pressing alt while adjusting either levels or curves shows you the extreme whites and black points. This is handy for finding them. In addition setting the levels or the curves to luminosity only effects the darks and the whites without adjusting the colors
If you have problem memorizing the opposite of RGBs colors you can write down below CMYK and then you have (taking out K what is blaK) taht R corresponds to C, G corresponds to M and B corresponds to Y. I hope this helps someone
For those of you new to PS or photoediting, this is one of the better instructors to learn from. It used to be Mark Johnson, but he took his full lessons off youtube for some reason ($$).
Thanks so much for your tut. I've been using PS for 20+ years but never understood how to use curves. (I used levels first normally, and then went to color filter, saturation, color balance, etc. as needed.) I kicked my PS CS2 to the curb a couple of days ago and am now using PS CC. Having a blast! Now I can start working on mastering the power of curves.
For as long as I have used Photoshop, no one has ever attempted to discuss the differences, that I have seen. Thank you! By the way, I like you with the long hair! LOL Su
Thanks for showing a few extra things I didn't know on curves. I use levels mostly when adjusting blacks and who's only, I used curves mostly for adjusting colors. But that 50% gray was pretty clever idea. Thanks.
jelly belly buttered popcorn is my fave.... Thank you so much for this video... I have never used either of these, because I found them both to be intimidating
the best sentence of the all video is starting at 11:56 to 12:01... "I want to bring it over to you, you can tell me, you can learn me...ah,,,You can Phlearn me..ooo-oooh" LMFAO...Aaron...that's your best line EVER!!!!
When you mention moving the black slider in levels for printing, you should probably also move the white slider. All you are doing with the black slider is reducing the amount of dark ink so it doesn't all blur into a brown mess. The same can be true with the white slider, if you have areas in your photo with zero ink (c=0m=0y=0k=0) you should move the white slider left to add information so it prints properly.
I remember when you guys had like a thousands subs. Holy cow have you grown. It's amazing to see you making a business out of this. :) loved your tutorials since i first saw you ages ago. Glad its working out for you, take care:)
I normally use levels but i use a threshold layer to see the high points, and to get the grey I normally pop a new layer in with 50% grey on it then set the transparency to difference then use the threshold and and color sampler tool to pinpoint the grey. However this method doesn't always work as your picking the closest thing to a 50% grey.
This video popped up when I did a search for Pascal Dangin. Your videos have been hugely informative for me over the years (I've gotten some of the videos from Phlearn, and I've won one through your contests). What's the difference between someone like you and Pascal? That might sound ridiculous, but I'm just a photographer and not really a retoucher, so I'm always curious. Thanks for all the awesome content.
Always been a levels guy myself. I use curves :: sigh :: but even after decades within Photoshop Levels is still my go-to adjustment :P Levels has such a craftsman like feel to them. You can very accurately get the job done for adjustments.... with curves I always feel the urge to creatively tinker with things... and usually that's the opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish under a deadline. That said, they are wonderfully flexible!
I would love to know more about the adjustments for printing, as you said; "This adjustment makes your print not so nasty." Can you do a show on adjustments for printing? Love all of the info. You go so fast sometimes I have to "re-wind" the video to get it. (Yes I know there's no tape to rewind). Thanks. Steve Bullock
Levels ought to exist in freeware image viewers instead of the common brightness & contrast, which are much more difficult to visualise. It used to be that you could only see the histogram in Levels, and had to remember it for the Curves window. Also it was easy to slip your hand by a few pixels in Curves, and inadvertently adjust the output level, to where, say, whites are at at 253 and not notice, so Levels was quicker and safer to use to do the same function. I guess now it's a habit to use them. Still I wish the curves window was bigger, because small movements of the mouse make a relatively large impact; the sane range of the points is only around the starting diagonal line, and not the whole square.
Aaron! Just wanted to say thank you for all the years of dedication and help! You have really helped me grow as both a photographer and a retoucher, inspiring me to get up and go to school for Creative Photography. Just a quick question about curves and levels. On both adjustment layers you can make your shadows darker, shadows lighter, highlights darker, and highlights lighter. BUT if I'm on a colour channel within levels or curves (for example RED), I can only add Red to the shadows while making them lighter. If I want to make them darker, I have to add cyan to them. The same goes for highlights----I cannot make my highlights darker while adding red to them, I have to add cyan when doing this. This goes for all the other colour channels as well within levels and curves. I hope you know what I'm trying to say. What am I missing here? Should I just be using selective color or another adjustment layer? All the best! Taylor ps. check out my website: www.thetokenphoto.com (would love to intern for you someday!)
