Mechanics behind exposure, blacks and other sliders

This might be a question for Camera Raw, too, but since I now mostly use LR, it goes here:
Is there any information about specific mechanics behind toning tools? I'd be happy to find somebody who can "translate" them into toning curve terms. For example, what curve manipulation performs similar to Exposure slider? Same question for Brightness and Contrast.

You cannot translate the exposure slider to a curve manipulation easily. What it does is simply transform the luminance data by multiplying with 2^exposure. So if you have a pixel with a luminance of 50% originally, and you set +2 stops of exposure compensation, you end up with 200% luminance, which will be clipped to 100%. In other words, this slider does exactly what would have happened if you would have set the exposure compensation in camera at the expense of some extra noise. If the gamma of the curve display would have been 2 (which it isn't, it is 2.2), you can sort of think of the exposure slider as taking a straight line from the origin and changing its slope by the brightness slider. + values will make the line intercept on the top axis (making highlights clip) and - values will intercept on the right axis (making original whites grey).
The blacks slider in a curve term moves the whole curve to the right and compresses the curve. You can visualize it by moving the left bottom intercept over the bottom (input luminance) axis. It changes the maximum input luminance that corresponds to black. Input luminances above it will give you a tone, below, they will just be black.
Contrast and brightness are basically what Victoria describes above, but Fill light and highlight recovery are impossible to translate to tone curve terms. They are local contrast enhancement tools that are more akin to HDR processing than to curve manipulation. You can get similar effects to fill light by boosting the shadow portions and to highlight recovery by lowering the highlight portion of the curve, but they are in a fundamentally different class.

Similar Messages

Please give me advices when to use black and white sliders in LR4.

Please give me advices when to use black and white sliders in LR4.

I use blacks and white sliders on every photo (this does not necessarily imply non-zero values). I consider them as important as any other slider. Not optional, not for fine tuning - include consideration each iteration.
Although that is contrary to what Adobe and many "experts" recommend, I tried doing it their way too but I could not get the results I wanted in most cases.
The "concept" and original intent is for fine tuning, but the implementation is not. I often set whites to +20, +30, +40. This has a radical effect on overall exposure which is the most important thing to get right in PV2012. And it generally requires compensatory adjustment of highlights, shadows, and sometimes contrast...
Likewise, optimal shadow toning can include radical blacks adjustment - sorry Adobe/experts/defenders, but for me - it's true. And, blacks slider, like whites, affects entire histogram, a lot.
Summary:
========
If you want to keep things as simple as possible, then use sparingly and use last (gag), but if you want your photos to look how you want them to look - as good as possible, then use liberally, and pay the price...
More info here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4259091#4259091
Rob

HT5622 Do you think that apple would exchange my ipod gen 5 for another one because this one well, the screen isn't broken but the inside is half black and other colors? When it happened it was in its otter box, and i lost the receipt and got it on may?

Do you think that apple would exchange my ipod gen 5 for another one because this one well, the screen isn't broken but the inside is half black and other colors? When it happened it was in its otter box, and i lost the receipt and got it on may? How much do you think it would cost please help me.

If covered by warranty. See:
Apple - Support - Check Your Service and Support Coverage
Then if the iPod is within warranty, not abused Apple will exchange it at no cost. You can do it at an Apple store
Make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

LR 5.5 double-click behavior on WB sliders (and other sliders in Basic tab)

