Understanding the Tone Curve in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop

➡ Landscape AI v3 Adaptive Presets: bit.ly/landscape-ai-yt
The tone curve is one of the most under-utilized tools in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Rather than skip over it, check out this video and get a deeper understanding of how powerful it is and how it can do wonders with your photos.

[@alanm.6096]

Thanks for your efforts Brian. LR and PS can seem more complicated than they need to be, because you can achieve the same result using different approaches. Both softwares really require you to experiment and practise. Some might ask if you can get the same results using the basic and HSL panels, for example. Some would say the tone curve is the fine tuning done after using the basic panel. And, of course, most will realize there is an advantage to using the point curve instead of the tone curve sliders. Start-to-finish examples are superb for learning. Thanks again.

[@brianmatiash]

I appreciate the thoughtful comment, Alan. And you’re totally right: there are so many different ways to get to the same, or very similar, finish line when it comes to editing a photo. Ultimately, I think it’s most important to know as many of the routes as possible so that you can choose intelligently and base it on what works best for you.

[@joepagan1877]

The best S Curve Tutorial I have watched yet!

[@galestonerimages]

Finally, finally I understand how to use the Tone Curve in Lightroom Classic. Brian, you are a fantastic instructor and this video is an example of that. Thanks for sharing!

[@eddiebond2941]

Super informative video , I always struggle with the tone curve and quite often just undo what I've done and leave it flat. This has really helped me .

[@bowtieboy31akajerryimpola22]

I have 2 more hidden tricks using the control and the alt key When you are doing curves. If you hold down the alt key, it will go a lot slower and you have more control over the curves.Up and down Another trick I've found is if you hold down the control key and you go to move a slider. It goes a lot slower and you have more control over it. Just thought I would share something I found

[@valleyfella]

I’m new to your channel Brian. This is one of the most helpful videos I’ve watched in a long while. Thanks.

[@brianmatiash]

Woohoo! Welcome to the channel and thank you for that very kind compliment! I hope you continue to enjoy my videos.

[@AnandSriraman]

This is the best explanation of the tone curve I've found so far. Had been struggling to understand it. Thanks for the insightful video!

[@JoeHudspeth]

Out of the park, you have hit it. Thanks Brian.

[@jackmiller3293]

Finally, some light on the tone curve for me. Thanks mate. Love your work.

[@paulnyger2817]

Thank you Brian for this amazing tips & tricks! Very clear explanation!!!

[@michealpociecha8351]

Thanks a bunch. I feel like I’m finally understanding the tone curve and how it works. Great video.

[@RLopez-qr9td]

This is the first time I watched one of your videos and I was impressed how you've taken what can be a complex tool and clearly explained the functions and advantages. Thank you.

[@brianmatiash]

You’re very welcome! I’m glad you found the video helpful!

[@JillClardy]

Very useful; I have played around with Tone Curve before but didn't really understand what I was doing - now I do !

[@ErVladi]

Great Job Brian👍

[@RepSpartaRP]

Finally someone that EXPLAINS, not only shows what it does!

[@MultiFresh82]

This video was perfect for my brain. Definitely going to utilize these steps to edits my images. Thank you!

[@robertgouldphotography]

Outstanding explanation of something I have never really understood before.

[@brianmatiash]

That’s what I like to hear!

[@ivssatish]

You just demystified something that’s always been a vague for me. Luv ur teaching style❤❤

[@brianmatiash]

Thank you so much!

[@bala1000mina]

Awesome tutorial! Thank you so much Brian!

[@brianmatiash]

You’re very welcome!

[@DJewell]

Thanks, always fun to go back and look at some of my old images then take the as shot and play along with your tutorial to see what different results I get compared to what I did before.

[@olivecrew]

Great video... No longer scared of the curve

[@mcia05m]

I love your approach of doing a deep dive into one element of Lightroom. I've learned so much from you already in just two videos!

[@JulesMoyaert_photo]

Hi Brian! You are a master tutor: concise, clear, to the point! Thank you very much for this video.

