Tone Curves

I've always been either afraid and reluctant to understand tone curves in Photoshop for years. I knew that great power came from it but I assumed that great knowledge was needed in order to make use of it properly. Over the past year after going on a couple of photography workshops, I began to learn some real uses of curves. I began using curves and layers in Photoshop during my post-processing workflow to apply things like gradient filters, vignettes, and other localized exposure adjustments (i.e. dodging and burning). I also experimented with applying basic s-curves for contrast and sometimes used the default options for medium and light contrast. I would also use these in conjunction with the other plethora of sliders in Adobe Camera Raw. I never really understood the relationship between the other adjustment sliders and the tone curve. That is until now.

I came across the website and blog of Michael Frye (www.michaelfrye.com), an outstanding landscape photographer. I purchased his Land and Light eBook. In it he unraveled the mystery of tone curves and making adjustments in Lightroom (or Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop)! I now have a greater understanding of (1) how to use the tone curve and (2) how it can do just about everything that all those other little sliders in ACR or Lightroom do instead.

Michael Frye's basic workflow for landscape digital photography is explained in his eBook so I gave it a go last night. I found it actually very easy and very powerful to use. It also felt more "correct" to make adjustments using the tone curve rather than making small adjustments with a dozen other sliders. In one simple tool, I can make my overall tonal adjustments for an image.

Now I start ACR with the sliders all set to 0, set my white balance, camera profile (ACR 4.6), crop and do any spot removal. Things look rather dull and gray, but this is really like seeing things straight out of camera. I'll get a chance to make the tonal adjustments afterwards...

Next comes working with a point curve for my tonal adjustments. By setting the black and white points and then adjusting the curve to add contrast and brighten the image, I feel that I get a finer level of control with far fewer "moving of various sliders" than I would have in the past. Now this image has some pop and contrast and the colors are already deeply saturated. Look at the histogram now...

I'll add a few tweaks in Photoshop next. First some more vignette because I love vignette. I'll do some simple dodging for the mountain and the tree to highlight them more. Then I'll add a simple border to frame things. This is the final result...

Compare it to how I first edited this image a couple of weeks ago. This first edit is rather flat and the tones are pushed more so the colors are little uneasy. Not what it actually looked like when I took the photograph...

 

While I do like my first edit of this image, after trying out this new technique, I think I'll have more creative control over my images and that will lead to some better final works. For me, I feel that I've done more with less, so to speak. The two images aren't drastically different but when your workflow becomes more intuitive, the final results are more satisfying. Whenever I end up doing less to an image, I'm more pleased with it. What do you think?