What Light & Tone is for
Choose Develop → Light & Tone to correct the illumination and brightness, recover usable highlights and shape tonal relationships. These eight tools have different jobs. Light → Contrast changes contrast while keeping the chosen look. Tone mapping, Film tone and Print stock are alternative renderings: selecting one replaces the others.
White balance
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- White balance · see the starting imageTemperature and Tint correct the light source across the whole image.
- Make the rendering warmerHigher Temperature introduces a warmer balance. Watch the grey clouds.
- Try a cooler balanceLower Temperature shifts the same scene in the other direction.
- Correct green or magenta tintTint moves a different colour axis from Temperature.
- Reset to the photo’s starting settingsReset restores this tool’s normal defaults, including settings changed before this comparison.
- Try automatic white balanceAuto estimates a neutral average. Inspect its result rather than accepting it blindly.
What it does. Corrects the colour of the light illuminating the whole photograph. Use it for an overall blue, orange, green or magenta cast before designing a creative grade.
| Control | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Temperature | Moves the balance along the warm/cool axis. Higher kelvin settings warm the result; lower settings cool it. |
| Tint | Corrects the green–magenta axis that Temperature cannot fix. Move towards magenta for a green cast, or towards green for a magenta cast. |
| As shot | Restores the balance recorded by the camera. |
| Auto | Estimates balance so the average image colour is neutral. This differs from Auto exposure above the section menu. |
| Pick a neutral | Activates a picker; click a known grey or white area in the photo to balance from it. |
Try it. Pick a neutral grey object under the subject's light, then fine-tune Temperature and Tint while looking at skin or a familiar colour. Compare As shot if the correction removes a sunset atmosphere you wanted to keep.
Watch for. A white object under coloured light is not always an appropriate neutral target. Clipped whites contain little useful colour information. Mixed lighting may need a local mask after global balance.
Highlight recovery
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- Highlight recovery · see the starting imageUse a RAW with a bright sky. This tool works on clipped sensor highlights.
- Inspect the bright area more closelyKeep the same area and zoom for each reconstruction method.
- Use inpaint opposed reconstructionNeighbouring unclipped information guides the reconstruction.
- Change the reconstruction thresholdA lower Clip threshold brings more bright pixels into reconstruction.
- Compare clipping with reconstructionClip highlights limits the channels instead of reconstructing detail.
- Try LCh reconstructionDifferent methods can leave different colour and edge artifacts.
- Reset to the photo’s starting settingsReset restores this tool’s normal defaults, including settings changed before this comparison.
Specialist tool — reveal it through Customise tools.
What it does. Attempts to rebuild clipped RAW highlight values from information still available in other channels or nearby pixels. Use it for coloured/magenta edges in very bright skies, lamps or reflections. It is different from darkening an otherwise intact highlight with the Highlights slider.
| Method or control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Rebuild from surroundings (recommended) | Uses surrounding colour to reconstruct clipped regions. A useful first method to try. |
| Keep brightness, drop colour | Retains a brightness reconstruction while sacrificing unreliable highlight colour. Useful when false colour is worse than a neutral highlight. |
| Clip to white | Makes clipped highlights white. It avoids elaborate reconstruction, but does not recreate detail. |
| Rebuild by region (slow) | Uses region-based reconstruction for difficult clipped areas. Compare colour boundaries and processing time. |
| Rebuild fine detail (slowest) | Uses a more detailed reconstruction approach; inspect texture and edge artifacts rather than assuming slower always looks better. |
| Spread nearby colour (older) | Propagates nearby colour using the older method. Kept as another rendering choice, especially for existing edits. |
| Clip threshold | Sets the level considered clipped. Lower it when a damaged coloured fringe is being left outside the recovered area; too low can affect values that were still useful. |
Try it. Compare two methods on the same clipped cloud edge at 100%, then view the whole sky. Use the RAW clipping overlay to distinguish sensor saturation from white caused only by your current tone/exposure settings.
