# "Auto Black" preset



## rNeil (May 4, 2012)

In 2.7, I have a preset that takes part of the "auto-tone" preset, the part about auto-setting the black to the lowest tone in the image ... and I've forgotten how I did that what, four years ago! How do you go about making one for Lr4, as clearly, my old one doesn't do diddly in it! And this was one of my most-used presets.

Neil


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## Mark Sirota (May 4, 2012)

Sorry, that functionality is not implemented in PV2012.  However, you can still shift-double-click on the sliders.


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## rNeil (May 4, 2012)

Sorry to hear about the auto-black ... that really was my most 'central' preset! Dang.

Um ... shift-double-click ... I don't know that one ... what's it do?

Neil


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## Jim Wilde (May 4, 2012)

Shift-double-click on any of the sliders basically does the 'auto-tone' thing but only for that particular slider. So shift-double-click on the Blacks slider gives you your "auto-black".


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## rNeil (May 4, 2012)

Um ... "shift-double-click" doesn't give anywhere near the effect of the old auto-black, which set the lowest point of exposure to the left edge of the histogram. An image in example ... "shift-double-click" on the header for the black slider moves it to a setting of -6 ... and a TON of things drop down past shadows into pure black, and  LOT of the shadow detail I've printed before is so dark as to be featureless. By hand, setting it back to where it was on import from previous version, or by adjusting so the left edge of image detail in the histogram just touches the left edge ... that is a setting of +17.

NOT at all the same.

I"m having a problem where way too many of my shadows are getting dumped by Lr4 into dark holes ... help! I can't figure out how to keep detail in the shadows with a simple preset (or really the default I'd set) on import! Handling every image individually would be insane ... there's got to be a better way ...

Neil


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## RikkFlohr (May 4, 2012)

Shift-Double Click the Shadows Sliders after you Shift Double Click the Blacks slider


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## rNeil (May 4, 2012)

Thanks for the response, Rikk ... just tried that. Yea, it does lift things a bit ... but to get to where I was in "old", I've got to set "shadows" clear up to about +90 on this image ... and the 'auto-click' only moves it to +25, still leaving a real heavy dark featureless look on this image ... that was so quick to do with the old ... literally, was better on import after having set my defaults (including auto-black and camera profile to D2x-mode1) than it is after individually adjusting several things.

I've got to get this figured out or ... ain't no living I'll make here, I'll be spending hours on setting image tone ... clearly, I'm missing something ... Lr4 seems to dump things towards either end and stretch the middle ... NOT what I want it to do! Where am I going wrong?


Neil


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## Mark Sirota (May 5, 2012)

It's important to be aware that the PV2012 Blacks slider doesn't do the same thing as the old slider of the same name.  There is no direct equivalent, though I don't see the bottom end being overly crunched when I shift-double-click it.

The Auto Blacks functionality in PV2003 and PV2010 is actually an undocumented, unsupported hack...  But I agree it did work well.

All that said, I think the Adobe team knows they have some work to do on the Auto Tone functionality in PV2012.  It took a while in the old PVs as well...  If you're dependent on this, you might be better off sticking with PV2010 for now.


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## rNeil (May 5, 2012)

This is of course frustrating, as there's so much so way cool about the new one ...   

Neil


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