I haven't seen the video yet, but damn, your voice sounds nice on that AT2020, and the room is giving it some beautiful color and reverb. I didn't really like the 2020 but now I'm gonna take another look at it!
It's uncle Ben. I saw an amateur comedy skit of spider man in the grocery store staring at the Uncle Ben's Rice and having a moment. He looked like he was having a real moment 😂
have yet to watch the ep but something I have been playing around with is the pen tool available on the curves layer adjustment, what is it's real use because I have been making all sorts of funky colours and patterns when I set up lines with the pen on the chart?
I'm sorry I didn't find your tutorials a little sooner :| You're awesome man, keep it up :D And ya, Ben was kind of a spoiler...but I can live with that :) Aight cheers, and thank you for the great tutorials you make :D
The tut was awesome! the Guy was awesome But didn't anyone notice the Freaky ass Chick in the picture pulling a head twist straight out of the exorcist!?!
When he put the gray circle on the image, he adjusted the gray circle to 50%. I thought for color balance, we are to use 18% gray? Wonder why he used 50% instead?
This is really a white balance or colour balance. It is said that you need to shoot on a professional colour balance card to guarantee neutral grey ( no tint) which you might not get if you printed it yourself. Also, the paper you priint it on might not reflect true neutral grey. Perhaps it needs to be specific percentage for adobe, but it just needs to be neutral. So anything up to 50% grey or more will give the same result. Why it doesnt work when using software to put 50% grey in an area is that the grey will be neutral from the pc. Nothing has had the chance to corrupt its colour - or lack of it. The whole point of having a sample photo shot with card is to give reference to the software and compensate for lighting. For example, a colourful room may influene the colour of the neutral grey & your subject. Fluorescent light will cast a green light on the subject. This was a very fine tutorial.
He had a girlfriend that mostly all of you commenting guys here won't ever say hello to... By the way, he got what he was looking for, your attention and traffic. Well done Aaron, I like when you're serious, but it's ok to do some show sometimes. ;)
I didn't get a single thing... my mind couldn't get past the pain of that neck twist. It was quite disturbing... Just kidding. Very interesting tutorial!!
I seriously had trouble watching this video because of the photo choice. The model looks like something out of the walking dead with her spine and neck contortion!! Other than that, great tutorial as usual.
It's amazing that people complain about FREE lessons/information on anything.
pressing alt while adjusting either levels or curves shows you the extreme whites and black points. This is handy for finding them. In addition setting the levels or the curves to luminosity only effects the darks and the whites without adjusting the colors
If you have problem memorizing the opposite of RGBs colors you can write down below CMYK and then you have (taking out K what is blaK) taht R corresponds to C, G corresponds to M and B corresponds to Y. I hope this helps someone
For those of you new to PS or photoediting, this is one of the better instructors to learn from. It used to be Mark Johnson, but he took his full lessons off youtube for some reason ($$).
I could watch you all day - best presenter ever, thanks!
At last, finally i see the difference between Curves and Levels, very useful. Thanks.
Omg you're so funny! Hahahaha. Finally I have learned the difference! I FEEL MUCH MORE SMARTER NOW. *o* Thank you so much for this video!!
This guy is like Lou Reed when he was younger. This channel rocks!
You save my life with these tutorials and also puts me ahead of my class when I go to school. Can't thank you enough!
Definitely found a way to blend an image of a person into a sci fi or fantasy background. Thanks, Aaron.
the most phlearny of all your videos, this made curves and levels click for me. I now understand all of your other videos that much more. thanks!
Thanks so much for your tut. I've been using PS for 20+ years but never understood how to use curves. (I used levels first normally, and then went to color filter, saturation, color balance, etc. as needed.) I kicked my PS CS2 to the curb a couple of days ago and am now using PS CC. Having a blast! Now I can start working on mastering the power of curves.
+whitewaterwoman I'm the same. been using PS since 90s and didn't know the difference between curves and levels until now:)
For as long as I have used Photoshop, no one has ever attempted to discuss the differences, that I have seen. Thank you!
By the way, I like you with the long hair! LOL
Su
guys i hope you keep making them vids coz they're awesome. so detailed and so useful. thanx alot!
Aaron is soo cute .. its always a treat to learn and enjoy at the same time..
Thanks for showing a few extra things I didn't know on curves. I use levels mostly when adjusting blacks and who's only, I used curves mostly for adjusting colors. But that 50% gray was pretty clever idea. Thanks.
jelly belly buttered popcorn is my fave....
