- Click and drag an area on the elephant’s forehead. Our pachy-
derm has some highlight areas in her forehead that will serve as
good sample areas for reducing the brightest levels in the image.
Hover your cursor over the forehead indicated in Figure 6-33.
You can wiggle your cursor around to find an area similar to
mine. Keep an eye on the Input value; when it reads very close
to 235, click to add a point to the curve. Then drag downward
until the Output value reads 220. You’ll notice an overall dark-
ening of the image as all the values that are 235 and brighter
are pulled downward by the curve.
Figure 6-33.- Click a shadow area and drag it upward. Click an area in the
elephant’s belly that has an Input value of around 25, and this
time drag upward until the Output value reads 35. You’ll no-
tice in Figure 6-34 on the facing page that this places a point
on the curve in the lower-left quadrant and bends the curve
into a subtle backward S shape. It also has the overall effect of
lightening the shadows.
You don’t need to click in the exact spots with the exact values I’ve used. And
if you can’t find those spots, you can always create points (with the targeted
adjustment tool or the pencil tool) and move the points into place on the
curve by clicking in the Output or Input value boxes and manipulating them
manually, either by typing numbers or by using the � or � key.208 Lesson 6: Adjusting Color and Luminance