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This is first of series of tutorials about using “Curves” filter for image adjustments in Macromedia Fireworks. The scope of this tutorial is Curves basics (Interface, main concepts, simple use)
LEVEL: Beginner who wants to be a Pro ;-)
WHAT YOU HAVE TO KNOW: Add live effects, work with objects

Introduction - “Curves” are the most powerful and comprehensive adjustment tool provided with Fireworks. “Curves” filter allow great control over the image, but working with it is not that intuitive for the beginners. With “Curves” you can adjust exposure, contrast and color balance of an image, bring more details to focus or make special effects such as “metalize”. In this tutorial we will go through all of these adjustments step by step.

Theory - To access “Curves” filter go to Properties panel » Filters » Adjust Color » Curves… to add live effect or go to Filters » Adjust Color » Curves… in main menu to make adjustments permanent.

So how the curves work? Take a look at figure below:

In general “Curves” filter remap color values of a pixels (take input values and replace them with output values). Horizontal black-white gradient represent input color values, while vertical gradient - output values. When you drag a point from curve the color values are remapped, thus they represent the new curve shape. In the example above: Darker color (point A) will become lighter (point A’).

Default curve is straight line, so no change in pixel values is applied. You can change start/end points of the curve or add another point by click and drag along the whole length of the curve.

If you know where to click you can easy change the desired part of the image. Here is a little illustration of where highlight, midtones and shadows of the image are in “Curves” window.

By adding points to that areas you can easy control them separately. Generally while drag point in some area upward you make that area lighter and vice versa. In the example below shadows were made lighter by dragging up point from lower left quadrant

Don’t worry if you can’t understand my attempts to explain this in simple english. All this theory will become clear, when we pass through real life examples. Repeat all the examples, that I do and you will become an experienced pro!

Be careful! Curves can easy make some dramatic changes to your image. Make small changes at a time, so you don’t end in mess.

There are 3 color picker icons on the right side of “Curves” window. With them you can choose black (shadow), white (highlight) or midtone color in the image, thus make semi-automatic adjustments (white balance). Select “shadow” picker and click on most dark point in image, then select “highlight” picker and click on most bright pixel you can see. The results are the same as those achieved with “Levels” filter. I find this technique quite difficult to use, so I won’t go further. Always try “Auto” button. Often it will give you best result.

Join me in next tutorial, where we will examine shadow/highlights corrections using “Curves” filter.

Step 1 - make new file , dark canvas color so we can see the light and place your logo at the bottom

Step 2 - Duplicate logo and flatten it, so it becomes bitmap object
Step 3 - Select Smudge tool with pressure about 40-60 an start attentively draw fire flames

Step 4 - Continue to smudge with various pressure and size until you achieve something like this

Step 5 -go to effexts and add “Hue/Saturation…” Hue=40; Saturation=100; Lightness = -53

Step 6 - Duplicate flames and change effect » Hue=19; Saturation=94; Lightness=-39. Add effect glow (color=#DF0000; width=0; opacity=57%; Softness=19;Ofset=0) . Set blend mode to Screen

Step 7 - Duplicate again adjust curves like on the figure. Set blend mode to screen and opacity=91

Step 8 - Show real logo above and put some effects: inner glow (width=2; color=#FAD7A6; opacity=100%; Softness=9; Offset=0) and glow(width=0 color=#D49442; opacity=100%; Softness=12; Offset=0)

Step 9 - Put some dots, make copy of fire and put it above logo

Here is another quick tutorial - How to make barcode. This is really easy and fast technique. You can see final result here »
LEVEL: Beginner
WHAT YOU HAVE TO KNOW: Make selections

Step 1 - Select Pencil tool [B], black color and draw some random lines.

Step 2 -Select Marquee tool [M] and make selection 1 pixel height. Press CTRL+SHIFT+I to invert selection and hit Delete, or Edit » Crop Selected Bitmap

Step 3 - Select Scale Tool [Q] and scale object like this, or type a number in properties panel

Step 4 - Select part of the object and delete it

Step 5 - Type some numbers in the white area

This is second tutorial about using “Curves” filter in Macromedia Fireworks. Now it is time to learn how to adjust shadows or highlights of the image.
LEVEL: Beginner who wants to be a Pro ;-)
WHAT YOU HAVE TO KNOW: Add live effects, work with objects

Do you read part one? If not, find it here »

If we have a shot with too dark shadow areas, like that sunflower below, we need to reveal more detail from the background. Let’s start - add “Curves” live effect

If we just drag black point upward, even most dark areas will turn grey. We don’t want that happen. Black must remain black! No?

So we make new point, near the bottom-left corner of grid and drag this point up until dark areas around sunflower start to show us their secrets.

This is better, but we can bring some more light in the background. Add another point and place it like this.

Add a point one more time. Try to make curve appear as smooth as possible, because that way image will look more natural. Here are the final curve and before/after image comparison.

Now let’s see another example. This time we haven’t enough details in highlights areas.

We do the same trick, but in upper-right corner (highlights). Yeah! More details on the wall.

Now it is time to fix shadow, since we made them darker then original.

Notice the white area on the wall. We can’t extract more details from there, because there are only pure white pixels in the original.

Note 1: Be careful! Curves can easy make some dramatic changes to your image. Make small changes at a time, so you don’t end in mess.

Note 2: To improve your image even more, try sharpen it.

Note 3: Often after curves adjustments saturation is changed. Fix that with “Hue/Saturation” live effect.

Note 4: Always try “Auto” button in Curves dialog. This can save you a lot of tweaking.