- [Denny] So, the curves.
Why would you use it over other tools?
We all know that it can replace
a lot of Lightroom adjustments,
but it's harder to use.
So, why do people like me keep insisting
that you use the curves over the much easier sliders?
What can you do with curves
that you can't do with other adjustments?
Keep watching and you'll find out.
(relaxing music)
Let's start with the easiest one.
Curves let you create many different types of contrast.
For example, you can create a standard S-curve,
and then choose how strong it is
depending it it's in the shadows or highlights.
You can also use it to create a faded film look,
something you cannot do with any other Lightroom settings.
Lifting the blacks will make your blacks gray.
Crushing it will clip out the details.
You can also do this to the whites.
(relaxing music)
Unlike contrast, exposure is not something
a lot of people use the curves for.
First of all, the exposure slider does
a better job than the tone curves.
You should always use the exposure slider to fix
the exposure, but if you are using it as an effect
such as creating a high or a low key effect,
you should use the curves.
This let's you have two exposure settings,
one for correcting your photo, and one as a color grading.
So if you create a preset and use it on the rest
of your photos, it won't override the exposure setting.
Everything is inside your tone curves.
(relaxing music)
A lot of people use the white balance to make their photo
a little bit warmer or cooler, but the white balance
setting should actually only be used
to fix the white balance.
Again just like with the exposure setting, we use
the tone curve it doesn't override
the retouching settings in your photo.
You can make it warmer or cooler in the RGB tone curves.
For example, you can switch a blue channel and drag up
to increase the blues or down to reduce it.
You can also choose how warm or cool you want it to be
depending if it's in the shadows or highlights.
(relaxing music)
Finally, split toning.
You can replicate any split toning with the RGB curves.
It's harder, but it is better.
With split toning, you can create basic smooth tints
like this, and then adjust the balance.
It's quite flexible, but there's two things
that the curves does better.
One is that you can choose more saturated colors,
and you can go as far as creating a nice dual tone effect.
The other is that you can choose
where the tint gets cut off.
For example if we tint the shadow screen like this,
it looks quite flat, but with the curves
you can choose where the tint ends.
This gives you much better results.
(relaxing music)
So overall the curves can replace a lot
of Lightroom settings, and give you more control.
It also separates the color correction
from the color grading, which is why
you see it used heavily in Lightroom presets.
If you wanna learn how to use the RGB curves,
check on my tutorial on the tone chart technique.
The secret to learning the curves is not
by memorizing shapes, but by developing
the instinctive feeling for how it works, and you can learn
how to do that with the tone chart technique.
(relaxing music)
Hey, thanks for watching.
If you liked it, please hit the like button.
Now there's one more reason why you should learn the curves,
and that is that it's used everywhere;
Premier, After Affects, Photoshop, Capture One,
Affinity Photo, even on your phone.
You have apps like Snapseed and Polarr,
it's the most universal tool than you can learn.
Anyways I hope you guys have a great day.
Let me know what you think in the comments below,
and I'll see you in the next video.
(relaxing music)