Using the Photoshop Curves Tool

The Photoshop curves tool is perhaps the most powerful and flexible image transformation, yet it may also be one of the most intimidating. Since photographers effectively paint with light, curves is central to their practice because it affects light's two primary influences: tones and contrast. Tonal curves are also what give different film types their unique character, so understanding how they work allows one to mimic any film — without ever having to retake the photograph. Similar to Photoshop levels, the curves tool can take input tones and selectively stretch or compress them. If you follow two spaced input tones, note that their separation becomes stretched as the slope of the curve increases, whereas tones get compressed when the slope decreases (compared to the original diagonal line). Note: curves and histograms shown above are applied to and shown for luminosity (not RGB) The curves shown above are two of the most common: the "S-curve" and "inverted S-curve." Inverted S-Curve

10 Best Documentary Movies About Photography & Photographers « Quintin Lake Architectural Photography Blog The last few years have some tremendously good documentary movies about photography and photographers released on DVD. Here’s my pick of the best 10. Click on the cover to see the film in Amazon.co.uk: Visual Acoustics: Modernism of Julius Shulman [2010] Essential if you are interested in one of the masters of architectural photography or modernism in LA from the Case study Houses onwards. Very poignant to see Shulman’s archive been shipped to the Getty centre a year before he passed away. Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye [2006] If you are a cartier-Bresson fan like me this is a real treat and goes well beyond the surface in exploring his his oeuvre and plenty of interviews of the man himself discussing his iconic and lesser known work. The Genius of Photography [2007] The best filmed introduction to the magic of photography. War Photographer [2002] Manufactured Landscapes [2006] Follows Edward Burtynsky at work in China and Bangladesh and the USA. Like this: Like Loading...

The Book Shelf Long before I started blogging, and around when I picked up photography I read books. In the beginning I read almost any photography book I could put my hand on, and as time progresses I got more picky. I intend to maintain this list and link to it from the main page for your reference. Below you will find my favorite reads, the books that helped me learn how to light, how to approach a portrait and that a photograph is more than a combination of aperture and shutter speed. Technique Here I listed my favorite books about “how to photograph”, those books are the ones that I feel had the greatest impact on me in term of learning how to use the camera, lights, and myself as photography tools. Light: Science and Magic is probably the best lighting theory book in the world. It focuses mainly on the technical aspects of lighting so it is a very good read if you are looking on how to solve complex lighting issues. There is a full review about this book here, titled the best photography book ever.