Curves

Levels and Curves: Photoshop's Left and Right Ventricles Pump Luminance

Submitted by LouBrz on 8 February 2011 - 6:15am.

Simply put, the Levels and Curves adjustments allow you to control the luminance of an image on a channel-by-channel basis. With these features, you can correct brightness, contrast, and color casts. They are essential commands and the two most powerful color correction facilities in Photoshop. The Levels command offers relative simplicity, while the Curves command gives you more control. Use one or the other as needed to adjust your images, but you'll never need both in a single project. In this article, we'll look at the features of the Levels command and then look at how the Curves command expands upon its capabilities.

Photoshop levels curves lead

This article is compiled from Chapter 14 of Deke's video course Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced. Like the last tip, it's packed with useful information, but there's even more value in viewing the actual chapter on lynda.com. Read more » 

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Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced Goes Live

Submitted by deke on 16 August 2010 - 12:15am.

Some of you have been asking when my Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced series is coming out. And I was all prepared to tell you this Friday. But lynda.com, being the incredible juggernaut of a video publisher that they are, began releasing it today. Chapters 13 thru 18 are up this very second. That's more than 100 movies, so it should keep you occupied for now. (If not, I totally suck.) The remaining Chapters 19 thru 24 will be up in 10 days.

Here's a live-action frame from the series. My director told me that, in retrospect, my spendy Elie Tahari shirt "looked a little disco." Let me assure you that this is one of the best shirts I've ever owned. It's a matte forest green with some excellent under-collar and inner-sleeve highlights. In the video, I don't look disco, I look positively wet. Meaning that I glisten. Like someone is misting me. Which is not necessarily what you want in a training video. But it's what you get.

Advanced

That said, who gives a tinker's gumph what I look like? Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #24: Curves

Submitted by deke on 3 November 2009 - 12:15am.
Feature #24: Curves

Normally, I write these Photoshop Top 40 posts from my home or office in Boulder, Colorado. But this week finds me in the pastoral countryside of Côte du Rhone, France, enjoying a little time off. Alas, the nature of a weekly podcast is that, even on a break, I have to give it the gas.

So I hope you'll forgive me if I keep this post short:

After sixteen Photoshop Top 40 movies, you may wonder what's next. While now you needn't, because here it is.

See? That was short. Read more » 

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dekeOnline News: May 4, 2009

Submitted by deke on 4 May 2009 - 11:00am.

Hello friends of dekeOnline,

I have much to announce in this issue! I take you on a deep-sea diving excursion with dekePod, I unveil the longest video series ever released on lynda.com, and finally, my sidekick Colleen and I have a rousing chat with Russell Brown and John Nack on Martini Hour. In short, I offer you a feast for your mind and your senses.

dekePod Takes the Ultimate Plunge

dekePod 015: Photoshop and the Lost Undersea Channel

Have you ever taken a camera underwater? I've used a few disposable underwater cameras and they don't include a flash. Which is crazy, because if there was ever a place where you need a strobe, it's underwater. Water and the distance filters away light and colors, starting with red, then orange, then yellow, leaving a world of greens and blues. How do you bring those colors back? I explain in dekePod 015: "Photoshop and the Lost Undersea Channel." Read more » 

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Tripping on Arbitrary Maps

Submitted by deke on 1 December 2008 - 5:18pm.

 Colleen and David Futato and I are in the final death throes of Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One. I'm sitting here working on the introduction to the final lesson, Lesson 12, "Masking the Tough Stuff." By way of demonstrating arbitrary maps, which can be quite useful for "throw down" masking, I assembled this nifty composition. It's a photo from David Politi subject to two varieties of arb maps, one applied using Gradient Map and the other with Curves. Isn't she pretty?

It has nothing whatsoever to do with masking -- just introduces a topic -- but I'm rather transfixed with it at the moment. Takes me back to my teónanácatl-tinted halcyon days. So naturally I had to share.

Anyway, we're shooting to get the book to the printer any day now. We'll keep you apprised. Read more » 

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