When I do post-production work on my photos I usually always start with Curves. For this tutorial we will be using this photo of a Mojito. You can download the file here and follow along.

Curves Adjustment Layer:

There are two ways to apply curves; the first is to go to [Image]/[Adjustments]/[Curves]. This correction will be applied over the entire image; this is bad because the change is applied to the original file.

The second and much better way is called an “Adjustment Layer”, and is applied as a secondary layer and is what is called a “non-destructive change”. This type of change sits on top of the image and can be turned off if you don’t like it.

In your “Layers” window, (if you don’t see “Layers”, go to [Window]/[Layers) click on the half black, half white circle icon:

A new window will pop up that says “Adjustments”. This window will look differently in the different versions on Photoshop. This tutorial was created using CS4, but should work in previous versions.

Adjust White and Black.

On the left (bottom for CS3 and CS2 versions of Photoshop) you will see three eye droplets: Black, Grey, and White.

Click on the Black droplet; what this does is it tells Photoshop what color black actually is. So if you click it on the green, the green will become black and all the colors of the image will change in proportion to that change. I am going to click on the brown around the brown. This will make that brown color darker. On the images below, the right is before and the left is after; the red circle is approximately where I am clicking.

If you make a mistake, or don’t like the color shift, you can press [CTRL]+[Z] to undo and try it again.

White

For the White, I am going to choose one of the brighter spots on the ice:

Adjust Grey

For Grey, we will create a second adjustment layer. The reason I want to have grey on its own layer is because when I click with grey, whatever color is below it will lose its saturation. Although this is what I want, I don’t want to do it to the whole image. With our second adjustment layer, and the grey droplet selected, click on the background.

Masks

Now, you will notice that I lost a lot of the yellow and brown from the glass, I want to bring this back, and since it is on an adjustment layer, I can. Your layers should look something like this:

Next to the word “Curves” there is a square box, click it. This box is the mask for the adjustment layer, and it represents what can be shown on the layer and what can’t. The color white, indicates that it can be seen, black is hidden.

Grab the paintbrush from your pallet and select “black” as your foreground color. For your brush, select a size of 200px and a harness of 0%:

Now with the brush paint over the glass with black to bring back the color:

Notice how the color is coming back where you have painted. In your layers section you will laos notice that the mask has a small representation of what you have done:

On the mask, the black indicates that that part of the adjustment layer is not being applied to the composition, whereas the white is.

Final:

Tags: adjustment layers, curves, photoshop