The “Curves” feature is one of the most interesting tools in the serious photo editor’s bag of software tricks. It’s also one of the more difficult to understand. You really have to play with it a bit to understand what the heck it does. If your application does not have this option, dump it and pick up something that does! The examples below use Corel’s PaintShop Pro 9.

When you first look at the curves, it’s simply a straight line representing a one-to-one relationship between the brightness of the original pixels and the resulting output. “Huh?” Let’s just say there’s a straight line because you haven’t made any changes.


The preview window shows that the image is a bit dark.

The lower left of the scale is where the dark pixels live; the upper right is for the light pixels. OK? So, if you make a change to the bottom of the line, you affect the dark pixels. Make a change to the top and you change the light pixels.

My image is too dark, so I’ve added a point on the line near the bottom and pulled it up a bit. This has lightened the darker pixels.


Raising up the bottom of the curve makes those dark pixels lighter.

Next, I’ve added a new point and pulled up the lighter pixels. The formally straight line is now slightly bow shaped and the image much improved.

A second point near the top of the curve makes the light pixels brighter.

The final result:

Before and after images of the delightful Ting.

I’ve found this sort of bow-shaped curve works well on nearly all my portrait shots.

A similar curve enhances the image of Bad Girl Oum.

very nice Wombat. What camera do you use? Do you shoot in Raw or Jpeg?

Thanks, Av8tr. I'm still learning how to improve my images and teaching others is a good exercise. I just wish I could pull down my photos from last year and fix 'em up.

I use a KonicaMinolta Dimage A2; it's a great travel camera. I stick to JPG as it's a format I know well. The pros use RAW and I understand why, but I don't plan to print/publish any of my images. Besides, a 512m card holds a lot more JPG's than RAW images.

I understand. It's just that a lot of photographers that know about curves use Raw. On my Nikon D70 (which is NOT a very good traveling camera) you can set the curves ahead of time in the camera. Very convenient for many situations. Keep up the good lessons.

Av--

curious why you think the D70 is NOT a good travel body-- I find it a superb balance of quality and portability.