Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Step Five:
There's another way to adjust contrast
using the tone curve, but before we get to
that, click on the little Point Curve button
(shown circled here) to reveal the curve
sliders again. Each slider represents part
of the curve, so if you don't like the idea of
dragging the curve, you can drag the sliders
instead (as shown here, where I'm adjusting
the Shadows. More on this, though, in Step
Seven). Besides using the sliders, you can
also use the Targeted Adjustment tool (or
TAT, for shor t). The TAT is that little round
target-looking icon in the top-left corner of
the Tone Curve panel (also shown circled
here in red). It lets you click-and-drag (up
or down) directly on your image, and ad-
justs the curve for the part you're clicking
on. The crosshair part is actually where
the tool is located (as shown on the left)—
the target with the triangles is there just
to remind you which way to drag the tool,
which (as you can see from the triangles) is
up and down.
Step Six:
Now, let's put it to use. First, reset the Point
Curve pop-up menu to Strong Contrast.
Then, take the TAT and move it over your
photo (I put it over the ship in the bot-
tom-right corner, because I want that area
to be darker). Look at the tone curve and
you'll see two things: (1) there's a point
on the curve where the tones you're hover-
ing over are located, and (2) the name of
the area you'll be adjusting appears at the
bottom of the graph (in this case, it says
Shadows). Now, click-and-drag (as shown
here) straight downward (if you drag
straight upward, it brightens the ship in-
stead). You can move around your image
and click-and-drag straight upward to
adjust the curve to brighten those areas,
and drag straight downward to have the
curve darken those areas. When you're
done, click the TAT back where you found
it. By the way, the keyboard shortcut to
get the TAT is
Command-Option-Shift-T
(PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-T)
.
Continued