[@rml3wood]

Thank you Brian! A lightbulb just went on in my brain.

[@brianmatiash]

Woohoo! That’s what I love to hear!

[@toncarnas2780]

Outstanding video Brian. Really interesting insights and tips here. Thanks very much for sharing this.

[@lauriemorris2717]

Thanks Brian. That is the best explanation of using curves I have ever seen.

[@racker9999]

Hey, Brian, thanks so much for the fantastic Tone Curve lesson. I truly appreciate the quality of your instruction, which is as professional as it gets.

[@Dadlbjm]

I really enjoy your way of explaining things - very thorough!

[@EdwinLewisPhotography]

Thanks Brian! i use the tone curve a bit but you added to my knowledge base. Good stuff!

[@AmyLDodd]

Super clear and helpful. Thanks for sharing your insights!

[@markkirwan8695]

great video brian, very well explained and easy to follow . i look forward to learning more from you in the future

[@MrPaulzer]

I Finally understand the curve! Clear and concise. Such a great video. Thanks so much for taking the time. Keep Inspiring!

[@lenapril9166]

Great tutorial. I was making a basic S curve on tone panel and that's about it. I have a far greater understanding of its capabilities now. Thank you!

[@bruceblaylock8682]

Another excellent on, Brian. Thanks for sharing your expertise and giving us all a Christmas present that will last a photographic lifetime.

[@mattthedirector4670]

Dude i just watched this already knowing about how to use the curves, and this was VERY entertaining.

[@fetchmasters]

Excellent! Thanks, Brian.

[@paulstott5616]

Great video Brian . Thanks for sharing.

[@randylaferr6535]

Excellent video Brian. You really broke down a complex and intimidating subject to let me understand the tremendous power of this tool You have a great gift for teaching that makes all these subjects approachable and fun Please keep this wonderful content coming! Best/ Randy

[@MegaCLD]

Tnanks a lot! Its the most useful video about tone curve

[@Tuomimaki]

Super helpful. Thank you!

[@fjalarjohannsson8595]

Fantastic tutorial, thanks !

[@judithnicklin6943]

Brilliant. Ive been using lightroom for years and never really understood the tone curve until now.

[@me43935]

This was explained very well. Thanks

[@dougcraigmile1146]

Thanks for the video Brian. Well done, easy to follow, probably even easier to implement.

[@brianmatiash]

Much obliged, Doug. Thank you for the kind words! It's a bit of a heady topic at first, but once you practice and see the relationship between the curve and your own photos, it'll all snap into place.

[@JulesMoyaert_photo]

Brian, brilliant! Thank you!

[@rayebersole7444]

Your best you tube that you have done THANKS A LOT, Brian

[@breeannah9157]

this is great, thank you!

[@eleanorabramson6904]

I really like your videos but this one is amazing. Can’t wait to try it out!

[@christiandost1315]

Hallo Brian, thanks for this video :-) One of the best about the subject! I never really got a good understanding of the single channels, but now thats much clearer! Very well explained :-) Have a great time!

[@user-gj3jh2qw7j]

Great explanation, my Respect !

[@elsiepoynton9576]

love this thanks

[@vicfil1]

Nice explanation. Thanks.

[@hcp0scratch]

Great stuff!!!

[@gossedejong9248]

absolutely brilliant

[@gabriel09132]

Hey, thanks a bunch for this video. I've had a look at a few other videos on curves and every time it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense afterward. I am feeling a bit more motivated to experiment with tone curves now. I usually just stick with the basics panel for shadows and highlights and getting my contrast and balancing out my blacks so they aren't clipping and then HSL for my colour adjustments. Sometimes split tones. Thanks a bunch again and I hope you are doing well in life. God Bless You.

[@buckeye937]

Thank you for the lesson on the tone curve. I avoided using it for a long time, but now I think I have a good grasp of how I can use it to improve my post processing.

[@brianmatiash]

That’s wonderful to hear! The tone curve is such a powerful utility, so I’m very glad that you’re going to give it a shot.

