# Hidden gems in Lightroom - share your



## thommy (Jan 6, 2016)

Hi all

I'm very familiar with Lightroom and it's doing what it's supposed to do. But now and then you find hidden gems or not so often mentioned features that can help you in your workflow. 
So why not share your latest found feature that made you shout out loud - WOOOW? 
Please share with me and others so we can make full use of Lightroom together.

Thommy Andersen


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## NJHeart2Heart (Jan 6, 2016)

I don't know if this counts..
I just imported a set of keywords for the first time and it was so easy!  Love that you can do that in LR.


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## clee01l (Jan 6, 2016)

Some of the simplest things many old hands take for granted.  It is difficult to recognize "gems".  So I will start with the most basic.  
*Smart Collections:*  These are queries that help you by automatically grouping images that belong in some meaningful association.  Smart collections can be simple or very complex.  That can be long term standing smart collections or something quick that might be a little more involved that what you can achieve in the filter bar.  They are especially useful in managing Publish Services
Here is an example of on that I use to determine which images to submit to my local camera club for monthly competition judging:
Match{all}
{label color}{is}{purple}
{keywords}{Contains}{@HCC}
{keywords}{Contains}{@4HCCSelection}
{keywords}{doesn't contain}{@Submitted}
{keywords}{Contains}{@Projected}
{keywords}{Contains}{@Selected}
{keywords}{Contains}{@Regular @Creative @Field @Assignment @Monochrome @Unlimited}


*Publish Services:
*Since Publish Services were introduced, I no longer use a static export preset to generate a derivative image file. Instead I let Publish Services manage my derivative files.  This includes not only those that are published off site (Social media) but all those that I need a local copy (such as the monthly competition images for my camera club)

I think it was discovering the power of these two LR functions that really made a quantum leap in managing my image inventory. 

Perhaps the biggest "gem" was discovering the power of *John Beardsworth's Workflow Smart Collections* to manage my workflow.


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## johnbeardy (Jan 6, 2016)

Because you adapted it to your own needs, of course!

For me the hidden gem is the Alt/Option key when:

- dragging sliders in Basic panel or Detail
- dragging the histogram in Develop
- clicking the + to add a new criterion in a smart collection
- clicking a parent keyword / folder / collection set
- zooming in on Map
- in any module....

In the last case, notice in Develop how Reset becomes Set Default. But also on the left hand side Copy... becomes a Copy without launching the Copy Settings. Slideshow has a JPEG export option. There are plenty of others, so just get holding down that Alt/Option key.

Another favourite is "\" when dust spotting - I call it "guess again" as it recalculates the automatic choice of the source. 

The Favourite Sources feature is another which I think is too hidden. It's in the filmstrip where the folder name is displayed and lets you define and quickly access certain folders and collections which you frequently use. If Adobe listened to me, Add to Favourites would be a right click in Folders and Collections!

John


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## Rob_Cullen (Jan 6, 2016)

Not always 'hidden' - just woohoo!

- Setting a default camera profile.
- The Book Module and receiving my book in the mail.
- Converting to B&W by setting all saturation sliders to 0 then using the TAT for contrast (luminance) adjustments.
- Shift + A to quickly crop the selected image to the last used aspect ratio.
- [SpaceBar] to toggle zoom between last two zoom settings.
- Cmd+Option (Mac)  Ctrl+Alt (Win) -drag a pin will duplicate local adjustments made with the Radial Filter, Gradient Filter and the Adjustment Brush.
- Tap the Apostrophe key ( ‘ ) to toggle the Invert Mask option in Radial filter.

Slight correction to [dust spotting - "guess again"] use the "/" forward slash. (Think of the key with the "?" on it.)


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## johnbeardy (Jan 6, 2016)

I-See-Light said:


> - Converting to B&W by setting all saturation sliders to 0 then using the TAT for contrast (luminance) adjustments.



That's actually a workaround for a Lightroom 1.0 bug where setting the image to B&W disabled the noise reduction.


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## rob211 (Jan 6, 2016)

The "synchronize folder..." command.

I am surprised more don't use it; it's the bomb for synching metadata if you share photos with other applications, or people drop images in a common folder, or you just wanna sort out a messy folder.


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## bfu396 (Jan 6, 2016)

One that I use often:  in the Develop Module Basic Panel, just put the cursor over any of the sliders and then hit the up or down arrow keys to adjust. Works to make small, precise adjustments and is very useful for people like me with clutzy hands to move the slider(s) by clicking and dragging.


