How to Use Curves in Photoshop: Exposure, Contrast, Color, and Matting
Curves is one of Photoshop’s most powerful adjustments. With it, you can fine-tune exposure, add or remove contrast, set white balance, and split-tone colors with precision. This walkthrough covers the key moves you’ll use on almost every image, with tips for clipping, on-image adjustments, and color channels.
Step-by-step instructions
Add a Curves adjustment layer
Open Window → Layers to view your layers stack.
Click the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Curves.
Open Window → Properties to see the Curves controls.
Set black and white points
In Curves, drag the bottom-left slider (black point) right to close the gap if shadows don’t reach the left edge.
Drag the top-right slider (white point) left to close the gap if highlights don’t reach the right edge.
Hold Alt/Option while dragging to see clipping indicators so you don’t lose detail unintentionally.
Adjust overall exposure
Click the middle of the diagonal curve to add a point.
Drag up (or left) to brighten midtones; drag down (or right) to darken.
Press Backspace to remove a selected point if needed.
Add or remove contrast
For an S-curve: add a point in the shadows and drag slightly down; add a point in the highlights and drag slightly up to boost contrast.
For de-contrast: do the opposite—lift shadows and drop highlights.
Matte the blacks or whites
Lift the black point (bottom-left corner) slightly upward to matte the blacks.
Lower the white point (top-right corner) slightly downward to soften bright whites.
Combine with a subtle S-curve to retain midtone contrast.
Set white balance with the gray point
Select the middle Eyedropper (Set Gray Point) in the Curves panel.
Zoom in and click a truly neutral mid-gray area in the image to correct color cast.
Avoid non-neutral areas to prevent strange color shifts.
Target tones with on-image adjustments
Click the hand icon (on-image adjustment tool) in the Curves panel.
Click-and-drag directly on a region of the image: drag up to lighten that tone; drag down to darken.
Use multiple clicks to place points at specific tonal ranges.
Color tone with RGB channels (split-toning)
Open the Channel dropdown and choose Blue to add cool/warm tones: drag up in shadows to add blue; drag down in highlights to add yellow.
Repeat with Red (up adds red, down adds cyan) and Green (up adds green, down adds magenta) to taste.
Use points in shadows and highlights for split-toning effects.
Refine with masks and opacity
Click the Curves layer mask and paint with a soft black brush to hide the effect from areas you don’t want to adjust.
Lower the Curves layer’s Opacity to fine-tune the strength of the edit.
