# quarter-tone Level adjustment?



## DavidO (Apr 11, 2015)

I currently use Aperture for editing my photography. With the advent of Apple's new "Photos" app and discontinuing support of Aperture, I have decisions to make (like so many of you).
Here's the nub of the issue for me:
I'm a Mac user who uses Aperture. Because of the drop of support for this program, I'm considering Lightroom - but have a question.

I make extensive use of the *quarter-tone Levels* adjustment in Aperture. For those who don't know what this means, the default Levels setting offers three adjustment points (set at 0, 50, and 100), but there's an additional option to display 5 points (set at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100). I find it immensely helpful being able to adjust 5 different points (quarter-tone levels)
*
My Question*:
*Does Lightroom offer a "quarter-tone Levels" adjustment* (5 points), or does it only have the default 3 points?

If Lightroom does offer this feature, I'm ready move over to Lightroom and be done with Aperture.


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## Rob_Cullen (Apr 12, 2015)

I don't think you need worry about the transition to Lightroom, as the histogram doesn't really show 'Points' in the histogram as does Aperture (and Photoshop, etc).
The adjustment sliders do cover 5 tone zones- Blacks, Shadows, Midtones, Highlights, Whites, which is often sufficient for tonal adjustments in most images.
If you do need more points (5?) just move to the Tone Curve and you can place as many tone points on the curve as you desire.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 12, 2015)

And you can save it as a tone curve preset, i.e. you can create your own "quarter-tone levels" tone curve, save it as a preset, then use it whenever you want.


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 12, 2015)

Jim Wilde said:


> And you can save it as a tone curve preset, i.e. you can create your own "quarter-tone levels" tone curve, save it as a preset, then use it whenever you want.


Does this actually work? I have saved Tone Curve presets a couple of times and they have disappeared into the bowels of my computer (ok, I now where they are) but they don't show up anywhere, they are not in the tone curve and they are not under user presets.

I saved them is because there had 6 points and new I was going to use them in other photos in the same sequence.


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## Hal P Anderson (Apr 12, 2015)

Modesto,

I created a Point Curve and saved it. It shows up in the curve presets:


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 12, 2015)

Hal P Anderson said:


> Modesto,
> 
> I created a Point Curve and saved it. It shows up in the curve presets:


Hal,

For some reason I cannot get that to work on OS X 10.10.3 with Lr 5.7.1. I added a point to the curve, click on the Point Curve list, select save, save it and they do not appear in Lr afterwards as shown in your screenshot as I would have expected.

For some reason, I don't think Lr is saving them in the right place. I can see the dialog doing something weird, possibly a change of directories.

You can do the equivalent to quarter-tone adjustments in Lr, and more, but I find Lr a little flaky sometimes.


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 12, 2015)

To be precise on why I have used the term flaky to describe the functionality of saving custom top levels in Lr 5.7.1. on OS X 10.9.X and 10.10.X, this is what is happening:

According to this blog http://blogs.adobe.com/jkost/2014/04/saving-custom-tone-curves-in-lightroom.html, Lr should be saving custom tone curves to [FONT=Myriad, Arial, sans-serif]user)/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Curves. It doesn't, there is definitely a bug here. I can see the save dialog trying to go to that folder than immediately jumping to my home folder where my 2 previous presets have ended up. I suspect that this is because the Library folder is a hidden folder and Lr cannot see it; I know how to make it visible to Finder but I don't know if I can do the same with Lr. As soon as I copy the custom tone levels to the right location in Finder and restart Lr they appear in the list as per your screenshot.
[/FONT]
Considering that the OP is running OS X 10.10.X and that this seems to be an OS X specific problem, I am not sure about recommending an upgrade to Lr, specially if he is considering a subscription. This is the 2nd problem I am aware of with hidden folders, Lr 5.7.x and OS X 10.10.X.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 12, 2015)

Works OK on Mavericks 10.9.


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## clee01l (Apr 12, 2015)

Jim Wilde said:


> Works OK on Mavericks 10.9.


Work on OS X 10.10.3 too and the Curve is saved to /Users/{UserID}/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Curves


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 12, 2015)

clee01l said:


> Work on OS X 10.10.3 too and the Curve is saved to /Users/{UserID}/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Curves


Interesting because it does not work on mine, it just puts it under /Users/{UserID} but I literary can see the dialog "jumping" from the correct location to /Users/{UserID} without me touching anything. So any ideas welcomed because I have no clue what is going on.