Watch for. Fully saturated sensor areas may contain no original texture to recover. Reconstruction is an estimate and can leave neutral patches or artifacts.
Light
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- Light · balance brightness and contrastWatch the bright windows and dark furniture.
- Exposure brightens the whole photographRaise Exposure and watch both the window light and the furniture.
- Shadows opens the darker areasLook under the table and around the chairs; compare the bright windows.
- Highlights restrains the bright areasBring down bright tones. Fully clipped pixels may remain blank.
- Contrast separates light and darkIncrease gently; strong contrast can undo the shadow lift.
- Reset Light to compare the starting imageThis resets the controls in Light together. Other tool sections keep their settings.
- A smaller edit is often enoughFinish by judging the whole image, not only the brightest or darkest patch.
What it does. Groups the everyday brightness controls: Exposure, Black level, Contrast, Shadows and Highlights. Use these before more specialised tonal corrections.
| Control | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Exposure | Scales overall light in stops. +1 EV doubles it; −1 EV halves it. It is the main overall brightness control. |
| Black level | Moves the deepest black reference. A small negative setting lifts the deepest shadows; a positive setting can crush them. Use sparingly. |
| Contrast | Increases or reduces overall tonal separation before the selected tone/film rendering. It keeps Tone mapping, Film tone or Print stock selected. |
| Shadows | Positive lifts dark areas; negative deepens them, with less effect on the middle of the range. |
| Highlights | Negative pulls bright areas down; positive brightens them. It cannot restore information that the sensor never recorded. |
| Exposure / Shadows & highlights status dots and ⋯ menus | Bypass, copy or reset those contained adjustments separately. Resetting exposure does not reset the other sliders. |
Try it. Set Exposure for the main subject. Bring Highlights down enough to see useful bright detail, lift Shadows only as much as needed, then refine Contrast. Check that black objects still look black and a bright scene still feels bright.
Watch for. Large shadow lifts expose noise. Extreme opposing Shadows/Highlights settings can flatten the scene or create unnatural local transitions. Contrast shares its underlying effect with Colour & Look → Vibrance & saturation; double-click the Contrast value to reset only that slider.
Tone mapping
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- Tone mapping · see the starting imageTone mapping controls how the RAW brightness range fits the display.
- Increase tone contrastThe middle tones separate while bright values roll towards white.
- Move the contrast balanceSkew changes which side of the tone curve receives more contrast.
- Try the opposite skewWatch the shadows and bright sky exchange emphasis.
- Bypass only this toolCompare the same photograph at the same zoom. The settings are retained.
- Restore the adjustmentJudge the change before combining it with other tools.
- Reset and compare the starting stateOnly this tool returns to its starting state. Other edits stay.
Specialist tool — reveal it through Customise tools.
What it does. Compresses the scene's brightness range into the displayed picture using a smooth tone curve. It determines the rendering itself, rather than adding a small contrast correction to a film look.
| Control | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Curve steepness | Changes the slope around middle grey: steeper gives stronger tonal separation there; gentler gives a softer rendering. |
| Curve balance | Shifts where the curve concentrates its contrast, towards shadows at one end and highlights at the other. Middle grey remains the reference. |
Try it. On a normally exposed RAW, change Curve steepness slightly and inspect both faces and bright areas. Refine Curve balance if contrast is concentrated in the wrong tonal region.
Watch for. Moving these controls selects Tone mapping and replaces Film tone or Print stock. To retain a chosen stock while changing contrast, use Light → Contrast instead.
Film tone
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- Film tone · see the starting imageFilm tone remaps the RAW scene range; it replaces the other tone rendering.
- Include a wider highlight rangeRaise White relative exposure to fit more highlight range into the display.
- Move the black end of the rangeWatch the darkest parts of the garden while the white limit stays fixed.
- Try a narrower highlight rangeCompare the sky: these limits shape rendering, not the captured exposure.
- Bypass only this toolCompare the same photograph at the same zoom. The settings are retained.
