where can I learn to understand curves

[Justyna]

I understand that curves is one of the most important photoshop tool but I just can't understand it! I look at it and have no clue what to do with it! Whenever I try to use it to post process my photos they come out worse than the oryginals! Is there a good book that explain curves? I wonder how others learn to comprehend curves! Please help

[Lorax]

Here is a pretty decent youtube video explaining the basics. Might be a good place to start.

YouTube - Curves :: Photoshop Tutorial Learn the Power of Curves!

[inkista]

Really like this tutorial. It has a lot of good mouseover examples, so you can see the curve that goes with the image. It starts with the basics of histograms and Levels, and then moves onto Curves.

Photoshop tutorial: Tonal range and the Curves tool

[teaking]

I would also recomend Using the Photoshop Curves Tool it goes into a few more advanced uses of the curves tool and may help you understand it a bit more.