The Power of Curves
In Photoshop, my primary tonal adjustment tool has been the Curves Adjustment layer. I would wildly guess that 85% of the adjustment layers in my Photoshop files are curves. With them I can add or subtract contrast, lighten or darken, change color balance, even do what I call “tonal selections” (see myarticle here). Lightroom also has a global free-form curve, the Point Curve that is very powerful. But, curves do have their limits. I liken global curve adjustments to a slinky toy—when you expand the tones in one area, another area gets compressed. Open up the shadows, and the highlights get compressed. For these global adjustments, I often say “there is no free lunch”. Well—Lightroom 4 is footing the bill for a catered banquet, as the new Process 2012 raises the bar on image adjustments! The new Shadows and Highlights sliders can do things curves can only dream about. T...
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After spending seven years of college studying classical piano, Charles Cramer visited Yosemite National Park, and soon realized he wanted out of those tiny practice rooms! Realizing the similarities between interpreting music and interpreting a negative, he soon became enamored with making prints. Thirty years later, he is now recognized as a master printmaker. His prints sell in many galleries, including the Ansel Adams Gallery. In 1987 and again in 2009, Cramer was selected by the National park Service to be an artist-in-residence in Yosemite.
He has taught workshops since 1988 for the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite, the Palm Beach workshops in Florida, Anderson Ranch workshops in Colorado, and the John Sexton Workshops in California.
Cramer has been profiled in PhotoTechniques, Outdoor Photographer, Outdoor Photography (UK), Camera Natura (Sweden), Popular Photography (China), PhotoVision, and View Camera magazines. His work has been published by National Geographic Books, Sierra Club, and the Yosemite Association. He is also included in the books “Landscape: The World’s Top Photographers,” published in 2005, and “First Light: Five Photographers Explore Yosemite’s Wilderness,” published in 2009. He also had a solo exhibition at the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel in 2010. His work can be seen at www.charlescramer.com.
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