I’ve been using Lightroom 4 for since it’s release and I was curious as to exactly what the sliders actually due in the Develop Module. Here is a list that I found from Adobe Support:
- Exposure Sets the overall image brightness. Adjust the slider until the photo looks good and the image is the desired brightness. Exposure values are in increments equivalent to aperture values (f‑stops) on your camera. An adjustment of +1.00 is similar to opening the aperture 1 stop. Similarly, an adjustment of –1.00 is similar to closing the aperture 1 stop.
- Contrast Increases or decreases image contrast, mainly affecting midtones. When you increase contrast, the middle-to-dark image areas become darker, and the middle-to-light image areas become lighter. The image tones are inversely affected as you decrease contrast.
- Highlights Adjusts bright image areas. Drag to the left to darken highlights and recover “blown out” highlight details. Drag to the right to brighten highlights while minimizing clipping.
- Shadows Adjusts dark image areas. Drag to the left to darken shadows while minimizing clipping. Drag to the right to brighten shadows and recover shadow details.
- Whites Adjusts white clipping. Drag to the left to reduce clipping in highlights. Drag to the right to increase highlight clipping. (Increased clipping may be desirable for specular highlights, such as metallic surfaces.)
- Blacks Adjusts black clipping. Drag to the left to increase black clipping (map more shadows to pure black). Drag to the right to reduce shadow clipping.
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