Camera Raw: How To Use The Parametric & Point Curves
https://www.shutterbuggs.com/ - In this video, we’re going to dive in and explore the Tone Curve Panel. So if we go to our Panel Options at the top here, you’ll notice that it’s the second in from the left. If we click on it, you should see two different tabs, the first being parametric and the second being point. So these are two curve editors. Now, they both have similar capabilities although their usability is vastly different. And when choosing which one to use, your decision will primarily come down to two things: the ease of use or the precision and accuracy of your adjustments.
So let’s now dive in and take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of each. Now the parametric curve has a simple interface to allow for quick adjustments to your highlights, lights, darks, and shadows. Now the effectiveness of each one of these controls is further enhanced by the range slider, which is located at the bottom of the curve itself. And you’ll notice there are three there. There’s one at 25, one at level 50, and one at level 75. Now the range sliders themselves allow you to be able to expand and track the adjustments that you made to the individual sliders that are below. Now when making these adjustments, you need to learn to associate the highlights, lights, darks, and shadows with its particular range slider.
Now if you don’t, the range sliders won’t actually work until you have actually entered a value into one of these sliders here. So, for example, if I was to go and actually make an adjustment to the range sliders at the moment, you’ll notice nothing will actually happen, and that’s primarily because they make adjustments to the values you enter into the highlights, lights, darks, and shadows. So now if I just reset these back to where they were, let’s take a look at exactly what I’m talking about. So to start off with, first you’ll notice that the curve itself is broken up into 16 grids. The easiest way to understand which one of these range sliders is associated to the adjustments below is to break up the grid into four columns, like so.
So on the left-hand side, you have the shadows, and that is primarily affected by the first slider on the left and the mid-tone slider. Next you have the darks, so this would be the darks column, and that is only affected by the mid-tone slider. Next you have the lights in this column, and that is only affected by the mid-tone slider. And finally, you have the highlights column, which is affected by the highlights slider and the mid-tone slider. So to give you an example of what I’m talking about, if I were to add balance and values into the highlights, you’ll notice up here that the actual curve has been adjusted and changed. And now if I were to grab the range slider that is in between the highlights and the lights, you’ll notice that as I go across to the right, it pulls in that curve adjustment. And as I go across the left, it pushes out that adjustment.
Now what I mentioned before, you can actually also use the mid-tone slider for the highlights. As you can see here, it’s making an adjustment to sort of the lighter areas of your highlights and mid-tone areas. So that will also make an adjustment. The actual shadows, dark and mid-tone areas won’t actually have any affects on the highlights whatsoever. Now in comparison, if we were to add an adjustment to the lights, for example, as you can see there, only the mid-tone range slider will actually affect that adjustment by expanding and contracting the actual curve that you’ve set.
It won’t actually be affected by the highlights. As you can see here, when I move the range slider, nothing is happening, and it won’t be affected when I move the shadows range slider as you can see here. So both the lights and the darks are the same. So because they’re sitting in the actual mid-tone range of the actual curve and histogram values that you can see here, they’re only affected by the mid-tone slider.
And finally, we have the shadows. The shadows themselves, they’re actually going to be affected by both the shadows range slider, as you can see here, expand and contract, and also the mid-tone slider once again here.
And also you’ll notice, if you push the sliders across, they’ll actually push each other which is quite funny. So that’s primarily the parametric curve. It is quite useful if you’ve never used curves before, and you’re not quite sure how to make your adjustments to your image. It is actually quite limiting, though, because you don’t have as fine control as the point curve adjustment, which I am about to get into now. But it is extremely quick if you did want to make adjustments, and you’ve just got to get use to using those range sliders and how they actually affect the values that you’ve entered into the highlights, lights, darks, and shadows.
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