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## Rob_Cullen (Jan 6, 2016)

> That's actually a workaround for a Lightroom 1.0 bug


Thanks John 'Beardy'! With two of your books on B&W topics, I should have known that fact!:hail:


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## johnbeardy (Jan 6, 2016)

Ha! And I'm 99+% certain I spilled those beans in those books too.

John


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## davidedric (Jan 6, 2016)

Not sure it's really hidden, but tapping"V" in Library to get a quick view of b&w, and "V" again to revert to colour.

Dave


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## Johan Elzenga (Jan 7, 2016)

In Lightroom, the source of the clone/healing tool is automatically chosen, though you can drag the source to a different location afterwards. Here's how you can do that right from the start (please note: this only works as a spot, not as a brush): Click on the destination point while holding the Cmd/Cltr-key. Keep that key pressed and start dragging. You will now be dragging the source point (bypassing the automatic selection). Let go to set that point.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 7, 2016)

My favourite - Shift-double click on the slider label for the Blacks and Whites sliders. It calculates the 'auto' setting based on other existing settings (Exposure, Crop, etc.) so it's usually right.


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## Rob_Cullen (Jan 7, 2016)

In this thread alone I have learnt more about the Spotting Brush- Thanks!

[ / ]  to 'automatically' relocate the 'source' to another area. (& repeat ad infinitum)
Holding the Cmd/Cltr-key to drag the cursor onto choice of 'source' area.
and by dragging the 'destination' spot you can place it over the top of any other defined 'spot'. (handy to correct errors with the 'first' spot)


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## thommy (Jan 8, 2016)

And I can do nothing but agree - learned a bunch of new things - WOOOW x 2 and thanks for all feedback.
One feature I do not understand is the one with the abbreviation TAT - what does it mean? See below...
*"- Converting to B&W by setting all saturation sliders to 0 then using the TAT for contrast (luminance) adjustments."

*Thommy Andersen


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## Rob_Cullen (Jan 8, 2016)

Hi Thommy,
The TAT is the Targeted Adjustment Tool. It appears in the Tone Curve Panel and the HSL Panel when you are developing a photo.
A tiny weeny little spot that looks like a circular target.
When you are in either of these two panels you can click the mouse cursor on the 'Target' and the mouse cursor then changes to a tiny circle with an arrow above and below. Now you can move the cursor onto the photo, click & drag up down to change the effect set in the active panel.

In my post I mention "saturation sliders to 0 "- that is not necessary, you could as easily just click on B&W in the HSL panel and achieve the same effect.
 An example- a photo with Blue sky: Convert to B&W (in HSL panel), select "Luminance" in the panel, click the TAT, place cursor on sky area, drag up or down to change the brightness of the "Blue" channel in the photo.
To be more correct- it changes any color channels that are under the cursor- not always one single color channel.

In a B&W image TAT and luminance will vary contrast between tones, Saturation can be used to bring back one or more colors to the image.

Screen clip - Used the TAT  with Luminance to achieve two different effects-








Try it on the Tone curve!- Set an image to B&W in the HSL panel, change to Tone curve panel, select the TAT and drag up/down on the image.


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## johnbeardy (Jan 8, 2016)

The beauty of using the TAT is that you keep your eye on the picture and its changing appearance, rather than continually switch back and forth to the right hand side sliders, guessing which slider to drag. So your concentration is entirely on image and how different conversion settings might bring the most out of contrasts between certain colours in the picture, or lessen them. So here some treatments reveal the airplanes' interesting paintwork while or others subdue the sky and make the aircraft more obvious.

But for B&W work, use TAT with the B&W adjustment and not the Saturation+Luminance sliders. While the results will be the same, with B&W you're dragging fewer sliders around, you can easily / temporarily switch back to colour with V, and find B&W images more easily in Library (Treatment is B&W). The Saturation+Luminance method was only a workaround for a v1.0 bug affecting noise, but don't mistake a surprising method for a hidden gem


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## JDGriff (Jan 9, 2016)

I took up photography as a retirement hobby and started using Lightroom with version 4 in 2012. My scores at 2 camera clubs were much higher for color images than monochrome. 

