ADJUSTMENTS USING THE BASIC PANEL
5 Moving further down the panel, we come to the Tone
controls, which are divided into two sections; Exposure
and Contrast, and Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks.
Exposure and Contrast work in exactly the same way that they
have done in Adobe Photoshop and most other editing suites
for years.
6
The Highlights, Shadows, Whites and Blacks section of
the Tone panel is a more recent addition for Lightroom
and not found in previous versions of Photoshop. It offers more
precise manual control over the relative density of light and
dark tones and lets you take advantage of the greater tonal
range of raw files.
9
The Basic panel can also be used to turn your colour
image into monochrome. At the top of the panel you’ll
see Colour and Black & White. If you click on the latter you’ll
see that the Vibrance and Saturation slider will be greyed out
and the image will turn monochrome. You still have full control
over the other sliders.7 The Presence controls are another new Lightroom
feature and replace the old Hue, Saturation and Lightness
controls that feature in Photoshop. Clarity improves the
contrast in the mid-tones of the image by sharpening the edge
detail, while Vibrance increases the saturation of only the least
saturated colours.
10 Auto-tone also still works in Black & White mode and
just like in colour mode it will attempt to equalise the
exposure, contrast and distribution of tones to produce an
idealised histogram with no clipping. You may find that the
results look a little flat though, so use it as a starting point
rather than relying on it to finish your images.8 If you just want to quickly optimise a photo but aren’t
sure in which direction to take it, the Basic panel offers
an auto-tone option that will instantly analyse your image and
attempt to adjust the tone to bring it closer to an idealised
average by equalising the histogram. It’s not likely to be perfect
but can be a good starting point.http://www.bdmpublications.com 67