A few years ago, not that long after I started using Lightroom 3, Adobe released Lightroom 4. One of the changes that they made to the process version was a complete redo of the Tone section of the Develop module, and I recall sitting in front of my computer, staring at the screen with my mouth open and a puddle of drool growing in my lap as I watched a demo of what it could do.
I wasn’t amazed because the new process version was a big step forward (though it was), but rather I was stunned by how simple and straightforward it was. Instead of using slider names that were odd and unclear (Recovery, Fill Light), the new Tone sliders were all clearly named based on which part of the histogram they affected. Furthermore, all of the sliders had the same directional changes–dragging the sliders to the left always had a darkening effect, dragging the sliders to the right always brightened. Yeah, the Tone sliders are only about making a photograph brighter or darker, but the effect that they have on the final image is tremendous.
Aside from their extreme simplicity, the thing that I really like about the Tone sliders is that they usually mark the place in Lightroom where I start to get a strong sense of what the final image is really going to look like. Even though there’s still lots to do after the Tone edits are finished, the choices that get made by using six little sliders will end up informing all of the editing decisions that come later on.
For me, this tone section in the Develop module is where the magic happens in Lightroom, and this tutorial shows you how it works.
