curves

a friend from artomatic just told me about the curves tool in photoshop. i feel like i've been enlightened! he explained that it helps open up shadows and midtones, and i have to say, i've spent the majority of my weekend adjusting photos with this tool - my photos from the iGorman event i shot last Thursday look so much better because of it. i'm still relatively new to digital photography (i am a self-professed analog photographer) and this is just an awesome, awesome thing.