> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ FEBRUARY 2020[ 54 ]
each other, they’ll behave just like
the blacks and whites input levels
sliders in Levels; they represent cut-
off points. As you move them, they
cut off parts of the graph in the
Histogram panel to the left or right,
depending on which one you move.
The rest of the mountain range in
the Histogram panel expands to fill
the space.
The diagonal represents the im-
age’s tonality, going from smaller
values (darker) on the left to higher
values (brighter) on the
right. By clicking on the
line, you can add any
number of points that
allow you to adjust the
tonal values to make the
image darker or brighter.
Moving the points high-
er or lower will make
the image brighter or
darker, respectively.
Adding a point in
the middle works just
like the grays input lev-
els slider in the Levels
adjustment: It shifts the
midtones. When you
have multiple points on
the curve, they’ll lock
that part of the curve
when you move an-
other point.
The endpoints on the
line control the output
levels, or the “gap” at
both ends of the histo-
gram. By grabbing the
bottom-left point and
dragging it up vertically,
you can create lighter
black values; dragging
the upper-right point
down creates darker
white values.CURVES
The Curves adjustment layer might seem complicated at first, but it works similarly
to Levels, only with a slightly different visual representation. In capable hands, it’s
one of the best retouching tools to use for tonal and color manipulations.
Go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Curves. As we did with the Levels, we need
to make sure that RGB is selected in the channels drop-down menu in the Proper-
ties panel because we need to adjust the overall tones and not the color channels.
We have another histogram, but this time it has a diagonal line going through
it, and we only have two sliders below it. If you move those two sliders closer to