• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

DIGITAL PHOTO MENTOR

Photography tips, tutorials and guides for Beginner and Intermediate Photographers.

  • Start Here
  • Photography Basics
    • Beginner Photography Tutorials
    • Free Photography Basics for Beginners Course
  • Photography Articles
    • Beginner Photography Tutorials
    • Photography Challenges
    • Photography Tips
      • Portrait Photography
        • Flash Photography
      • Night Photography
      • Street Photography
      • Photo Editing
      • Landscape Photography
      • Macro Photography
      • Photoshop Tutorials
      • Photography Equipment
  • Online Courses
    • Luminar Neo Course
    • Lightroom for Photographers: The Complete Course
    • Photoshop For Photographers: The Complete Course
    • Portrait Fundamentals
  • Private Tutoring
  • Store
    • Online Courses
    • Bokeh Overlays
    • Sky Replacements
    • Texture Backgrounds
    • Lightroom Presets
    • Private Tutoring
    • Cart
  • Login
  • Photography Basics
    • Beginner Photography Tutorials
    • Free Photography Basics for Beginners Course
  • Photography Challenges
    • Photography Challenges E-Book
    • 5-Day Photo Editing Challenge
    • All Our Photography Challenges
  • Photography Tips
    • Portrait Photography
      • Free Portrait Photography Key Concepts Course
      • Flash Photography
    • Night Photography
    • Street Photography
    • Travel Photography
    • Landscape Photography
    • Macro Photography
    • Photography Equipment
  • Photo Editing
    • Luminar
    • Learn How to Use Lightroom Classic – Online Course
    • Photoshop Tutorials
  • Gallery
  • Resources
    • Free Basics for Beginners Course
    • Free Portrait Photography for Beginners Course
    • Lightroom Presets
    • Texture Pack for Photoshop, Luminar
    • Webinars
    • YouTube Channel
Home » Photo Editing » Curves Tool Tutorial
How to Understand and Use the Curves Tool for Precision Photo Editing

How to Understand and Use the Curves Tool for Precision Photo Editing

by Darlene Hildebrandt | Last Updated: September 29, 2022

Share13
Tweet
Pin8
WhatsApp
Email

In this video tutorial, I will help to demystify the Curves Tool for photo editing. It’s one that is commonly misunderstood and is under-utilized for that very same reason.

During one of my weekly Photo Editing Live events on YouTube, I was getting questions about Curves and I promised to do a more in-depth tutorial on this very useful tool. So here it is!

Curves Tool Video Tutorial

In this curves tutorial, I’ll demonstrate how to use the curves tool to adjust the contrast and color of your photo. I am using Luminar AI to demonstrate the curves tool, but the principles are very similar in Lightroom, Photoshop, or any other photo editing software you may use.

You’ve likely used the contrast sliders to adjust contrast, and the highlights and shadows sliders to do the same. But in this curves tutorial, you’ll see how the curves tool gives you so much more flexibility and finer control to your overall look.

The Lightroom curves panel and the Photoshop curves tool work in exactly the same way.

Main takeaways about curves

Here are a few things you need to know about curves:

  • The histogram is represented by the curve as well (blacks on the left, whites on the right, grey in the middle)
  • You can adjust the contrast overall (main curve) or by each color (red, green, blue)
  • Create an s-curve to add contrast
  • Lower contrast with an inverted s-curve
  • You can do create adjustments like a cross-processed or solarized look using curves

Time to practice

Now it’s your turn to give curves a try. Download the greyscale image and the colorwheel below and play around on them using the curves tool. Then try it on some of your own images.

Click to open the full sized image in a new tab, then save it to your computer by right-clicking.
Click to open in a new tab, then right-click to save it.

I hope this tutorial helps to solve some of the confusion and misunderstandings you may have had about using curves. Consider adding this handy tool to your kit to help you make your images pop and stand out from the crowd.

AI Photo Editing: Read my review of Luminar Neo, the next generation photo editing using AI. It’s an industry game changer. If you’ve already got it, enrolling in my Luminar Neo course should be able to get you up and editing in days instead of weeks. Check it out.

Want more photo editing tips?

