Yes, Curves can be pretty intimidating, but once you take the time to learn about it, it's actually pretty powerful.
Actually, each of these adjustments I did can also be done within Camera Raw. No need to learn about Curves, adjustment layers, or layer masking. However, that gradient thing comes in very handy sometimes. Camera Raw should also have the same gradient feature, where one part of the photo is dark, the other part of the photo is bright, and you gradually transition from the dark to bright parts. That's what the gradient is for.
Oops! This thread turned into a Photoshop thread, huh? Sorry.
