Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Increasing Contrast and Detail

So far, we've learned that moving the curve up or down will increase or decrease the amount of ink or light used to make the image. Now let's look at how changing the angle of the curve can help us. What if you had an image where the brightest area was white and the darkest area was only 25% gray? Would it be easy to see the detail in the image? I don't think so (Figure 6.34).

Figure 6.34. You can't see much detail in this image because the brightness is limited to 0%–25%. (©2005 Andy Katz)

Now think about how that image would change if we applied the curve shown in Figure 6.35. If you look closely at this curve, ...