Review Notes
Introduction to Photography
CNPH 14100-05
Fall, 2008
CURVES
The curves tool in Photoshop allows one to control contrast in select regions of a
photograph’s tonal scale.
The curves window superimposes the image’s histogram (here in gray), and a diagonal
line that represents contrast. The steeper the curve (black line), the higher the contrast.
The default curve is a 45 degree angle, as you see below.
You can click on the curve to add anchor points, that allow you to alter the shape of the
line, and therefore the contrast of the image. Below is an example of a picture that has
been altered so that the middle tones have higher contrast than the shadows and
highlights (a very common alteration).
