How to Color Grade in Photoshop Using Curves

In this video, we’ll look at using the curves tool to adjust and color grade your images using Photoshop. If you aren’t familiar with Photoshop color grade using curves this is the tutorial for you. First, we’ll go over the basics of using curves and then we’ll show how you can easily use curves to apply a color grade to your image here in photoshop.

Photoshop Color Grade Using Curves

In this video, we’ll look at using the curves tool to adjust and color grade your images using Photoshop. First, we’ll go over the basics of using curves. And then we’ll show you how you can easily use curves to apply a color grade to your image here in Photoshop. If you aren’t familiar with using curves, this is the tutorial for you.

How to Use Curves

So let’s start off by going over a few things about curves. This will be enough information to help you get started with curves and actually use it a lot of different ways. So here we go. So I’m going to duplicate my background layer. I’m going to make it a smart object and right-click and convert to a smart object.

There are two ways that we can use the curves tool. One way, if we come up here to image adjustments and come here to curves, or you can say Command M and brings up your curves tool and you can make your curves adjustment and say, Okay. And here on your layers panel and over here on the far right, it says indicates filter effects.

Okay. So if you click on that and you could see that your curves is a smart filter, which means if you double click on this curves filter effect right here, it brings up your curves tool. And you can make any other adjustments you want and say, okay. So what this allows you to do is keep your adjustments, your curves, or any other adjustment that you want with your layer as a smart object.

All these adjustments are smart filters. Another way that you can use the curve tools, you can come down here to your layers panel and come up here and click on curves. So now you have a curves adjustment layer. Now you have a diagonal line, and the left side here represents the dark pixels. And the right side up here at the top represents your light pixels.

So if I grabbed the black point here at the bottom and bring it up, you see, I’m getting like a faded effect. And if you moved the black point to the center, your deepening black point, and if you come up here to the top. Right. This is your white point. You moved the white point to the center. It’s going to increase the highlights and move it down.

It decreases the highlights. So these are the extremes. Extreme points over here or whitening in the extreme point over here with the black point. Right now we’re on our RGB the red, green, and blue. And if you click in the middle, you’ve created a point. If I need to go back to that point and I want to know if I’m right on the point, you can see that the cursor is going to change when it gets on the point.

If I grab on to that point, pull down I am darkening the image and still holding on to that point. If I move up, I’m increasing the lightness in the image. If I want to delete that point, I just click on that point. I would hit delete. Or if I’m on that point, if I just drag it up to the top like that or to the side, as long as I’m dragging it out completely, that will delete the point.

One thing that is done with the curves adjustment quite a bit is creating some contrast in an image. I’ll put a point about here and drag down and darken this part of the image. If I put another point up here and move it up, that’s what’s called an S-curve. And adds contrast come down here to the eye and toggle that, you’ll see the before and after adding a little bit of contrast in the image.

You can add as many points as you want and move them up or down depending on what part of the image you want to darken or lighten. I select this bottom point right here and hit plus. Every time I hit, plus it is going up this curve to each point. If I hit minus, it’ll go back down to each point that is on the curves.

That’s one way that you can move up and down the curve without selecting any of the points individually. It just cycles through all the points. If I select a point, I can use my up and down arrows to move my point, and that’s moving one position at a time. If I hit shift and my up or down arrows, I’m going ten positions up or ten positions down, that’s holding shift in up and down arrow.

I can also use my left and right arrows to move my point. I could reset this whole curve by coming down here and clicking on this arrow right here that says reset. Click on that. So now it starts from the beginning in back here you have something called the histogram and this histogram is just basically telling us what area of the image has what information or what type of information.

So there’s a lot of information in the mid-tones right about in the middle of this graph and not so much over here on the highlights. Do me a favor. Hit that like button. It really helps the channel appreciate it. With this example here. Let’s create a cinematic effect with the orange and teal look blues and teals in the dark, in the oranges, in the highlights, mainly in the skin tones.

