This is how you use the TONE CURVE | Lightroom Masterclass EP. 03

Ever wondered what the Tone Curve is? With this #Lightroom Masterclass video we will go into the details fo this very powerful tool!

You can get the raw files I used in this Video here to follow along the tutorial:

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Thank you for watching my video!
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0:00 Intro
The Tone Curve tool in Lightroom is a powerful feature that allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast of your images in a precise and controlled way. It provides a visual representation of the tonal values in your photo, and you can use it to create a wide range of effects, from adding depth and dimension to your images to giving them a vintage or film-like look.

The Tone Curve is made up of a graph with a diagonal line running from the bottom left corner to the top right corner. On the X axis we have the tones: Starting with the shadows on the left, the mid-tones in the center all the way up to the highlights. The Y Axis shows the brightness of different points.

By clicking and dragging on the line, you can adjust the brightness and contrast of specific areas of your photo. If you drag the curve up, you increase the brightness and decrease the contrast in that part of the image. If you drag the curve down, you decrease the brightness and increase the contrast.

In addition to the basic tone curve adjustments, you can also use it to create targeted adjustments to specific colors. By selecting the red, green or blue color channels at the top of the panel, you can adjust the tonal values of individual color ranges in your image.

In General the tone curve is used to fine-tune contrast and or colors which means, it is best used at some point after the basic adjustments. For this image for example, I already tweaked a few things here and there including a bit of masking!

1:51 Tone Curve Panel
2:05 Parametric Curve
4:00 Point Curve
6:56 RGB Curves

[gregfisher]

Christian, I have been sweating the tool in light room as we say in the states. Your explanation is best I have come across. thank you sharing this . I will need to practice and get comfortable using the tone curve.

[patrickmcsweeney]

Great series for all users, new or experienced. Thank you for your efforts Christian

[Nicolas_SAVIGNAT]

Thank you for these explanations, this masterclass is very interesting, I can't wait to see what happens next

[sjcproductionsandmedia]

I just figured out the huge secret everyone is using to make their pics better and I am kicking myself

[Hsukhaybir]

Very nice .. it looks like it’s more prices way to deal with shadow and highlights .. but when it come to colors, like blue or red channels .. what’s the difference between using these or using color grading to adjust the colors of shadow highlights ? Thank you

[Photographer]

Can you help explain my issue ~ If I lock the Curve at various points using the Point Curve, switching to the Parametric Curve I can adjust the entire curve. When I go back to the point curve, my location markers are still locked. Is there a dominant curve?