i recently upgraded to LR 5.5 from 5.4.
sometimes i check the auto-WB recommendation by using the ability to Shift + double-click on a WB slider (in Dev. Module). (this feature was introduced in LR 5, i believe, maybe LR 4.)
before the upgrade, whether the WB sliders were already at a custom setting or still on the "as-shot" setting, you could Shift + double-click on either the Temp or Tint slider and get the "auto" recommendation. Then, you could undo and redo, toggling back and forth between the auto setting and whatever you had before that.
now, however, when i Shift + double-click, before the slider registers the double-click and produces the auto setting, it responds to the first part of the double-click. that means that FIRST it moves the slider a little one way or the other, and THEN goes to the auto setting.
this behavior makes it impossible to toggle back and forth between the auto setting and whatever it was before that. instead, it now toggles between auto and that little adjustment that was registered in the first part of the double-click.
for example:
the Temp slider is set to a custom value of 5200 on a certain photo.
i'm curious what is the auto recommendation, so i Shift + double-click on the slider.
the slider registers the first part of my double-click, moving for an instant to 5384, before understanding that i actually double-clicked and producing the auto setting.
this is annoying in any case, but it's a problem because now when i undo and redo to toggle between my custom setting (5200) and the auto recommendation, it's instead toggling between the auto and 5384. (or whatever value happened to register in the first part of the double-click.)
this changed behavior also affects the other sliders in the Basic tab where you can Shift + double-click to check an auto value. personally, i never use this feature on the other sliders, but i do use it quite a bit on the WB sliders as a step in arriving at my custom WB.
also, i just noticed that it also happens sometimes on black-and-white images, when adjusting the Black and White Mix sliders. (these sliders can also revert to their auto value if you adjust one and then Shift + double-click. this is beneficial for when you don't want to return the whole group of sliders to auto mix.
note:
i do not adjust the sliders by dragging. instead, i mouse over a slider, and use up or down arrow keys to adjust in regular increments (or Shift + arrow key for a larger increment). i find this is a much better way to work for a number of reasons, and especially with large numbers of images. if i want to make a finer adjustment, i just click in the value field of a slider and use arrow keys to go in single-unit increments. (or use Option + arrow key for a smaller-than-default increment.)
For color Temp, camera settings already use 50-degree increments (5600, 5650, 5700, etc.), so they appear in LR with those kinds of rounded numbers, never 5611 or whatever. using the arrow keys to adjust color temp also goes in 50-degree increments, and using Shift+arrow key goes in 200-degree increments. For Tint, however, the camera does use single-unit increments, like 7 or 11. the arrow key method of adjusting Tint goes in increments of 5 or 20, which for Tint is usually too broad of an adjustment.
sorry for the long post. anyone else having this problem? as someone who does a lot of toggling back-and-forth to compare things, i find this fairly small change in behavior incredibly disruptive.
my system:
late 2013, 15-inch rMBP; 2.3 GHz i7; 500gb SSD; 16gb RAM
OS 10.9.2 (not yet on 10.9.3 as there seem to be problems)
no Adobe CC items.

bob,
you are correct—what you said does work.
{for the sake of clarity and consistency, when i say double-click on the "slider", i mean on the value-marker, the triangular point that actually moves (or what ssprengel is calling the "slider-thumb/handle" if i'm understanding him correctly)—not the range on which it moves, nor the label to the left side of the range.}
but have i gone crazy?? has the behavior not changed at all?? i could have sworn that in the past, i was double-clicking (with or w/o shift key) on the value-marker of the slider, instead of on the label as you mention (although that instruction does sound familiar now, too). this is not a rare action for me, but something i've done countless times on the WB sliders, and also on the Black and White Mix sliders to return them to their auto value.
actually—now that i think about it, i do this action a ton on the HSL sliders, also: use the arrow keys (or Shift+arrow) to adjust HSL values, which go in increments of 5 (arrow) or 20 (shift+arrow). sometimes to return to zero i use the arrow keys again, but sometimes just double-click on the slider.
Or, if i want to see a very large, imprecise adjustment, i don't use the arrow keys but just click once towards the extemes of the range: +83 or -100 or whatever. and then to return to zero, i just double-click on that same spot—meaning on the slider/value-marker, wherever it happened to land on my first click.
however, in the last couple major releases (LR4 and now LR5), i've noticed that feature doesn't work quite as well as it used to. it used to be very easy to click once, get an extreme value, then very soon afterwards double-click and return to zero. you could do it easily, without even looking carefully at the sliders (so you could look instead at the picture changing). now, however, i find that i usually have to double-click two or three times before the slider responds and goes back to zero. sometimes i have to reposition the mouse very slightly and double-click again for that action to happen (and not because my mouse strayed from the slider).
i have noticed this to be true across many changing conditions:
major releases and smaller updates of LR;
different OS (10.6.8 snow leopard through 10.7, 10.8, and 10.9 mavericks);
different machines: 2007 MBP and late 2013 rMBP;
even different mice: used to have an old Kensington mouse; now using Logitech G500s, a fairly high-end gaming mouse (even though i don't do any gaming).
when i first noticed this less-responsive behavior, i thought it was due to my mouse and/or computer being old, maybe outdated. the kensington mouseworks software didn't really work, even on the older 2007 MBP. so i chalked it up to mouse issues. but it's exactly the same with my new, much more sophisticated mouse, whose software does work on my late 2013 rMBP.
(and now, with LR5.5, there's the issue i mentioned originally, where the first part of the double-click records a value shift before LR realizes i was actually double-clicking.)
why am i bothering to say all this??
first, it's an additional problem, but similar to what i originally posted about. second, it offers (at least some) support for my original idea—that in the past, i was, in fact, double-clicking on the slider itself, not on the label, to get auto or as-shot values.
does anyone else have any thoughts on this? am i the only one who "remembers" double-clicking on the slider, not the label, to get the auto or as-shot WB, or reset HSL sliders, or return to auto values of individual sliders in Black and White Mix?

