Two of the most important things I’ve learned to work with in the past couple of weeks are the Curves Tool in Photoshop (for post processing) and the Histogram tool (either in Photoshop or on your camera itself, for use either while taking pictures, or in post processing).
This article is about the curves tool, well worth the read.
-amrith
After you’ve mastered Levels , it’s time to take a step up to the tool that is probably the most useful for color and contrast control in Photoshop: Curves. As with levels, you should play around with the basic Curves command to get a feel for it.
Hype Cycles 