• Welcome to the Lightroom Queen Forums! We're a friendly bunch, so please feel free to register and join in the conversation. If you're not familiar with forums, you'll find step by step instructions on how to post your first thread under Help at the bottom of the page. You're also welcome to download our free Lightroom Quick Start eBooks and explore our other FAQ resources.
  • Dark mode now has a single preference for the whole site! It's a simple toggle switch in the bottom right-hand corner of any page. As it uses a cookie to store your preference, you may need to dismiss the cookie banner before you can see it. Any problems, please let us know!

Slider sensitivity

Status
Not open for further replies.

PatrickC

Active Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2008
Messages
178
Location
UK
There are plenty of ways to make the various adjustments in Lightroom; using the sliders, using the +/- keys, dragging in the histogram, dragging over the numbers next to the sliders for a finer adjustment, entering numeric values.

Before I upgraded, I thought my difficulties were simply down to the lag between moving the adjustments and the machine responding.

With the upgrade, response is almost instantaneous in nearly all cases.

I use a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet with the pen, and it may be that this is making matters worse, but I'm most comfortable with the pen and it is far quicker than the mouse overall.

The worst problem by far is with the black clipping adjustment slider (or equivalent in the histogram). In almost all cases, the final adjustment is in the range of about ' to 15, but the slider goes all the way to 1''; adjusting in the bottom end of the range, between about 8 and ', requires a deft hand using tiny stabs to make a 1 value change. It's the same sensitivity if I use the histogram (which I do usually).

The problem is that on a very few images, the black clipping setting really does need to be right up the scale near the 1'' mark (most often with aerial images which suffer from a very limited dynamic range due to atmospheric filtering).

I was wondering if it might be possible to make this slider logarithmic rather than linear, so that it would be less sensitive in the higher range and more senitive in the lower range.

I would be interested if other people have the same problem. If enough do, I'll pass it on to Adobe as a feature request.

Patrick Cunningham
 
I've always thought it was overly touchy and sluggish at the bottom end where I usually use it. My normal usage is below 15, I think the highest I usually go is around 45-5' to compensate for airborne dust (that's my biggest nemesis in shooting horse shows). I guess that's similar to your atmosphere issue.
 
I can relate to your comments Patrick as I do get to shoot from balloons occasionally and need the blacks right up, never knew why just thought it was my photography. Thanks again for the helpful input and illumination.
 
I use a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet with the pen, and it may be that this is making matters worse, but I'm most comfortable with the pen and it is far quicker than the mouse overall.

I was a confirmed pen user (retouching) but for Lightroom and some other tasks I find the Wacom mouse to be easier to use. I find that it is very easy to switch between the two if needed. The reason I mention this is that I found the same problem you are encountering - making adjustments with the Pen or Mouse using the sliders is frustrating. You can make 1 point adjustments to the Black point by using the -/= keys, I just checked and that is how my copy of LR 2.3 reacts. (other adjustments: Temp 5', Ex '.1, all else 5 points in raw. Tifs, etc sometimes act differently). Problem is, that if you are using the pen or mouse, it is a little awkward to use the keys.

I solved my problem (older machine, terrible lag) by programming the mouse wheel to act like the -/= keys. In other words rotating the mouse wheel forward increases the value, backward decreases. The program works like this: mouse adjust on slider to close to desired value. If I hit the value I want, continue to next adjustment. If the value needs tweaking but is too fiddly to get with mouse on slider, I press the Middle mouse button (the wheel). That activates the wheel adjustment. Adjust value with wheel. The values move in small increments for each click. When I get the value I want, press the Right mouse button to kill my program and revert to normal. The program when active shows a small dialog in the lower right corner which indicates what adjustment is active and as a reminder that the program is active. The program is for Windows only, unfortunately.

This works quite nicely and is quick. One advantage is that when the program is active, the mouse does not have to be over the slider, it can be anywhere so I can forget the mouse. I can then concentrate on the image and make fine adjustments.

Much harder to explain than use. So give the mouse a try, even without the wheel, and use the -/= keys. Mouse in right hand, keys pressed with left.

Larry
 
It would be nice if Lightroom behaved in the same manner as Photoshop's "scrubber" in that when you hold the Alt/Option key while dragging over the number box for a setting that it incremented more slowly for a set distance dragged. It works the same as PS with the Shift key in that it jumps a larger set of increments, but in LR, the Alt/Opt is used to switch the slider to an alternate view (showing clipping, or grayscale in the Sharpening dialog).
 
OK, a little update. First, part of my problems was due to NVidia graphics settings. Following advice from several threads here to change 3D graphics settings, I have improved the response of sliders.

But I have also discovered another gem of Lightroom design. If you use Ctrl while adjusting the sliders, the sensitivity is improved by a factor of around ten, ie you have to move the pen/mouse ten times as far to make the same adjustment. This is fantastic, and will pretty much solve the difficulties I've been having. Unfortunately it doesn't work when dragging in the histogram.

Patrick Cunningham
 
Nice find Patrick! That's a handy hint, I'd never noticed that Ctrl tip.
 
Geez, nice find Patrick.

A little off-topic, I used to have some audio software, can't remember what it was exactly. And audio is nothing but sliders, and more sliders.

In this interface, you'd click and drag the slider per usual, with the difference that
a) motion parallel to the slider axis was a 'coarse' adjustment
b) motion perpendicular to the slider axis was like a divide by ten 'fine' adjustment
Not as simple as it sounds, there had to be some 'deadband' built in to keep coarse jitter from showing in the fine adjustment, but......

I found this extremely efficient and productive. I in fact have suggested this as a feature request at some point. But the ctrl-drag thing will do nicely.
 
Nice find Patrick! That's a handy hint, I'd never noticed that Ctrl tip.
:shock: I always tought I read it in the doc/help files... Well, maybe it was the Shift-Drag one.

Want another clever one? Shift-Double-Click it!
This is the same as pushing the "Auto Tone" button but it does not affect the other sliders. Also work with other sliders the Auto-Tone is related to... :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top