How Good Are You With Curves?
Jan 10, 2016
Stefan Kohler
Stefan Kohler is a full-time retoucher. He’s from Germany and likes bacon. In the last years, he built up a broad community around his retouching classes at the Infinite tool’s website.
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Curves are somewhat of a panacea when it comes to Photoshop adjustment layers. With curves you can do pretty much anything you can do with the other adjustment layers: contrast, color correction, apply looks… One could argue that you can virtually eliminate all other Photoshop features, as long as keep curves and masks.
Of course, you would need to understand curves and one way to understand them is to try and read a curve chart and understand its implications on an image. Of course, this is fairly easy when you are only adding a bit of contrast or luminescence, but once you start using it for color, it is a whole different ballgame. But its worth it: the better you are in reverse engineering Curves, the more you know what you can (and want) to get out of them. Plus you would instantly know how ot apply a certain look (or how a look was applied)
This is why we made a few examples, and put together a small, fun, but definitely not simple quiz. If you end with a 100% score, you will be rewarded with standing ovations and bragging rights. And trust me, if you end up with a high score you WANT to brag, chances are non of your friends will make a perfect score… (we tried to make it not so hard to where you would need a calibrated monitor, if you get curves, you should be able to do it)
If you have absolutely no clue what those curves thingies are, then stop here and let us know in the comments, we will make a curves 101 tutorial for you, and a super-deep tutorial. Hit the jump if you think you have what it takes.
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Which of the following Curves was used here?
Correct!
Wrong!
Can you guess which Curves were used in these Photoshop edits?
Looks like you still have some learning to do.
You know a thing or two about Curves, but there’s still room for improvement.
Hey, you’re pretty good at Curves!
Congrats, your knowledge of Curves is flawless!
Share your Results:
Done? if you scored anything less than 100% you should read our curves adjustment layers tutorial, if you want to dive deeper, this is probably the best color resource on the web. Go over them both and take the quiz again.
Stefan Kohler
Stefan Kohler is a full-time retoucher. He’s from Germany and likes bacon. In the last years, he built up a broad community around his retouching classes at the Infinite tool’s website.
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63 responses to “How Good Are You With Curves?”
Curves 101 please.
Teach us more about curves you can ;-)
I got 7 of 10 right JJJEYYAAH
8 / 10
I thought I knew what I was doing, seems I need a hug and a 101 in colours.
more curves info required please
3/10. ? Curves 101 please.
A Jedi master
I thought I know curves very well. Now I know I know probly 50% of it. Please teach us more about curves. 101 pl
There are errors. Mainly the red dot turning into magenta is because of lifting blues. Not greens.
9/10
Did really bad… Need that 101 NOW!!!
I would love to see a 101 course on curves. Thank you.
i would love to see a curves tutorial. i really dont understand or use them
4/10 and i guesses on all of them
101 me please!
curves tutorial would be great!
7/10 score but i want to learn more about curves, somplease a 101
A curves tutorial would be awesome!
101 curves please
+1 on a curves tutorial. I didn’t do well on this quiz ;)
101 curves would be amazing
Curves 101 please.(Y)
I failed badly…. Curves 101, please!
Arnold Loli
6/10 and I have no idea about curves..
Be totally down with a Curves 101 lesson.
3/10 i need tutorial
Definitely need a tutorial!
I got 7 of 10 right following some logic. 101 curves please.
Curves 101 please! My score is too embarrassing to mention here :)
Oh please please please… Curves 101!! :)
+1 to the tutorial…tough one
I got 1 out of 10 for the record
2/10 … woefully need that Curves 101.
10/10
But I have a red/green deficiency, so it took me a while!
10/10, but it was not simple! I wrote an entire book on adjustment layers, and just published an article on curves in Photoshop User, and I *still* was sweating this one :)
Please
5 of 10 with 5 very lucky guesses. Tutorial, please!!
I cried… But I’m a photojournalist, I only do very, very minimal editing (just some levels/brightness contrats) and hardly ever touch curves. At least, that’s MY excuse :P )
6/10 but mostly guessing. Tute please…
Yes, please send curves 101
Yep, need that tutorial…..
Yes, please send curves 101
Ok I would appreciate a copy of Curves 101. That was tough!!
I need curve 101.
Definitely need curves 101
2/10 and I thought I was ok at that! Wow, clearly not.
Well, I need 101 curve right now…
Curves 101 would be awesome. Looking forward to it
I thought I was good…! 5/10!! :( Really funny this article, more like this please!!
Curves 101 please, I’m not good with curves. Literally guessed and got 3 right.
Half right guess I need to brush up on my curves.
Would love a curves 101
Curves 101 please. I got 7/10 but I wasn’t sure for many of my choice.
Interesting, but I keep getting it wrong and can’t work out why because the next one appears before I can learn
I haven’t got the slighest clue what curves are about, still 4/10 right which is slighty better than casino odds. Would like a curves 101.
A very nice quiz. Keeping the brain cells alive. Thanks a lot, Stefan!
Curves 101 please!
9/10… still wanting to improve. Here’s the stupid thing, I’m a techno-nerd that’s good at this basic color stuff but not that great at taking a good picture.
5/10 but I think some of them were lucky guesses. I’d love to see a curves 101 tutorial.
5/10 and was only certain about 3 of them. Can’t wait for that 101 course. Great test, thanks for the self-embarrassing lesson.
Holy crapola. !! I thought I knew something of curves
Curve 101, 201, 301 please! I did get 5/10! I could have gotten more with one odd lucky guess@