- Restore the adjustmentJudge the change before combining it with other tools.
- Reset to the photo’s starting settingsReset restores this tool’s normal defaults, including settings changed before this comparison.
Specialist tool — reveal it through Customise tools; edited settings can make it visible automatically.
What it does. Offers an alternative scene-to-display rendering with a film-like toe and shoulder. It fits the scene's dark and bright extent around middle grey. It is not one of the named film-stock colour simulations.
| Control | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Whites (EV) | Sets how far above middle grey the source reaches white. A larger span accommodates brighter scene values in the highlight shoulder. |
| Blacks (EV) | Sets how far below middle grey the source reaches black. A more negative value accommodates a deeper shadow range. |
Try it. Start with a useful Exposure, adjust Whites to hold bright detail, then Blacks for the dark end. Recheck the overall image rather than trying to force every photograph to touch absolute black and white.
Watch for. Editing Film tone selects it instead of Tone mapping or Print stock. Changes in endpoint range also redistribute tones between the endpoints. Use Light → Contrast for a later contrast adjustment that keeps this rendering.
Tone equalizer
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- Tone equalizer · see the starting imageNine brightness zones let you change one part of the tone range.
- Lift the middle-dark zoneZone −4 EV affects its brightness band; neighbouring zones stay at zero.
- Bring down a brighter zoneZone −1 EV reduces a bright band while the darker-zone lift remains.
- Shift which pixels the zones addressMask exposure moves the zone assignment; it is not global Exposure.
- Bypass only this toolCompare the same photograph at the same zoom. The settings are retained.
- Restore the adjustmentJudge the change before combining it with other tools.
- Reset and compare the starting stateOnly this tool returns to its starting state. Other edits stay.
Specialist tool — reveal it through Customise tools.
What it does. Lightens or darkens nine brightness zones using a guided brightness mask. Use it to lift a subject's darker region or contain bright areas while preserving local texture. The mask here is the tool's internal brightness classification, not a drawn Local mask.
| Control | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Zone −8, −7, −6, −5, −4, −3, −2, −1, 0 EV | Each targets a progressively brighter part of the internal mask, from the darkest zone to the brightest. A positive zone adjustment lifts that zone; a negative one darkens it. Each zone's neutral correction is 0 EV. These labels describe mask brightness, not fixed final sRGB percentages. |
| Mask exposure | Moves the brightness classification across the zones. Use it when the subject falls into a different zone than you expected. It does not directly replace the photo's Exposure setting. |
| Mask contrast | Spreads or compresses the mask's tonal distribution, changing which zones separate the image's regions. |
| Preserve details | Selects how the brightness mask is smoothed while retaining edges/detail. An unfiltered approach acts more directly on fine brightness differences; guided approaches seek smoother regional corrections. |
| Smoothing diameter | Sets the spatial size of mask smoothing. A broader region can keep local texture together during a lift; excessive smoothing may affect transitions around subjects. |
| Edge refinement | Adjusts how smoothing handles edges, balancing a clean boundary against a soft transition. Inspect a bright/dark boundary while changing it. |
| Filter passes | Repeats the filtering. More passes can refine/diffuse transitions at a processing-time cost; it is not another exposure-strength control. |
Try it. Lift a darker subject using a small positive correction in the zone that affects it. If the wrong area moves, return that zone to zero and adjust Mask exposure before increasing strength. Blend neighbouring zone corrections smoothly and inspect the subject's outline for halos.
Watch for. Every zone need not affect every photograph. Large alternating boosts and cuts can look artificial. Use a Local mask if brightness alone cannot distinguish your subject from the background.
RGB levels
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- RGB levels · see the starting imageSet black, midpoint and white input levels. Start with linked RGB.
- Brighten the middle valuesMoving Midpoint left lifts the midtones between the end points.
- Set a deeper black pointA higher input black point darkens shadows; watch for blocked detail.
- Move the input white pointLowering it makes more of the upper range reach white.