Before the September 2014- May 2015 club year, I concentrated on improving my monochrome scores and using the TAT with the Luminance after desaturating all 8 color channels proved to be a useful learning tool for me.

My basic method now is to select a good RAW capture, make a virtual copy, then lens correction, straightening if needed, cropping, back to the basic panel for white balance, setting the white and black points, possibly contrast and vibrance, then to the HSL section to desaturate and use the TAT to adjust luminance.

If I think areas need it, I do selective adjustments, then export it as a PSD file to Photoshop for resizing, final sharpening if needed, then a border and save as JPG for projected image competition.


For the Sept 2014 - May 2015 club year, my monochrome projected image scores were much better than my color ones, and in the club which has a separate monochrome digital image category, every one of my entries earned an honor award and at the end of the club year I was promoted 2 skill levels, from beginner, bypassing intermediate, and going to advanced level. This current club year, I'm keeping up the pace in monochrome scores so far.


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## Rob_Cullen (Jan 9, 2016)

Correct me if I am wrong! John "Beardy"- 
Setting all Saturation sliders "-100" and moving one slider back to "0", is one way to create "Spot Color" on a mono image?
Or you could just Brush on "-100" saturation!


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## wirrah (Jan 10, 2016)

I-See-Light - Off topic but nice shot of the Roulettes - they make a spectacular fly by.


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## Hal P Anderson (Jan 12, 2016)

Rather than holding the cursor over a slider to be able to use the up/down arrows, which is kind of fiddly, you can position the cursor in the appropriate part of the histogram--a much bigger target. For that matter, instead of trying to grab the tiny handle on the slider, you can scrub in the histogram itself. An option for every taste.


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## reidthaler (Jan 27, 2016)

Great thread!  Is there one for a Lightroom wish list?

I have to say one of the hidden gems is the Import preset.  I teach light room and feel that the import preset is the cornerstone of an organized image collection. I’m surprised how many other teachers and tutorials don’t mention the importance of creating and using an import preset. Once you get it set up, you don’t even have to look at the import dialog box, you can just click the up arrow in the lower left corner and collapse it. Just put your card in, make sure your preset is selected, and hit import.

It can also be used to organize a previous mess. Just put your images in one folder, change copy to move and organize your images by year and month.

I spend more time doing photo forensics with individual clients helping to figure out where their images are and getting them organized. The import preset can tidy up a big mess.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 30, 2016)

reidthaler said:


> Great thread!  Is there one for a Lightroom wish list?



There's a whole forum's worth at the Official Feature Request/Bug Report Forum at http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family but you're welcome to start a thread with links to your most favored requests so we can all go vote for them.


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## instanes (Nov 29, 2016)

Victoria...that shift double click on the blacks and whites is worth it's weight in.....well black and white.  Immensely helpful.


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## Robert Reiser (Nov 29, 2016)

Victoria Bampton said:


> My favourite - Shift-double click on the slider label for the Blacks and Whites sliders. It calculates the 'auto' setting based on other existing settings (Exposure, Crop, etc.) so it's usually right.


That is a nice one, thank you! I have to try this out immediately!


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## thommy (Jan 6, 2016)

Hi all

I'm very familiar with Lightroom and it's doing what it's supposed to do. But now and then you find hidden gems or not so often mentioned features that can help you in your workflow. 
So why not share your latest found feature that made you shout out loud - WOOOW? 
Please share with me and others so we can make full use of Lightroom together.

Thommy Andersen


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## Paul B (Dec 1, 2016)

Excellent thread Thommy. Hard one this; one person's "gem" is another group's "we've done this since like forever'" 

A couple of mine:

Sometimes I have a large bunch of photos that I'm not publishing online but I still want to share with someone. Without the faff of exporting, uploading or emailing tens of individual photos I use the 'Export PDF ...' function within Slideshow. If you have a slideshow template set up just for this purpose it's quick and dead easy. One of the key things for me was getting right the trade-off between picture quality (jpeg) and pdf size. An article that helped with this is Jeffrey Friedl's Blog » An Analysis of Lightroom JPEG Export Quality Settings.

Talking of Jeffrey Friedl my other 'gem' is his excellent collection of plug-ins. Okay, as far as this thread goes they're compensating for LR's _deficiencies_; but as a LR user they fit the bill! Probably reasonable to say there's something for everyone here. I've only recently discovered these but my favourite so far is Metadata Wrangler, which controls what metadata is/isn't included during any export.


