Quick Lightroom tip

[sk66]

When using the develop panel in lightroom and performing sharpening I have learned a little trick which has made sharpening much easier/better.
Simply hold down the alt/option key while moving a slider and it will overlay a mask clearly showing you what is being done to the image. When you do it using the mask slider the screen will initially be all white since the sharpening is being applied to everything equally. As you increase the masking it will strat showing the edges which are being sharpened (eliminating the other areas from sharpening).

Hope you find it useful!

[ravncat]

Alt has lots of great uses in lightroom, I also find it of great use for the sharpening masking and radius, as well as noise reduction and chromatic abberation sliders

[karen_s]

Just tried it and I LIKE it. Quite useful. TFS.

[RLucas]

Wow! Thanks for the tip! This is gonna come in handy/1

[zona5101]

yup - work with exposure and black point...but i am like you and use it mostly for masking sharpness

[matneym]

Thanks for the tip, very useful.

[sk66]

Originally Posted by ravncat

Alt has lots of great uses in lightroom, I also find it of great use for the sharpening masking and radius, as well as noise reduction and chromatic abberation sliders

It doesn't seem to work for noise reduction...unless I don't know what to look for . (I'm using LR 3)

[ravncat]

Originally Posted by sk66

It doesn't seem to work for noise reduction...unless I don't know what to look for . (I'm using LR 3)

You`re probably right, I was thinking of LR2 which had a different panel, i get them confused sometimes - im not sure it does anything in lr3 - now it affects the 4 sharpening options. amount / radius / detail and masking. (if I remember rightly) I think it may also show clipping while using white balance sliders, I have to double check when I get back home... LR has lots of useful keyboard shortcuts. (like + and - to add increments of 5 to things with number values, tab lets you highlight them for typing too, i think)

Here`s a keyboard shortcut list - i think it doesnt show the alternate slider functions though

http://blogs.adobe.com/edtechatadobe..._shortcuts.pdf

I think some of the sliders also get added functions when holding down another key, but i cant remember if it is shift and alt, or ctrl or shift (Edit - alt key with a click on noise reduction resets your settings to default)