Adobe® Photoshop® CS2 Studio Techniques

Color Is Different

The concepts and adjustments we talk about with Curves apply equally to grayscale and color images. But when you work on a color image, you have to be more careful; otherwise, you might end up shifting the colors, rather than just the brightness, of your image. There are two ways to apply Curves to your image, and therefore two methods for limiting its effect on the brightness of a color image. First, you can apply Curves to the currently active layer by choosing Image > Adjustments > Curves. Immediately after applying Curves, you can choose Edit > Fade Curves and set the Mode pop-up menu to Luminosity (Figure 6.64). The Fade command will limit the last change you made (Curves, in our case) to changing only the brightness ...