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## Zanthe (Mar 15, 2018)

When do folks use the shift + double click on the whites and black?

After making other adjustments?


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## Zenon (Mar 15, 2018)

For those of you with LR7 try the Auto. Here is a comparison with auto and double clicking on each one separately. I know many don't like the contrast it selects but that is just one slider.

First is Auto


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## Zenon (Mar 15, 2018)

When I do a lot of edits and send some files to PS I like to prevent the CR2's from being exported. This includes not being in the   the file naming sequence.

1. After saving in PS a new TIFF file is created and placed beside the CR2.

2. I immediately flag the CR2. I also hide it under the TIFF but you don't have to.

3. When done editing

   a) Edit - Select Flagged Photos

   b) Edit - Invert Selection

Now the flagged CR2's won't be exported. I'm sure there is a better way but I stumbled into this a long time ago and it works for me.


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## Rob_Cullen (Mar 16, 2018)

A quick 'Gem'-
When first culling photos in the grid it makes flagging/rating photos easier to place the four fingers of the left hand over the four keys in screen-clip.  The Right hand can control the cursor keys to move through the thumbnails. 
The little finger on the tilde key [`] places a Pick Flag, [1,2,3] place a rating star.


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## stevevp (Mar 16, 2018)

Victoria Bampton said:


> My favourite - Shift-double click on the slider label for the Blacks and Whites sliders. It calculates the 'auto' setting based on other existing settings (Exposure, Crop, etc.) so it's usually right.


Daft question, where exactly do you double click? Which panel?


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## Bob_B (Mar 16, 2018)

Develop module, hover over "Whites" or "Blacks", and double click for auto.


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## stevevp (Mar 16, 2018)

stevevp said:


> Daft question, where exactly do you double click? Which panel?





Bob_B said:


> Develop module, hover over "Whites" or "Blacks", and double click for auto.


Doh, I already do this, I read it as though this was something different for B&W pics. One thing though, I tend to do this before I crop and before I do a final exposure adjustment. Looks like I should be doing it at the end?


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## Paul McFarlane (Mar 16, 2018)

stevevp said:


> One thing though, I tend to do this before I crop and before I do a final exposure adjustment. Looks like I should be doing it at the end?



Yes (ideally) as the auto calculation is based on the other adjustments (adaptive) - assuming you're talking auto on the Whites & Blacks, not overall


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## Zenon (Mar 16, 2018)

Biggest controversy with Auto is the contrast adjustment that seems to head to around -18. Not sure what that is based on. I see more detail in shadow areas when it is lower but I know many don't like it. Perhaps Adobe will proved overrides to Auto settings some day. Contrast at least as this is the one most often mentioned.


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## Roelof Moorlag (Mar 16, 2018)

I have several favorites like Jonh Beardy's Workflow Smart Collection but one that is build in in Lightroom is the Auto Advanced option. Default it is off but i have it on all te time. What is does is: going to the next picture after you rate it (pick, reject or stars).


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## Roelof Moorlag (Mar 16, 2018)

And one i use a lot is doubleclick on a slider to bring it back to the starting point.


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## PhilBurton (Mar 16, 2018)

Roelof Moorlag said:


> I have several favorites like Jonh Beardy's Workflow Smart Collection but one that is build in in Lightroom is the Auto Advanced option. Default it is off but i have it on all te time. What is does is: going to the next picture after you rate it (pick, reject or stars).


For me, John's smart workflow, as adapted for my needs, has been a game changer.

As we are seeing the "gems" are not all Adobe creations.  No surprise there.


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## Ian.B (Mar 17, 2018)

I-See-Light said:


> The little finger on the tilde key [`] places a Pick Flag,
> 
> View attachment 10745 View attachment 10746



Glad you mentioned that one as I have been using it for years. I found it by chance when I hit "~" instead of "1"  and although I have passed it on to many educators, I have never seen it mentioned. Beats me because as you said the left hand is in place to flag and reject (x) photos. 
Add in the Caps Locks to auto-advance to the next file and things move so much faster
Another idea I'm using now instead of flag is to use "1" as that can be read by other applications --- flag is a Lr thing only like Lr collections. 
Instead of using numbers (2 to 5) for grading photos; I use them as a guide to editing done. For me a photo is in, or  out (Xed and deleted), and everything else is a maybe but likely never used

Great thread; I must go back through it again


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## Ian.B (Mar 17, 2018)

Meant to add this also
If you find yourself flicking back and forth between a couple or more files trying to decide which is best there is good chance all are OK to use --- pick with a flag or a 1 and move on. No point beating yourself up about "which one" . On the other hand; if you  flicking back and forth between a couple or more files because they are not really as good as you hoped for, then is fair to say all or most should be deleted; however it pays to keep one to remind you why the photo failed.