- Bypass only this toolCompare the same photograph at the same zoom. The settings are retained.
- Restore the adjustmentJudge the change before combining it with other tools.
- Reset and compare the starting stateOnly this tool returns to its starting state. Other edits stay.
Specialist tool — reveal it through Customise tools.
What it does. Maps input black, middle and white points to the output range. Use it to set a faded image's endpoints or to balance individual channel ranges. It is more direct than a multi-point curve.
| Control | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Channels → RGB, linked channels | Uses a linked adjustment for the colour image. A useful starting mode for tonal work. |
| Channels → RGB, independent channels | Exposes separate Red, Green and Blue editing. Endpoint differences can correct or introduce a colour cast. |
| Channel → Red / Green / Blue | Chooses the channel whose three points you are editing in independent mode. Other channel settings remain saved. |
| Black point | Sets the input level mapped to black. Moving it into the existing image range deepens blacks but clips values below it. |
| Midpoint | Reshapes intermediate tones between black and white without changing those endpoints. Move it while judging the subject's brightness. |
| White point | Sets the input level mapped to white. Moving it down brightens the range but clips values above it. |
| Preserve colours | Chooses the colour-preservation measure for linked processing. It affects how a tonal remap is shared across RGB; compare saturated colours when changing it. It is not a saturation-strength slider. |
Try it. In linked mode, move the black and white points only enough to establish useful endpoints, then refine the midpoint. For a scan with a cast, compare channels independently, with small moves and a neutral reference.
Watch for. Points must stay ordered; the controls stop before crossing their neighbours. Clipping an endpoint sacrifices detail. Do not set every image to hard black/white just because the controls allow it.
Curves
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- Curves · see the starting imageA point curve maps input brightness to output brightness.
- Lift a point in the midtonesDrag above the diagonal to lighten that tonal region.
- Deepen the lower tonesA lower point creates more contrast between shadows and brighter midtones.
- Compare without the RGB curveThe points stay in place while their effect is bypassed.
- Restore the curveSmooth shapes usually give gentler results than sharp bends.
- Reset and compare the starting stateOnly this tool returns to its starting state. Other edits stay.
What it does. Provides a point curve for shaping scene tone and four Tone regions sliders for a later lightness adjustment. Use it when a few broad sliders cannot place contrast precisely enough.
| Control | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Point curve / Curve graph | Horizontal position is input brightness; vertical position is output. Raising a point brightens that part of the range; lowering it darkens it. A diagonal line is neutral. |
| Add / move / remove point | Click the graph to add a point, drag to shape the line, or right-click a point to remove it. Gentle shapes are easier to keep smooth than many tightly packed points. |
| Shared / R / G / B | Shared changes RGB together. Separate channels can change colour balance as well as brightness; splitting starts by copying the shared curve to each channel. |
| Interpolation → Monotone | Joins points without overshooting between them. A useful predictable starting choice. |
| Catmull-Rom / Cubic spline | Alternative smoother connections between points. Inspect between the nodes for unwanted bends or reversals. |
| Input histogram | Shows tones as the point curve receives them, before later tone rendering. It is not necessarily the same distribution as the finished-image histogram. |
| Tone regions → Highlights / Lights / Darks / Shadows | Raises or lowers broad, blending lightness bands in the finished picture. Use for a simpler regional tone change without placing nodes. |
| Effect switches / ⋯ actions | Compare, copy, reset or save the corresponding curve adjustment. |
Try it. Make a modest S-curve: lower a darker point slightly and raise a lighter point slightly, leaving the endpoints stable. Compare against neutral. For a small face-brightness correction, try the relevant Tone region instead of adding several nodes.
Watch for. The point curve acts on scene light before tone rendering; Tone regions act later. Lab colour shares the Lab tone-curve module with Tone regions, so module presets/copy can carry both. The Curves tool's reset preserves the separate Lab colour work. Strong channel curves can create casts or clipped colour even when overall brightness seems acceptable.