Thank you so much for this video... I have never used either of these, because I found them both to be intimidating
Thanks for the tutorial; I've been meaning to understand curves for years! Phlearning something new every day
Your tutorials are fr-----g amazing! never phlearned so much before
the best sentence of the all video is starting at 11:56 to 12:01... "I want to bring it over to you, you can tell me, you can learn me...ah,,,You can Phlearn me..ooo-oooh" LMFAO...Aaron...that's your best line EVER!!!!
I want to let you know all it took was the way you did the intro for me to decide i was subscribing :)
Wow, was this useful! You really know how to nail the important practical points.
When you mention moving the black slider in levels for printing, you should probably also move the white slider.
All you are doing with the black slider is reducing the amount of dark ink so it doesn't all blur into a brown mess.
The same can be true with the white slider, if you have areas in your photo with zero ink (c=0m=0y=0k=0) you should move the white slider left to add information so it prints properly.
I remember when you guys had like a thousands subs. Holy cow have you grown. It's amazing to see you making a business out of this. :) loved your tutorials since i first saw you ages ago. Glad its working out for you, take care:)
Great explanation! Every other video was SOO confusing. Thank you!
This tutorial made me the most happiest Man alive, I can come up with a SLEW of possibilities for composites, ERMAHGERD
i am karim from Bangladesh. your photoshop class is amagin.
excellent presentation and professionally done. The humour helps keep such a boring topic fun to watch.
Oh, this looks like it's going to be a light-hearted, fun and informative epis... 1:24 OH DEAR GOD KILL IT WITH FIRE.
I'm totally phlearned by your tutorials!
Aaron was so funny in the past wow :D he should be like this today :D
2 years later and my question is how can you are so attractive?
Greetings from Canada. A wonderful channel by the way ;)
Now I'll be able to use curves and levels a lot more often, finally. Thank you Aaron =)
Thank you very much Aaron! Great tips, i would have never guessed them alone!
Great Tutorial Aaron , helped me a LOT !!...
In other words, Levels is an inferior version of Curves, that's how I have always thought about it, and Aaron confirmed it indirectly.
I normally use levels but i use a threshold layer to see the high points, and to get the grey I normally pop a new layer in with 50% grey on it then set the transparency to difference then use the threshold and and color sampler tool to pinpoint the grey. However this method doesn't always work as your picking the closest thing to a 50% grey.
This video popped up when I did a search for Pascal Dangin. Your videos have been hugely informative for me over the years (I've gotten some of the videos from Phlearn, and I've won one through your contests). What's the difference between someone like you and Pascal? That might sound ridiculous, but I'm just a photographer and not really a retoucher, so I'm always curious. Thanks for all the awesome content.
Always been a levels guy myself. I use curves :: sigh :: but even after decades within Photoshop Levels is still my go-to adjustment :P Levels has such a craftsman like feel to them. You can very accurately get the job done for adjustments.... with curves I always feel the urge to creatively tinker with things... and usually that's the opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish under a deadline. That said, they are wonderfully flexible!
I would love to know more about the adjustments for printing, as you said; "This adjustment makes your print not so nasty."
Can you do a show on adjustments for printing? Love all of the info. You go so fast sometimes I have to "re-wind" the video to get it. (Yes I know there's no tape to rewind).
Thanks.
Steve Bullock
Very useful thank you!, didn't know all those little features :)
I like the grass jelly bellies :) great vid!
fun learning! thank you!
Thanks for explaining the difference between levels and curves! I don't know if you're a dad but you are really good at corny dad jokes!
Loooove the way you explain the tutorials.
Levels ought to exist in freeware image viewers instead of the common brightness & contrast, which are much more difficult to visualise. It used to be that you could only see the histogram in Levels, and had to remember it for the Curves window. Also it was easy to slip your hand by a few pixels in Curves, and inadvertently adjust the output level, to where, say, whites are at at 253 and not notice, so Levels was quicker and safer to use to do the same function. I guess now it's a habit to use them. Still I wish the curves window was bigger, because small movements of the mouse make a relatively large impact; the sane range of the points is only around the starting diagonal line, and not the whole square.
Thanks Aaron, another great video. HOW did you create that image? I have the perfect subject and would LOVE to try this look!!
Love the style of the tutorial! I'M NEW PHLEARN FAN!!
Great video, learned a lot, thank you.
Great tutorial! thanks for sharing
Aaron! Just wanted to say thank you for all the years of dedication and help! You have really helped me grow as both a photographer and a retoucher, inspiring me to get up and go to school for Creative Photography.
Just a quick question about curves and levels. On both adjustment layers you can make your shadows darker, shadows lighter, highlights darker, and highlights lighter. BUT if I'm on a colour channel within levels or curves (for example RED), I can only add Red to the shadows while making them lighter. If I want to make them darker, I have to add cyan to them. The same goes for highlights----I cannot make my highlights darker while adding red to them, I have to add cyan when doing this. This goes for all the other colour channels as well within levels and curves. I hope you know what I'm trying to say. What am I missing here? Should I just be using selective color or another adjustment layer?