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## Ian.B (Mar 17, 2018)

I haven't seen one; but just noticed this an oldish thread but there lots of new to it members

Cleaning up the dust spots
Open Navigator (LH side panel)> click 1:1> move the white square to the top left hand corner in the Nav panel 
open the spot removal tool >remove any spots on the screen
Hit the page down (Pg Dn) key to move down the image
 The really neat part is Lr will move the white square up and over to the right when you get to the bottom
Continue moving down/across the image with the PgDn key until you get to the bottom Right hand corner .  All done
You can also use the "Visualise spots" tool as that shows the spots better

Dust spots is something I don't need worry about too much now as I seldom change lenses on the Oly (only 2 lenses), and I also use a crossover camera. The joy of modern cameras


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## MarkNicholas (Mar 17, 2018)

Great thread.

After years of applying metadata I recently and accidentally stumbled on this. I don't know if it has always been there or is a recent feature. I have previously applied metadata for the Country, State / Province, City and Location. For the past 10 years I have just typed in the text box. Where a particular entry had been recently inserted it would (sometimes) auto select after typing the first character but otherwise you had to type in full. However, what I recently found is that if you click on the actual metadata title (to the left of the text box) you get a drop down list of recently used entries which appears to (smartly) take account of other metadata and keyword entries. This saves quite a lot of time.


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## thommy (Mar 17, 2018)

MarkNicholas said:


> Great thread.
> 
> After years of applying metadata I recently and accidentally stumbled on this. I don't know if it has always been there or is a recent feature. I have previously applied metadata for the Country, State / Province, City and Location. For the past 10 years I have just typed in the text box. Where a particular entry had been recently inserted it would (sometimes) auto select after typing the first character but otherwise you had to type in full. However, what I recently found is that if you click on the actual metadata title (to the left of the text box) you get a drop down list of recently used entries which appears to (smartly) take account of other metadata and keyword entries. This saves quite a lot of time.


Did you know that if you drag your photos to the correct location in the map module, you will automaticallty get city, state/province, country, ISO country code and altitude applied in the metadata?
I use it all the time and it saves time to manually typing into all the text boxes.

Thommy


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## prbimages (Mar 18, 2018)

When editing the Point Curve:

Hold down the ALT key while dragging to give finer control over the adjustment.
Hold down the SHIFT key while dragging to restrict the adjustment to the vertical direction only.


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## Wood (Aug 8, 2018)

I've only been using LR Classic for a few months now, but one thing I discovered by accident (and I don't think I've seen it in books by LRQ, Scott Kelby or even Martin Evening):

We know that you can get finer slider control by extending the borders of the panel, or by hovering and clicking the up/down arrows.  However, I also found that if I hover over the slider, THEN hold the <SHIFT> key (you'll see the options change to include 'Reset'), and finally use the mouse to move the slider, LR will scale movement down to the most granular level.  So I can for example change my exposure by 100th/s of a stop using the mouse and slider and without having to extend the panel.


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## davidedric (Aug 8, 2018)

With reference to the black or white slider double click.  I am a bit puzzled.  Why not just enable the Clipping indicators and drag the sliders to taste, by which I mean you decide whether you are losing important details.  What am I missing?
Dave


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## Wood (Aug 8, 2018)

davidedric said:


> With reference to the black or white slider double click.  I am a bit puzzled.  Why not just enable the Clipping indicators and drag the sliders to taste, by which I mean you decide whether you are losing important details.  What am I missing?
> Dave



I think it really boils down to speed from my experience.  The double click to produce a targeted adjustment 'auto' will be quicker than a manual combination of ALT and Slider.  But I tend to agree with you, using ALT will more or less achieve the same thing, but with the addition of backing off (or increasing) as you wish.  I normally wind it in a bit as most of the auto settings seem to be aiming for a high contrast, maximum dynamic range - which is a bit out of fashion right now!


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