Lightroom Mag June-July

Lightroom Magazine
Tips & Tricks
SEÁN DUGGAN
With the June 2020 release, Lightroom Classic has benefited from several improvements, and also some
new features. Two of the most exciting developments, in my opinion, are the ability to apply local hue
adjustments (covered in the feature article by Rob Sylvan in this issue), and the improvements to the Tone
Curve panel. Both are welcome additions that provide enhanced control for applying color edits to your
images. In this issue’s column, we’ll be taking a look at the changes to the Tone Curve, as well as some
other useful tips for working with curves in general.
The Tone Curve Gets a Makeover
The Tone Curve has been around in Lightroom Classic for
a long time and, with the latest release, its interface has
been updated and it has also received some new functionality.
The most obvious change is the addition of new
circular icons above the curve grid for switching between
Parametric and Point curve editing. Another benefit
of this is that it makes it much easier for new users
to discover and access the ability to work with the individual
red, green, and blue curves to perform more
customized color adjustments (more on that shortly).
can manipulate that part of the tonal region by dragging
on the curve.
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Working with the Parametric Curve
The first Adjust icon above the curve grid, a gray circle
with two stylized curve lines, is the default setting, which
is the Parametric curve. This allows you to use four sliders
to adjust the shape of the curve and affect different tonal
regions: Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows. As you
move your cursor over each slider, you’ll see the part of
the curve it affects highlighted on the diagonal curve line.
In addition to working with the sliders, you can also drag
directly on the part of the curve you want to affect. This
doesn’t let you place a persistent control point, but you
Editing the Range of the
Parametric Tonal Regions
Below the grid are sliders that you can use to edit
the range of each tonal region. At the default settings,
each region accounts for 25% of the entire tonal range.
Move the sliders to change how much of the tonal range
a given slider will affect. Any changes are tied to the specific
image on which you’re working, and do not affect
the Tone Curve
para metric
ranges
for other photos.
As with other sliders
in Lightroom
Classic, you can
double-click on a
slider to reset it to
the default.