Photoshop Tutorial #1: The Basics/ Curves
How's it hangin, Buzznet? I've decided to do a new project-like thing for my journals, considering all my journals have proved pretty pointless. So ya, here's to launching my EDIT HOW TO. On account of I'm very often asked "how'd you do that?" and stuff along those lines.
Okay.
Are you sick of taking crappy pictures? Finding something really gorgeous in real life and having your camera make it look ugly? Fear not! If you have any version of photoshop, or The Gimp (downloadable for free!) then you can turn an otherwise dark and ugly picture bright and beautiful!
Here's our example for today:
I edited this with Photoshop CS3, so the instructions only work for Photoshop CS or Elements. Not The Gimp. Sorry.
How did I get rid of all the hot spots from the flash? Why... a simple curves adjustment!
Ignore the diagonal line for a second if you don't understand a histogram.
A histogram shows the dynamics of light and dark in the picture. On the left is the dark, on the right is the light. Left, dark, right, light. Remember that.
Now look at that diagonal line. Grab any point on it with the mouse and drag it up or down. Go a little crazy with it if you want. But the screen cap here shows a good curves adjustment. See how the lights are made even lighter, and the darks are made just a bit darker? This adds contrast, and evens out the tone of the picture. Scroll back up to the "before and after" picture. See how the "after" one has less random bright spots? That's thanks to Curves. Curves are your friend.
If you're confused, I can send you an actually GOOD tutorial. But seriously, curves are the shit.
Next week, I'm gonna post a journal like this, but explaining how to get rid of people in the background of pictures by using the Stamp Clone tool!
How'd you like this? Did it work, or am I wasting my time?
that was interesting read and nice tutorial :)
That'll work just fine! The Curves adjustment may be in a different menu, but it does exactly the same thing ; )
Good job :)
Would you mind if I threw this up on the Community Page and any other tutorials you do? I think a ton of kids would love to know how to do all this.
The Clone Stamp is probably my favorite thing to misuse besides the magnetic lasso. I can't wait to see what you can do with them there tools!
Rock!