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## Rob_Cullen (Apr 12, 2015)

Modesto, Can you save the tone curve as a 'Preset' (not the 'Save' option in the tone curve panel)?

Design your curve,
Click [+] on the Presets Panel header,
Uncheck all, then tick [Tone Curve]  (and [Process Version])
Give it a name and [Create]


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 14, 2015)

I-See-Light said:


> Modesto, Can you save the tone curve as a 'Preset' (not the 'Save' option in the tone curve panel)?
> 
> Design your curve,
> Click [+] on the Presets Panel header,
> ...


If I follow your instructions it does create a User Preset but as expected it does not appear as shown in the screenshot in Hal's post. There is also a big problem with this approach, for some reason if I a roll back any adjustments prior to the the point where the preset was created Lr removes it. I have not checked if this happens with other presets.

In summary, I cannot get Lr to create a custom tone curve and place it in the right location; it creates but I have to move it to right location using finder.

Sorry to insist, I do recommend Lr, but with a health warning, some features are held with pins and I have found another  one.


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 15, 2015)

Modesto, I-S-L's method creates a Develop preset, not a Tone Curve preset (it should still do the same job)....so after creation it should be found in the User Presets area of the main Presets panel, not as shown in Hal's post.


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## Rob_Cullen (Apr 15, 2015)

Thanks Jim, yes -a preset in the Develop Presets panel under the Navigator panel.


> if I a roll back any adjustments prior to the the point where the preset was created Lr removes it.


Just apply the Preset again- one click in the Presets panel.

Also saving the tone curve as a "Tone Curve Preset" worked for me. When I selected 'Save' windows opened up my folder- 
C:\Users\{My Name}\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\CameraRaw\Curves
and it thereafter appeared in the Tone Curve drop-down menu. I cannot help with the vagaries of a Mac. :crazy:


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## Jim Wilde (Apr 15, 2015)

No trouble with the Tone Curve Preset on both Windows and Mac for me.


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 15, 2015)

I-S-L, Jim &, for that matter, Hal & Cletus

I know it works for you but it doesn't for me and "raising your hand" and saying I have no problems with it is not only not very useful but also the oldest of IT tricks I know, if it works for me you must be doing something wrong. Don't get me wrong I have tried that trick many times myself but it is not very useful, isn't it?

The preset is a workaround, but a workaround after all, and this is providing I can get it to behave the way I-S-L describes: you click on it twice and it stays there.


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 15, 2015)

I-See-Light said:


> I cannot help with the vagaries of a Mac. :crazy:


I-S-L summed it up very well. I found another workaround from this.

If I click on Point Curve select and with the Save dialog box opened simultaneously press Shift+~ another dialog pops-up, on that dialog I can just type the word "_Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/Curves"_ and guess what happens, Lr goes to the right folder, saves the file to the right location, and, or course appears in the Point Curve list.

Go figure.

Indeed, the vagaries of a Mac. :crazy:.


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## Rob_Cullen (Apr 16, 2015)

Okay Modesto, now you have me thinking- what is the [Shift+~] key shortcut on a Mac?


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 16, 2015)

I-See-Light said:


> Okay Modesto, now you have me thinking- what is the [Shift+~] key shortcut on a Mac?


Perhaps you can get me out my misery and know what it does because so far my search has yielded nothing. Hoping is not an undocumented feature or an easter egg. [Cmd + Shift + ~] is documented but not [Shift + ~].


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## clee01l (Apr 17, 2015)

Modesto Vega said:


> Perhaps you can get me out my misery and know what it does because so far my search has yielded nothing. Hoping is not an undocumented feature or an easter egg. [Cmd + Shift + ~] is documented but not [Shift + ~].


The first key on the top row keys [`] unshifted and [~] when shifted.  So, there is no OS X [Shft][~] shortcut.


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## Modesto Vega (Apr 17, 2015)

clee01l said:


> The first key on the top row keys [`] unshifted and [~] when shifted.  So, there is no OS X [Shft][~] shortcut.


You are right about this. 2 more things Tilde [~] means Home in Finder and the same box appears if I just press [/]. I just need to find out how to stop the dialog from chaging directory and going Home before I have control.


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