Capture One Pro - Understanding Curves

Just about all editing applications have the curves dialogue. The basic idea behind the tool is that it presents the user with a way to adjust tonal ranges in the image, set black and white points, lighten or darken the overall image, as well as adjust colour castes and hues. That’s a lot for one tool which is why it is so important. This tutorial goes into depth describing how the curves control works in Capture One Pro (version 16.3.1), although it's applicable to any curve dialogue in any editing platform. It's a fairly long tutorial so use the chapters below to jump to pertinent sections, particularly as I start with a refresher on the histogram. Timeline: 00:00 Intro 01:15 How the histogram works 04:34 How the curve control works 07:16 Example of using the curve control in Capture One and overview of the control intself 09:37 Creating Control Points on the curve 10:48 Increasing contrast using the curve tool 12:41 Available curve presets in Capture One 13:53 Using lock points to anchor a curve section 16:00 Using the curve control and the difference between RGB and Luma curves 18:42 Adjusting contrast in a low contrast image using Luma Curve 19:37 Setting black and white points using the curve control 21:44 Conclusion