[@user-xo1xg4xm2s]

Thank you, sir!

[@JulesMoyaert_photo]

Brilliant! Thank you.

[@brianmatiash]

You're very welcome!

[@MsBettyRubble]

Great video! I'm going to use this info for my photography portfolio final next week. Thanks so much.

[@brianmatiash]

Great! I'm happy that you found the video useful!

[@MsBettyRubble]

@@brianmatiash The timing couldn't be more perfect. Thanks again. :)

[@resistdcr8]

Great Tutorial

[@aengus1948]

The more I know about how to utilize LR and PS the less interest I have in using other software. With all this competing software its hard to settle on one without feeling like you are missing out of something. Great job Brian bringing out the power of these tools such as tone curve.

[@norbertalexy8803]

I'm delighted, Brian. Thanks for explaining the tone curve in such a simple, yet effective way! Great choice also of the sample images. The point where I wonder is this: you chose to concentrate on the tone curve, only. If I wanted to use other tools like vibrance, noise reduction etc., would you start with the tone curve, or would you rather go there to finish things up?

[@carlmarch603]

Really enjoyed this video - found it interesting since every LR training I have done has taught to use the whites and blacks sliders with the Option key to bring the tones into the widest possible range without clipping. I intend to do that and then see how it affects the tone curve(s), and vice-versa since it’s really about getting the look one wants instead of cookie cutter conformity.

[@brianmatiash]

Sweet! Let me know what the results are for ya!

[@mdturnerinoz]

HSL and Color reading rings (especially the latter) would be of real interest to me.

[@eddyjcreative100]

Brian very well layed out...ty

[@brianmatiash]

Thank you! I appreciate that.

[@rickwisephotography]

Excellent video! I have played a little with the Tone Curve in the past but will use it more after seeing this video. I assume that the Tone Curve Tool in ON1 2019 is similar to LR.

[@houssamghabra7222]

Very helpful .... that made me subscribe in ur channel.

[@garyk66channel]

Hey, Brian. I appreciate your videos! You mentioned using the tone curve instead of the contrast slider. Would you also use it instead of the highlights and shadows slider? I don’t want to use competing settings! Haha!

[@simianinc]

If you think of the two additive and subtractive colour models - RGB and CMY - it’s much easier to guess what will happened when you reduce each of the primary colour channel curves. Reduce red, you get cyan. Reduce green, you get magenta - hence the tint slider in the basic panel. Finally, reduce blue and you introduce yellow. HTH

[@lindabeck2965]

This is a very informative and a great description of what is quite a technical topic. I learned a lot from it so thank you. Could I also ask a basic question which is: Can this tone curve be used in conjunction with the masking tools in lightroom. If for example you had selected a subject mask, can you then next go into the tone curve and apply it such that it only affects the selected mask, in this case the subject?

[@alkrevit4755]

Great video, Brian. When you showed that after say increasing the greens in the shadows it is necessary to add points to make the curve above that adjustment straight, is there a shortcut to make it straight without fiddling with adding points ? Perhaps similar to the right click for just tone where you can straighten the curve upward from left to right. Thanx

[@peterhardy9754]

Hi Brian iv watched a lot of LRC videos and find your style easy to follow and understand which is important to know how and when to apply, so is there a process you use to start editing photos eg start with white balance move to exposure etc or is it random depending on each photo. Love to hear your methodology

[@zoltanshrimp]

Great video. So what’s the difference between using this tool and the color grade?

[@boburrides]

Fantastic tutorial! I always shied away from TC but this vid made it way less overwhelming to understand. Thanks! ps: any chance your name Matiash is an americanization of the hungarian Matyas (sounds very similar in pronounciation)? :)

[@brianmatiash]

Thanks so much! I love that the video is making you feel a bit more comfortable with the TC. It's not the easiest thing to get at first, but the more you use it, the more it makes sense. As for my last name, I believe I have distant Hungarian lineage, but my parents were born in Russia and migrated here about 43 years ago.

