remarks
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
You’ve added yet another string to my bow. Is this similar to the Curve Modifiers in the ZSE panel? Very powerful tool explained well and the challenge is a nice touch.
Tremendous video and challenge!!
Very informative – thanks!
Thanks again for another brain exercise! Cheated a little with the color picker and input/output section of Curves. A shortcut I always have trouble remembering- when you are in any of the RGB colors of Curves- select the hand tool, hold down Shift and Ctrl while clicking the Input target that you are wanting to adjust. This gives you a curve point across the 3 colors- 128 in this exercise.
Wow. I’m certainly going to give all that a go. Colour theory escapes me.
While Aussies don’t do thanksgiving, I love a big turkey for Christmas so I trialed your stuffing. Beautiful, will be in the turkey this Xmas. Thank you.
Thank you Blake, nothing better then real practice to understand something!
Great challenge, getting right to it!
Happy Holidays!
Great video and fun challenge! Thanks for the reference image too. There’s never a bad time to learn/refresh on curves. So powerful.
Also enjoyed the segment on “Perceived Color & Actual Color”
You rock!