Even more powerful is to apply Curves to a selection of the image. In the image above, I used
the Wand tool to select the background, which I wanted to make darker so the flower would stand out
more against it, feathered the selection 1 pixel, opened Curves, which then applies whatever
adjustments you make only to the selected area. Here, as seen in the image below I darkened the
background by simply pulling down the middle of the curve until I got the look I wanted.

These images illustrate this operation in its simplest form. It works just as easily and just as
well on far more complex selections used to perform contrast masking, something I do to almost
every image I process.

Click 'next' to continue.