FUNDAMENTALShttp://www.digitalcameraworld.com JUNE 2019 DIGITAL CAMERA^79
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Enter the Point Curve
Open your photo and go to the Tone Curve. By default this is
set to the Parametric Curve: click on the small curve icon in the
bottom right of the panel to change to the Point Curve. Either
grab the endpoints to move them, or drag on the curve. Drag
up to lighten the corresponding tones in the photo, or down
to darken them. To swap from doing contrast curves, click
on RGB in Channel and choose from Red, Green or Blue.3
Play with colours
Each colour channel increases the amount of that colour as
you drag up in the channel, but decreasing acts to add the
complementary colour. In the Blue channel, I’ve made the image
warmer (more yellow) by pulling the top-right corner point down.
With the Red Channel, pulling the bottom-left point in towards
the right increases the cyan in the shadows. A little bump of
a point in the highlights adds red to the highlights. In this
case I opt not to change the green/magenta balance.2
Fade the photo
Drag the bottom-left point of the curve upwards. Be careful not
add another point just yet. Dragging up the bottom-left point
will fade the entire photo. This is a little too much, though – so
add another point in the centre of the curve and drag it back to
the middle of the curve, so only the darker parts are affected.
To increase the contrast, add a third point about a quarter
of the way in from the right, and drag up.4
Add retro effects
Go to the Effect panel, and go to the Grain section. You’ll be
best served zooming in to see the results better. With this photo
I’ve gone for Amount 36 to make the effect reasonably visible.
Adding grain adds highlights in the photos, but also reduces
sharpness. Size controls the size of the individual grains.
I’ve opted for larger than the default at 47. I’ve pulled back
marginally on roughness, which makes for more random
grain. It’s like increasing or decreasing the film’s ISO.