aintseenherbivore replied to your post “the curves tool in photoshop is, i swear to god, like the best thing...”
yoooo how do you use it? I can't even figure out
i got really into explaining this just for clarity’s sake and so whoever needs it can get some info so pls forgive me LOL
alright so, the way i get it, the curves tool is like the simple way to fuck with the brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. and the rbg channels on a piece all at once to change the colors and stuff. how you use it depends on piece to piece and whatever lighting/colors you’re trying to correct/accomplish
this is the curves tool. hit ctrl + m to bring it up or go to image > adjustments > curves. the stuff i circled in red is the only thing we care about today, ok, the other options like grid size i never touch so idk exactly what they do
so here’s this little guy and an untouched curves tool, all i did was open it. i use the black and white sliders on the lower left and right corners, respectively, and the diagonal line in the middle can be moved and it curves like a parabola! hence the curves tool name im assuming. the channel is set to RBG by default.
moving the black slider toward the middle of the graph saturates the image, and makes especially the darker colors really dark, and vice versa for basically everything this tool does lmao
moving the white slider toward the middle desaturates the image, and makes especially the lighter colors really bright. you can move them both simultaneously, and the combination is a piece with darker darks, brighter lights, and more overall saturation (dont have a pic sowwy)
like i said, the middle diagonal line of the graph can be grabbed and moved and it adjusts stuff!
bending the curve down gives a little more saturation and darkens the entire picture, the more you pull it down the more extreme
pulling the line upwards lightens the image and desaturates it a bit!
you can also move the line in TWO SPOTS so it looks like a little soft wiggly line, and it does both of the above! so in the end you’ll end up with a brighter, more saturated image with darker darks and lighter lights (like using the sliders)
you can use the sliders and the curve at the SAME TIME to just absolutely fuck shit up
now on to the SPICY rgb channels:
there’s three channels: red, green, and blue. in the curves tool, from my understanding, you can adjust the OVERALL level and saturation of these three colors in ur image in one go!
when you click “channel”, you get a drop down menu for each channel, and each channel also has two sliders and a middle movable line like the default RBG channel! and like the default channel, moving the line up and down either ADDS or SUTRACTS that WHOLE color from the image (at least thats what i think is happening ahgaskjsf). so in like this example, moving the curved line up made my buddy much more red!
likewise, moving the curve down subtracts red, so that this becomes much more muted and green. and the same thing for each individual channel, it’s just settings you gotta fiddle with to see what happens!
changing the channel to blue, we can do it all too! moving the line up adds blue,
and moving it down subtracts it. this is also true for the green channel im just not gonna attach any more pics ahghgkasdhgasdf
SO!!! THATS my limited knowledge of the curves tool, all of this is just from me experimenting and could be incorrect so pls dont quote me on any of this but this is just what i’ve observed!! the curves tool can change the ENTIRE COLOR SCHEME of an image depending on how you fuck with the settings and i LOOOOOVE to use it as one of my final adjustment layers (along with overlay or soft light or multiply etc. layers) of a piece to really get the colors and atmosphere right!! there you go!!