C309g (CD055A) no black and other issues..

Hey all.. Not sure which thing to post about first, so in random order, here goes....
I bought a used printer listed above in the subject.. It needed a new power supply, and ink, but seemed to be great. I purchased the regular size cartridges except the black which they had in XL size. I printed a total of 3 test pages (set up on three computers), I printed one 8x11 photo via bluetooth from my phone, and my wife printed 2 8x11 photo's from her PC. All 3 8x11's were on regular paper. Oh, and we printed one of the dots built-in pages.. So if you're counting (and I KNOW I am), that is a total of 7 pages. Additionally there may have been one demo page (possibly a total of 8 pages, then!), can't remember if I did that demo page on the previous owners ink or if I did one on the new ink I bought (previous ink was old/empty). Oh, and technically there was an alignment page, so final total 9 pages. After those nine pages, my magenta and yellow ink were both down to around 65-75 percent. It sat a week without use (literally, 7 days). Today I went to print some regular text (black only) and it shot out at me blank pages. I tried a few more times, and nothing but blank pages. Tired of running back and forth, I printed a built-in "school paper" page or wide ruled paper (heh, how cool in a pinch is THAT feature!). It printed perfectly - Course it's blue and magenta, no black..
So it's been awhile since I used inkjet, but I quickly rememberd the handy utility to clear/clean printheads. Ran that. It failed, assumedly for missing black (it had the gray'ish photo black, but not 'black' anywhere on the sheet. After the cleaning failed, I removed the black, and all the colors. Seems to be black in there (as should be!) I dabbed the bottom with a paper towel gently, it turned black... So I put it in, and it whirred away doing it's thing to re-align, and then it told me the shocking news that my printer was low on ink, and showed all levels to be well, I suppose about 10-15 percent remaining (think SMALL skinny lines). Now I know this is an estimate, but I'm concerned from the get-go that after only 9 pages it was down to 65%!!
Before I found the forums, I found a site that recommended removing the ink cartridges, and removing the print head itself and soaking the bottom portion (up to the wire meshes, slightly covering them, but not the entire thing) for awhile in IPA (isopropal alcohol) and then dipping them in fresh a fresh batch to 'rinse' then gently hitting them with compressed air via air compressor (or canned air, I suppose, have an air compressor) to remove any debris and get the remaining alcohol off/out. I then let it sit several hours to 'dry', which - it was probably ready immediately given the properties of IPA, but didn't want to chance it.. Re-inserted it and the ink, and..... SAME THING.
All the ink is official HP ink (since I'm sure that q is coming), was purchased from a big box retailer who ya all know and love or hate (no need to name drop).. I'm wondering if...
1. My ink, though coming out onto the paper towels could be bad/defective. Given the really fast drop in the levels of ink, and the issue with black not seeming to print, seems possible?
2. Should I try the boiling the print head - err not boiling it, but sticking it in recentyl boiled water, and give that a try? The guide that was posted here somewhere showed doing that, with IPA added to the water as an option. Is it possible the IPA didn't break up whatever gunk might be blocking the black, that boiled water might break up? Does that make sense, or would the IPA have broken it down?
How do these print heads work exactly, or is that the big company secret? I mean, is there a tube that goes for the inlet of black to the gold area underneath, cuz it's not directly under the gold like old fashioned cartridges used to be.. Is there any way to open up or access that area like, under the metal screens to get in there with a pipecleaner or something maybe, or something?
And, for bonus points (lol) Why does HP assign two names to their printers?? IE C309g (CD055A), If my printer is the C309g, why is it ALSO the CD055A?? SO confusing and un-necessary..
Thanks for your time and patience

I've had a similar problem with black not printing, though my printer is a B8550. I bought new and have used it fairly lightly I'd say, but after only a couple of years it suddenly stopped printing the photo black (it has separate cartridges for black for photos and black for text, etc.).
It prints on regular printer paper just fine using the other black--but not a drop prints of the Photo Black (yes, it's full). Since I've cleaned the print head, and even bought a new one, and a diagnostic print shows absolutely no trace of the photo black, I'm fairly sure the printer itself is at fault. It's sold as a 'Photosmart' printer, meaning it's intended to use to print photos--large format too--so without photo black it is a huge brick as far as I'm concerned.
I've begun to notice from these forum posts that there is an issue with HP and black ink, or at least whatever controls black for photo papers in their inkjet printers. If I'm not mistaken both yours and mine use the 564 cartridges, so maybe that suggests a common factor in such printers that is the culprit. I suspect HP knows there is a problem, either with the hardware or firmware, and I wish they would do right by us.

