Posts Tagged ‘Curves tool’

Photos with a soft, low contrast hazy look seem to be very popular at the moment. You can purchase packs of film presets for most image editing software that allow you to easily create this look.

I've also seen several Photoshop tutorials that show how to create a similar look, making use of various adjustment layers. However, the look can also be achieved using only RGB curves, which are available in Adobe Camera RAW, Lightroom, Photoshop, GIMP, and the majority of image editing software. No need to purchase anything additional, and no need for multiple layer Photoshop documents.

In this article I'll cover both creating the hazy look in-camera and using RGB curves. Plus, I'll explain why the curves adjustments create the effect, so you'll better understand how you can modify the curves to fine-tune the effect.

Carrying on from the previous article Using the curves tool in Photoshop etc. to improve your photos, in this article we'll look at using the curves tool to alter the color balance in your photos.

Curves can be used to fix a color cast in your photo, or add a color cast. You can adjust the colors in just the highlights, midtones, or shadows depending on where you place the points on the curve. You can even create giant shifts in color such as a cross-processing effect using curves. They are a very useful tool in adjusting the color of a photo.