Digital Camera World - UK (2020-03)

96 DIGITAL CAMERA^ MARCH 2020 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com

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Photo Answers

Highlights versus Whites

Q

What exactly is the

difference between

the Highlights and

Whites sliders in Lightroom?

Ray Livingstone

A

You can think of the Highlights

slider as targeting a much

smaller range of tones; and

when you use the Highlights

slider, you are not adjusting the White

Point within the image, which is effectively

what the Whites slider does.

The way I work is to use the Whites slider

first, which I’ll usually set as far to the right

of the Histogram as possible. If there are

some brighter areas in the image, like the

iceberg image here, it won’t necessarily

be pushed to the edge of the Histogram.

If I need to make further adjustments to

the brightest pixels within the scene, I’ll then

use the Highlights slider. More often than

not, this is to recover detail in those brighter

areas, so it’s not uncommon for me to take

the Highlights slider back to -100.

Whether you are using the Highlights slider

to decrease or increase those brightest

pixels, it will only work within the parameters

of the White Point you’ve already set. Also,

as Highlights is only affecting that smaller

tonal range, it won’t have an adverse effect

across the whole of the image, whereas

applying the Whites slider as a negative

value will, because you are shifting the

White Point and inevitably making your

image look duller! If you have a play

with both sliders and watch the way

the Histogram changes as you do so,

you’ll see these differences in action.

Andrew

James

Andrew is a highly-

experienced writer

and photographer –

if you have a problem,

he is here to help.

After

Before

Using the Highlights slider enables

you to target the very brightest

tones and bring them under control.