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This article describes the steps for using the Curves command of the software, Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop represents an image's brightness levels in two ways: as light or as ink. These are called adjustment modes. Most photographers are comfortable working with light, and most print-based designers are more comfortable working with ink. Open a gray-scale photograph and choose Image: Adjustments: Curves to access the Curves dialog box. The user can alter the curve to increase or decrease the amount of light used to display an image. To adjust the image, click anywhere on the curve to add a dot, called a control point, and drag it up or down. Upon moving the curve up, the image is brighten by adding more light. To focus adjustments on a particular area of an image, the user can find the brightness range of that area in the horizontal bar, and then adjust the part of the curve that appears directly above that part of the bar. To estimate how a curve might affect an image, compare the curve created to the original diagonal line. With a simple curve adjustment, the user can transform flat-looking images into images that pop. Making a curve steeper exaggerates the differences between the brightest and darkest shades in an area of an image, thereby enhancing detail in that area.

This article presents instructions to use the Core Image Fun House and Quartz Composer tools to create a screen saver on a Macintosh (Mac) computer. On the DVD, open the Xcode Tools folder and doubleclick on XcodeTools.mpkg to install the tools. When that's done, go to the root directory of your main hard drive and look in the Developer folder. Core Image Fun House lets user quickly apply effects to his images. Launch Fun House and select one of the vacation images in the Open dialog box. The Effect Stack palette A works like Adjustment Layers in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. From here, one can add or delete layers, make adjustments, and toggle layer visibility. But unlike most image editors, Fun House displays layers from the bottom up. Click on the plus sign (+) B in the top layer. The Image Units palette will appear C, listing options for effects. Fun House adds Color Controls to the Effects Stack palette and offers sliders for adjusting Saturation, Brightness, and Contrast. Bump up the saturation to make the colors more intense. INSET: Buried Treasure.