All the best!
Taylor
ps. check out my website: www.thetokenphoto.com (would love to intern for you someday!)
I haven't seen the video yet, but damn, your voice sounds nice on that AT2020, and the room is giving it some beautiful color and reverb. I didn't really like the 2020 but now I'm gonna take another look at it!
Thank you. very useful !
Where can I find the part 2 video (1:19) ?
When I saw the image you're using for the first time I was like WTF lol nice tutorial man!
It's uncle Ben. I saw an amateur comedy skit of spider man in the grocery store staring at the Uncle Ben's Rice and having a moment. He looked like he was having a real moment 😂
have yet to watch the ep but something I have been playing around with is the pen tool available on the curves layer adjustment, what is it's real use because I have been making all sorts of funky colours and patterns when I set up lines with the pen on the chart?
Thanks! amazing job here!
Need help! Can I buy ASUS ROG for medium level VFX? or is there any other better? Kindly suggest
Great teacher thanks
nice mic, and nice handy info, thanks.
Great tutorial!
.... you look better with short hair. :) Thank you for this great video!
thank you, thank you, thank you so much!
I am very happy when I see your face!
OMG THIS IS AWESOME!!!!
Thanks buddy! Helped a bunch :-)
you make me happy
long time follower! keep at it! great shots ,, great vids by all! i wish i could get a review by phlearn of my work!
I was like expecting an explanation about the girls neck ???¿
I know right!
@@RodLandaeta She is an owl in disguise :)
Does anyone know of a way to have linear points using curves, so as to create a cartoon effect?
Great tutorial ***** !
I'm sorry I didn't find your tutorials a little sooner :| You're awesome man, keep it up :D And ya, Ben was kind of a spoiler...but I can live with that :) Aight cheers, and thank you for the great tutorials you make :D
you are awosome man
greats from egypt :) :D
They may taste like butter popcorn, but they have an even more interesting after taste
Veery informative!
Spider Man's "Uncle Ben" was on Psychedelic drugs--I knew it!
Very informative tutorial.
good tutorial
Agreed! Aaron you are so fun! :)
why did you use a exorcisty image?
you´re the best
The tut was awesome! the Guy was awesome But didn't anyone notice the Freaky ass Chick in the picture pulling a head twist straight out of the exorcist!?!
When he put the gray circle on the image, he adjusted the gray circle to 50%. I thought for color balance, we are to use 18% gray? Wonder why he used 50% instead?
This is really a white balance or colour balance. It is said that you need to shoot on a professional colour balance card to guarantee neutral grey ( no tint) which you might not get if you printed it yourself. Also, the paper you priint it on might not reflect true neutral grey. Perhaps it needs to be specific percentage for adobe, but it just needs to be neutral. So anything up to 50% grey or more will give the same result. Why it doesnt work when using software to put 50% grey in an area is that the grey will be neutral from the pc. Nothing has had the chance to corrupt its colour - or lack of it. The whole point of having a sample photo shot with card is to give reference to the software and compensate for lighting. For example, a colourful room may influene the colour of the neutral grey & your subject. Fluorescent light will cast a green light on the subject. This was a very fine tutorial.
1)press 0
2)wait 1 second
3)repeat
Video starts at 3:45
He had a girlfriend that mostly all of you commenting guys here won't ever say hello to... By the way, he got what he was looking for, your attention and traffic. Well done Aaron, I like when you're serious, but it's ok to do some show sometimes. ;)
Oh Aaron! I have been clinging to the wrong curves.
:)) You remind me of Phil Dunphy from Modern Family. Great tutorial though!
Ben Parker & May Reilly
I didn't get a single thing... my mind couldn't get past the pain of that neck twist. It was quite disturbing...
Just kidding. Very interesting tutorial!!
That looks like a Wacom intuous he's using AI Ok, probably the most popular tablet for retouchers.
damnn thank you
I seriously had trouble watching this video because of the photo choice. The model looks like something out of the walking dead with her spine and neck contortion!! Other than that, great tutorial as usual.
Are we just going to ignore the possessed woman with her neck twisted all the way around? Is that what we're doing? 😜
Great video....but buttered popcorn is the worst.
bruh....what was you on...but thanks for the lession tho...
He was high on curves.
You coulda picked a less exorcist-esque image
i like you jocking ! LOL
Fuckin hilarious. Fantastic tutorial / lesson.
yeah, it was ben
I don't know if I love you or hate you lol