If you enjoyed this video and want more photo editing tips, please join me during my YouTube live each Saturday at 1 pm MDT (3 pm EDT/NYC time, 7 pm UK time, 4 am Melbourne time).

Read: The Upside-Down Trick – a Photography Hack to Help You Make Better Images

Click the photo or the link above to set a reminder for yourself. If the time is convenient for you join me live and participate in the chat. You can add comments and ask questions as I edit. It’s a great learning opportunity!

You can also watch the replay later at any time – they are all there forever on my YouTube channel. Make sure you are subscribed!

OR you can submit one or two of your own images and see how I would approach editing them if they are selected. I get a lot of landscape images so would love to get more variety like people photos, macro, abstract, street photography, animals, etc.

Just click the button below and fill out the form.

Submit an image for Darlene to edit here!

***Remember to submit your original camera files (raw is best if you have raw files)***

Cheers,

Darlene Hildebrandt photographer DPM
Share13
Tweet
Pin8
WhatsApp
Email

About Darlene Hildebrandt

Darlene is an educator who teaches aspiring amateurs and hobbyists how to improve their skills through her articles here on Digital Photo Mentor, her beginner photography course, and private tutoring lessons. To help you at whatever level you're at she has two email mini-courses. Sign up for her free beginner OR portrait photography email mini-course. Or get both, no charge!

ultimate photography bundle

There’s NEVER been a better time to get Luminar Neo. With this Ultimate Photography Bundle promotion, you recieve the Luminar Neo software, hundreds of LUT’s, Skies, presets and overlays, a Landscape Photography editing course, a Drone photography course and my very own Portrait Fundamentals course, along with a number of other items.

Click here to Get $1019 worth of photography software and courses for an 85% savings.

Digital Photo Mentor is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to products on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate Digital Photo Mentor earns from qualifying purchases.
ultimate photography bundle

Ultimate Photography Bundle

There's NEVER been a better time to get Luminar Neo. With this Ultimate Photography Bundle promotion, you recieve the Luminar Neo software, hundreds of LUT's, Skies, presets and overlays, a Landscape Photography editing course, a Drone photography course and my very own Portrait Fundamentals course, along with a number of other items.

Get $1019 worth of photography software and courses for an 85% savings.

Click Here to Purchase

Top Beginner Articles

  • Avoid these 9 beginner photography mistakes
  • 7 Tips for Beginner Photographers
  • Top 15 Photography Accessories under $25
  • How to choose the best digital camera for you
  • 5 Photography Ideas for When There's Nothing Interesting to Shoot
  • 5 mistakes beginner photographers make while using a wide angle lens and how to avoid them
  • 9 Tripod Mistakes Ruining Your Images and Putting Your Camera at Risk
  • Long Exposure Photography

Top Intermediate Articles

  • 10 Camera Settings and Equipment Tips for Portrait Photography
  • Best Photo Editing Software Reviewed
  • Lightroom Alternative: Is Luminar the answer?
  • Top 15 Photography Accessories under $25
  • How to Use a Gray Card for Custom White Balance and Metering
  • Night Photography Settings – Guide to Getting the Best Exposure

Learn Photography Basics

Yes, you can learn to take better photos! It’s my passion to help you learn the photography basics and take better pictures. It’s also the same reason I teach workshops, do photo travel tours, and have online photography courses available.

Enroll in our free photography basics for beginners course, or 12-part portrait photography course, also free.

Recent Photography Articles

  • Stunning Night Photo Edits With Luminar Neo
  • Six ways to make your travel photography stand out
  • Why Street Photography Is So Difficult And How To Overcome It
  • Review of Sigma’s 56mm F/1.4 Lens – Is It Worth It?
  • How To Create Stunning Old-Style Hollywood Black-and-White Glamour Portraits

Useful Links

  • Beginner Photography
  • Intermediate Photography
  • Photography Challenges
  • Photography Tips
  • Photo Editing
  • Resources
  • Recommended Amazon Products
  • Course Login
  • Workshops
  • Webinars
  • Contact
  • Write for Us

Copyright © 2023 Digital Photo Mentor · Privacy Policy · Cookie Policy · Disclaimer