PB monitor goes black and other issue.....

I just got my PB last week. In the first week of using it, it has done the following;
1. Turned off and would not turn back on unless I took out the battery and held power for 5 secs. After doing this to many times, I found out about the PMU reset, that fixed my issue, for now anyways.
2. Now I was just using it to type an email, battery was low, so I plugged it in and was charging for a while, and then the screen went black and the caps lock and num lock buttons lit up. It was non responsive at that point. I then held power and it turned off, and I was able to turn it right back on again. Typing this, hoping it wont do it again.
These are the only issues I have had so far, hope to have no other. I am currently stationed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and cant exactly take it to an authorized apple store. Also I had to order it from an authorized seller online, as apple would not ship to APO addresses, which really *****, cause thats what most milititary uses outside the USA.
Please give me any suggestions.
Powerbook G4 12" Mac OS X (10.4.5) 512MB RAM

Directly from UPS website
http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/service/terms/service.html
"Army Post Office (APO) and Fleet Post Office (FPO) addresses are not accepted."
It really ***** having to order things online, but thats the only way we can do it. You would be suprised how many companies seem not to support US military by not allowing APOs. You have to be military associated in order to even recieve an APO addy. I could understand P.O. boxes, cause anyone could get one.
Thanks for the reply though.
Havent noticed an issue with it yet, did go online to the website I ordered it from and talked to a live chat tech. last night. They told me to call customer service, I was like, thats kind of hard to do im in afghanistan. Then they said to ship it back to them, so atleast I have an option but that would mean I would be out my mac for about 1 month. Still searching for an answer.

I have a gray background at top of page behind navigation toolbar and other toolbars. It's not part of the theme. How can I change it?

After installing version 4, all web pages have a gray background, with blurry diagonal stripes, at the top, behind all the toolbars. It is not part of the theme and is unaffected by changing themes. It does not extend down to the rest of the page. I don't like the way it looks and would like to change it. I'm not sure if this is a default, or something that I inadvertently did myself. It has been there since I first installed. Any ideas?

You may have installed a persona.
You can uninstall your current Persona and revert to the Default theme (Tools > Add-ons > Themes).
See
* [[Personas]]
* [[Using themes with Firefox]]

Colorizing black-and-white comic strips

I have here scans of black-and-white comic pages
which I would like to colorize.
How can I do this with Photoshop Elements?
(I gues I have to make the white parts transparent first
and then add a layer for the coloring behind the
black-and-white layer. But how?)
(At the moment I'm using version 6.0 for Mac.)
Thanks.

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}
hatstead wrote:
Not sure that I understand the fine points being developed here.
As I see it, the points to take note of are these:
The best method for making coloured comic illustrations is to use a vector program, which will give smooth sharp-edged lines. Bitmap programs use anti-aliasing to provide the appearance of a smooth line, but this means that you have black lines edged with gray:
This becomes apparent when you create the fill layers and their masks:
By using the layers and masks, you quickly ensure that the anti-aliased areas are filled with the chosen colour:
By keeping the coloured areas on their own layers, you gain the ability to easily edit them. This comes in real handy if you want to change an area from a flat colour to one with shaded colours to give a sense of depth. You create a hue/saturation layer as a clipping mask for the appropriate layer, and you don't have to worry about colouring within the lines!
Ken

Adjusting a grayscale scan so it's black and white

A client sent me a grayscale scan of a line drawing with small text. The lines and text, which should be black, are gray. And the background, which should be white, is a light gray.
The lines should be 100% black, but I'll take what I can get. I fiddled with curves and contrast and stuff, but when I'd get the background adjusted so it was completely white, then the lines weren't dark enough.
And of course converting to a bi-level bitmap made the lines and text all pixelly and horrible.
FWIW, this will be offset printed, so it needs to be high resolution.
Suggestions?
TIA,
Marlene

Up the resolution 2 x using bicubic smoother (if your version of PS has it, otherwise just bicubic).
Then, I usually blur the drawing slightly (maybe .5 - 1 pixel) so that I can add gain to the lines if they are too fine. You might want to avoid the blur step as you have text; test it and see. Also, blurring helps smooth out pixel jaggies if the original image is too low a resolution.
Then use image.. adjust.. levels to make a "bitmap" by pulling together the black and white sliders of the input levels. You don't want the sliders to touch (as Bill's threshold will do), you just want them close together so you're controlling where the bitmap will "break". Make sure to zoom in and inspect your image. You might use a levels adjustment layer for easier tweaking.
You're shooting for a bitmap image of between 800 and 1200 ppi/dpi at print size, so do the math and up-res again (using bicubic smoother) to the correct resolution. Then make the image a bi-level bitmap (image.. mode.. bitmap).