How to Color Grade Using Curves – A Teal and Orange Example

Since we want that cinematic look, let’s add a lot of contrast here. So I want to move the black point slider to the right. We want the darkest part of the image a little darker. So let’s slide that over something like that. So now I’m going to go into the Red Channel you know and use my adjustment tool up here.

We were talking about the hand here, and I’m going to select up here in this dark area and I’m going to add a little bit of cyan. So I’m going to bring down this curve right here. Something like that. You could see my point over here in the shadows. Now I’m going to select the green channel. And again, in this dark area here, add a little bit more green.

So I’m going to move up with my adjustment or too much. We added a little bit of cyan and add a little bit of green into the shadow area. And now we’re going to go into an area that may be a little bit more neutral like this gray, these pillars over here. And I’m going to select a red shadow. And I want to add cyan so I’m going to drag down something like that.

Right about there. And now I’m going to select the Blue Channel. And up here in this neutral area, I’m going to increase blue. So I am going to move my hand here up. Okay, something like that. There’s a before or after we need to go a little bit more into the skin tones there will select the red channel and we use this tool again with the hand focus right there on her cheek.

And I’m going to bring this down to add a little bit red you’re going to select the green channel and we want to increase the magenta. So I’m going to bring this down a little bit. I’m going to select the blue channel and add a little bit more yellow here. And here’s the before and there’s the after.

Bonus Tip. How to Make Your Own LUT

So as a bonus tip, if you like the color grade, you did and you want to save that say you have several shots that are similar to this.

You can create your own LUT and use it here in Photoshop or Lightroom or even Premiere Pro. So I select my curves layer and come up here to file export color, lookup tables, and I’m going to put a description teal and orange. And here’s all the formats that you could save as I’m going to do 3DL and Cube and say Okay.

And then it’s going to ask me to save it. I’ll say teal and orange bike shoot and save it. So now in order to use it, I’m just going to go back to the beginning of my history and come down to the bottom of my layers panel, and I’m going to look for color, look up. And here at the top, it’s a load 3D LUT when I click on that, I can go to my file system, and here’s the LUT I saved, I can open it, and right away it used that LUT that I created and saved.

Warm Orange Color Grade Effect

So that’s how you would save a color grade as a LUT and you can use it in other applications also. In this example here, I want to give it a warm orange color grade effect. Then there might be a slight color grade on this already. This is a stock photo, but we’re going to change it. I’ve added one curves adjustment layer.

I’m going to take the black point right here and I’m going to bring it up. I want to give it a little bit of a faded look. We’re going to start there. I’m going to add another curves adjustment layer and this is where we’re going to actually do our color grade. We’ll start off with the Blue Channel.

You know, I’m going to select my tool right here, my hand tool in darker areas right here. I am going to drag it down to add more yellow to make the image a little bit warmer. And then to use this tool right here. Now, I’m going to use the Red Channel and with my hand tool selected right here, I want to add some more red here.

Then I’ll try and use this tool here, find somewhere that’s neutral as possible. You want to add more reds in this neutral area. So I’m going to drag up right here and then I’m going to switch to the blue channel, go back over here, find some more neutral and drag down and add more yellow. Now I’ll go into the red channel and the brighter areas in the highlights right here of his face and so

The Red Channel, I’m going to actually add red, bring this up a little bit and then I’ll go back to my blue channel. And still, in these highlight areas, I’m going to add some yellow. Now, here is the before, and here is the after. So we’ve added a warm orange color gradient effect. There’s the before and there’s the after.

If you want more tutorials like this, click on one of the videos on the screen. Now, if you haven’t already like share and subscribe and remember, it’s never too late to learn. Thanks for watching. See you in the next video.

See my photography website here ➡️ https://www.charlescabreraphotography.com

Read the previous blog article here ➡️ How to Color Correct Your Video in Adobe Premiere Pro 2022