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Tone Curve Splits

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theturninggate

The Turning Gate
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Oct 13, 2007
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Lightroom never ceases to amaze me. I'm always finding new things to do with it, and new (often better) ways to do things I'm already doing. I've just now discovered the "split" marks at the bottom of the Tone Curve histogram, which allow you to set exactly where highlights separate from lights, lights from darks, and darks from shadows.

Is this something new in 1.3 that I've missed until now, or have I been missing it all along?
 
I have seen that but never knew how to use it. I've tried moving the sliders around but I don't see what advantage it gives. What am I misssing?
 
You slide them left or right to reposition them, changing which areas of the histogram are affected by pushing Shadows, Dark, Lights or Highlights. For example, you can narrow the shadows, so that more areas of your photo will be affected by changes to the Dark slider. Another example:

I was just working on a photo with a bright sky. I wanted to push the Lights up in the foreground, without over-blowing the sky. But some of the foreground areas I wanted to push lighter were falling into the Highlight portion of the Tone Curve histogram, so that when I brightened them using the Highlights slider, the sky became over-exposed. I increased the width of the Lights, narrowing the Highlight area and confining it to the sky. I was then able to Lighten the areas I wanted, while repressing the sky to retain detail in my clouds.
 
They've been there all along. Since the public beta days, IIRC.

I often find myself sliding the middle slider to the left to about 35 or so and then raising the Lights by about 25 or so. The effect is similar to raising the Brightness slider, but it's easier for my brain to understand this approach because I can see it right on the curve. (I normally do this with the Brightness near its default of 5'.)
 
Edit
Wow, two new answers while I'm typing mine.
Skim the explanation, go straight to the tutorial link.
/Edit

Those sliders have been there, for many versions.
You adjust the curve by
a) dragging it,
b) moving the highlights, darks, lights, shadows sliders

Unlike PhotoShop, you don't add adjustment points to the curve. LR limits the shape of the adjustment curve, so that no matter where you drag in the range, the resulting shape is the same.

In order to adjust the shape (or the effective adjustment range) somewhat, LR allows you to move the sliders directly below the Tone Curve, which change the definition of the adjustment ranges (highlights, e.g.) which consequently changes the fixed 'endpoints' of the range, which affect the possible shapes attainable.

Matt K'ski has a nice tutorial @

www.adobe.com/go/learn_lr_video_curve


....brad s
 
Since public beta days, eh? Makes me wonder what else I've missed. Much as I use Lightroom, and as well as I know it, I'm constantly finding I still don't know it well enough. There are always pleasant surprises hiding in the nooks, like a never-ending Easter egg hunt. I love it! ;)
 
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