Targeted adjustments in Lightroom
Many of the features in the Lightroom 3 Develop module have targeted adjustment tools available to help you make the adjustment. Here’s where to find and how to use these on image adjustment tools.
Tone curve
When you select the Tone Curve panel you can adjust an area of the image by clicking the targeted adjustment tool and then drag on the area of the image that you want to lighten or darken.
Click and drag up to lighten and click and drag down to darken.
If you click the Point Curve icon at the bottom of the dialog, you will change the look of the Tone Curve panel and the sliders will disappear. Now if you drag on the image using the targeted adjustment tool you will create control points on the curve. You can adjust these control points by dragging on them.
Control points are not added if you do not have the Point Curve icon enabled. So if you’re seeing the sliders, you’re not in this point curve editing mode.
To delete a control point, double click on it or right click it and choose Delete Control Point.
When you are working on the point curve in the tone curve panel, you can decrease the mouse sensitivity by holding the Alt or Option key as you drag on the image. This decreases the sensitivity so you will make smaller changes in the curve with even quite significant movements of the mouse.
There is also a targeted adjustment tool in the HSL adjustment panel.
Here you can select Hue, Saturation or Luminance and then select the targeted adjustment tool and drag on the area of the image that you want to change. If you’re working in Hue, you’ll be applying a color shift to the selected area of the image. If you’re working in Saturation, you’ll be adjusting the saturation of the color under the mouse pointer as you drag on the targeted adjustment tool. Drag up to increase saturation and down to decrease it.
If you’re working in Luminance dragging up will lighten the color under the cursor and dragging down will darken it.
In the B&W or black and white adjustment area there’s also a targeted adjustment tool. In this case, when you drag up or down on a selected area of the image, you’ll lighten or darken that area so you can craft your own greyscale image.
Unlike in other versions of Lightroom, when you exit a panel while you have the targeted adjustment tool enabled it will be automatically disabled and you don’t have to remember to turn it off.
6 Responses to “Targeted adjustments in Lightroom” - Add Yours
November 1st, 2010 at 2:05 am
I use them all the time, especially when I edit for black and white!
November 1st, 2010 at 6:28 pm
It was quite informative. I didn’t know I can use targeted adjustment in other tools as well like in HSL/COLOR box.
November 4th, 2010 at 3:25 am
this didn’t seem to work for me, the whole picture was lightened or darkened, not just the area I was pointing to while dragging…..
November 5th, 2010 at 4:49 am
I have just purchased a new Mac with a 27″ monitor. I use Lightroom 3 and the colors in my photos on the monitor are great but when I print they come out quite different. I need to color calibrate my monitor. Any suggestions on what program to use?
November 5th, 2010 at 6:12 am
Good idea to highlight the less-straightforward but often handy features of Lightroom. Amazing that, even when using the panels often, this feature wasn’t even noticed.
November 5th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
@dick Get yourself a good hardware calibrator. They don’t cost too much now and they help tons. I use an X-Rite i1Display LT as recommended by WHCC and I haven’t had an issue yet. Software by itself really doesn’t help you very much, it only gets you roughly into the contrast/brightness area you should be in but doesn’t do much for actual color.
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