The basic sliders disappeared. Including the Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Clarity and Vibrance Sliders are no longer available. I need help to get them back

The basic sliders disappeared. Including the Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Clarity and Vibrance Sliders are no longer available. I need help to get them back on the program.
I can't figure out where the sliders went and how to put them back on. Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks

In Lightroom, go to the Window menu, select Panels, select Basic

Why when i convert to black and white and change, contrast, exposure etc and get it right in preview i open it and its brighter and looks different to the preview?

The images also look different in preview and when i upload them to adobe Revel but when i put them back in photoshop they look Ok.

I convert, in raw to black and white and add sharpness and clarity theirs and a few other options Temp etc if need be. Then i open them into photo shop as black and white. There i place around with the exposure setting but as you do it you have the preview button clicked so you see what the finished photo will look like. When i hit change normally the photo changes and looks like it was in the preview.But now with out changing any settings in photoshop, as i change the photo the preview is different when i click ok to make the changes. This comes and goes in photoshop and its getting a bit frustrating as i do a lot of black and white photos and have been doing for years but i am having this problem over the last 6 months.
No i haven't changed colour settings i have photoshop on the preset settings.
'Preview" when you are changing contrast etc their is the preview option so it shows in photoshop what the changes will be. But what i see when i am changing it is different when i open it. make be a point brighter or not as contrasty as i see it as i am changing the settings.

LR 4.4.1 crashing on iMac osx 10.8.5 when using exposure and shadows sliders. Will not restart with out resetting surge protector. Worked perfectly for 1.5 years with upgrades to 4.4

Hello,
Thanks for any help you may have. LR 4.4 worked perfectly on iMac 27' OSX 10.8.5 for 1.5 years until October this year when shut downs began when making adjustments on primarily exposure and shadow sliders. Unit would not restart unless rebooting surge protector(s) after 10-15 minute wait. Apple replaced main board and cleared disc. Back-up and LR 4 reloaded and updated to 4.4.1. New surge protection or direct into receptacle makes no difference and shutdown happens immediately upon slider movement. Any suggestions or self checks an old guy can possibly do? It is Educator/student version.

Hello and thanks for the reply.
The entire computer shuts down and will not restart without a reset of the new (and previous) surge protector or if plugged directly to the wall receptacle anywhere from 30 minute to overnight reset before on button restart will work. Other than slider adjustments on LR, it has only shut down one other time when loading photos via USB 3.0 cable to LR. All images from camera are in RAW. Apple tried to replicate this earlier this week with LR but could not read anything other than an increased usage on one of the diagnostic meters when the sliders were moved quickly from side to side.
Other computer functions are normal and rarely used except for e-mail, web search, and 90% LR. Plenty of memory in reserve.
Considering two upgrades (1) LR 5 to get new camera profiles (Pentax K-3)
(2)Yosemite OSX if it would help the LR4.4 or LR5 actually behave
Hope this helps illustrate the dilemma and thanks for your support.

Exposure, Contrast and Blacks slider behavior

In the Basic panel of the Develop module, when you double click on "Exposure", "Contrast" and "Blacks" the values default to +0.70, +29 and +15 respectively. Does anyone know the rationale for this?

Can't reproduce - they all go to zero for me.
win7/64

Black & White and other colors in Aperture

How can I color a part of a black & white picture in Aperture. I mean, if I have a color picture, reduce saturation to convert the picture to black & white and then just color the pants or shirt of the person that is in the photo but the rest remains in black and white.

You can only do this in Aperture if that's the only occurrence of that colour in the picture - in which case you can use the colo(u)r sliders.
Otherwise you need to use something like Photoshop (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/mono-with-a-dash-of-colour-photoshop- cs2-tutorial/)

How can i print deep black and deep white without any other pale grey color being printed

i want to print deep back and deep white
how can i edit the whole pdf to that kind
like this
if i print the grey normal way it looks like this

Hey sinfulslave,
Could you please let me know what version of Acrobat are you using.
For Acrobat XI, you might choose 'Advanced' under Printer Properties and enable 'Print all Text as Black' option.
Refer the below mentioned KB doc link as well if that might help:
Print in black and white | Acrobat, Reader
Let me know.
Regards,
Anubha

Mechanics behind exposure, blacks and other sliders

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for