[@ipadista]

Using the S curve like this gives kind of the opposite result of what seems to be so popular these days, using the sliders to bring out the shadows and lowering the highlights, this slider method is often overdone pushing the result in the direction of HDR. Even if not overdone the HDR approach flattens the image and also tends to introduce noise since digital camera sensors are weaker in dark areas, bringing up dark areas exaggerates these shortcomings and accentuates the noise, if done sparingly the noise might not be noticeable, but it is still increased. I must admit having done that a lot myself. This method both gives the image a more pleasant look, by in increasing contrast, it also works with the sensor instead of against, lowering the parts where the sensor is weak (dark areas) and increasing areas where the sensor is much better at catching nuances, resulting in less noise and greater technical image quality. Obviously, in the end, it is a matter of taste where you want to go, but I will certainly experiment with this style going forward, thank you for an inspiring video!

[@ericluu7806]

How to do this on mutiple images at once? I hold control and select the images and work on one it doesnt work for the other images I selected together

[@wallaceshackleton1889]

A good video Brian but you missed one point. Why do you think Adobe has included a histogram on the tone curve adjustment panel? It is so one can target specific tonal areas on ones photo. What you done, by dropping points at 25, 50 and 75% is not much better than using the sliders in Tone Curve panel. Moving the target selection tool around the photo, while looking at the tone curve panel shows there the greatest effect can be made by tonal curve adjustments, or place points on the shadow and highlight peaks and adjust for the best contrast. It also gives you a good appreciation of what the mid-tines do to the overall look of the photo, plus is your photo is either high or low hey then your arbitrary points are ineffective

[@General111100]

do u wear colorblind glasses when editing?

[@19Photographer76]

Let me put the question another way. I use Curves in Photoshop proper, not in ACR. When trying it as I watch your video, I noticed that they work differently but one needs to watch the Histogram to see what's happening with the RGB colors. It seems like a different team worked on the ACR curves vs the PS proper Curves functionality. I'm just trying to understand what's going on.

[@johnteague2231]

My problem with the tone curves is I never know when to use them. I guess my eye for color is just very unsophisticated, or that it's all a matter of personal taste/vision.

[@philipculbertson55]

I am a little confused between the video you did in November on favorite hidden features and this one. In the November one, you spent a lot of effort on perfectly balancing exposure which effects contrast but you didn't use the tone curve at all. In this one, you didn't bother exposure but relied on the tone curve exclusively. My question is, do you typically balance exposure and use the tone curve or do you selectively use one technique versus the other based on the photo. Both videos were excellent at covering concepts but I am left a little unsure about how the two relate.

[@brianmatiash]

Very fair question, Philip. Thank you for asking it. To be completely honest, I use both the Basic panel tools and the Tone Curve to dial in exposure. My goal for this particular video is to illustrate how versatile and powerful the Tone Curve is on its own. With that said, I'd never advocate for only using it. The Basic panel sliders play an important role in getting a good exposure and, like most things, it's important to know how to leverage all the tools you have at your disposal. Let me know if that helps!

[@philipculbertson55]

Yes, that does help and that is what I thought. I did learn a lot from both the videos. Every time I think I've pretty much got LR nailed, I learn something else I didn't know about. Thank you for explaining Brian.

[@justinw7323]

You sound a lot like Charlie Harpers brother Alan on Two and A Half Men. The voice. You kinda look like him too. He's also now clean haired shaven and has a goatee now

[@dutchovenguy]

I am delighted to see another red-green color blind person working in Lightroom. I struggle with colors.

[@brianmatiash]

Us colorblind folk need to stick together! 😁

[@neilpersh4939]

Nice explanation but I don't know why you chose an image with with blown out running water. There's no way to bring back the details, and with the adjustments you made in the dark areas, the white lost even more detail.

[@AnastasTarpanov]

I know all of this, but I think i don't use the full potential of the tone curve.

[@rml3wood]

Thanks for another lightbulb!

[@akipanda]

Thanks for the great video on tone curve!