# How To Do Auto Levels in LR?



## Chris_N

Prior to using LR I found that auto levels often fixed 90% of my photos in Photoshop Elements. Often I combined auto levels with auto colour or sometimes auto auto smart fix did the trick. In LR there is the auto tone feature which I have found to be very disappointing. Sometimes it works but most of the time it does not and in high contrast situations it often produces wild over exposure which slows down my workflow. I have some questions I need help with please.

1- Is there any kind of work around in LR that can just do a quick auto levels? 
2- Has anyone found a work around? eg auto tone followed by an exposure adjustment?

I do wish Adobe would fix this problem and include some standard tools that are available in PS and PSE.   

Your advice would be appreciated. 

Kind Regards
Chris

Newbie using LR5, 32 bit Windows 7 Ultimate, 3Gbt Ram, 1Tb free HDD space


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## Bryan Conner

I do not know of a work around, but from what I understand, the auto tone in LR4-LR5 is improved over LR3.  I did not start using LR until LR4, so I can not vouch for this.  But, I do seem to see an improvement in auto tone in LR5rc over LR4.4.

You can try this:  Hold the shift key and double click on the name of the slider to which you want to apply the auto adjustment.  This applies the auto adjustment setting for that slider only.  This works in later versions of Lightroom, I do not know about LR3.


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## clee01l

You can create a develop preset that will handle "90% of my photos". This can include Autotone and anything else you want to adjust.  On import create an Import preset that (among other things), applies the Develop preset.  This is what I am doing. Do keep in mind that Exposure is part of the AutoTone automatic adjustment.


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## Chris_N

Thank you Bryan and Cletus for your thoughts. I tried auto Exposure only using the shift key and double clicking Exposure only. I get the same wild response with over exposure most of the time. Auto tone works only 35% - 50% of the time for me whereas auto levels/auto smart fix in PSE works about 90% of the time. It seems that there are just different algorithms  in PSE/PS that are just better. I hope Adobe fixes this. The only work around seems to be to start with Auto Tone and then adjust the exposure and take it from there. 

http://forums.adobe.com/message/4275440

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/735590

Kind Regards

Chris


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## sizzlingbadger

My experience...

Auto Tone in LR = complete waste of time
Auto Levels in Photoshop Aperture CaptureOne = useful and predictable


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## Bryan Conner

Chris_N said:


> Thank you Bryan and Cletus for your thoughts. I tried auto Exposure only using the shift key and double clicking Exposure only. I get the same wild response with over exposure most of the time. Auto tone works only 35% - 50% of the time for me whereas auto levels/auto smart fix in PSE works about 90% of the time. It seems that there are just different algorithms  in PSE/PS that are just better. I hope Adobe fixes this. The only work around seems to be to start with Auto Tone and then adjust the exposure and take it from there.
> 
> http://forums.adobe.com/message/4275440
> 
> http://forums.adobe.com/thread/735590
> 
> Kind Regards
> 
> Chris



Why are you shift/double clicking on the Exposure slider's name when you are not wanting auto exposure?  I believe that it is the auto exposure that you do not like.  Try only shift/double clicking the other sliders...Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.  Do not do auto exposure, or auto contrast.  When you do a ctrl/alt L in Photoshop, you are doing only levels...you are setting the black,grey, and white points.  


It is not very often that I use Auto Tone in LR, but when I do, I click on Auto Tone, then I double click exposure and contrast to reset them to the default settings.  This achieves the same thing as shift double clicking the highlights, shadows, whites, and black sliders.  

I think it also is very difficult to say what is the "right" auto tone result when you consider how many different opinions photographers have.  I am sure there are people out there that believe that Auto Tone is all they need...it is perfect for them.  If a computer could read our minds, know exactly how we wish the image to appear on screen/print, then we could build that computer into the camera and we would not have to use raw converters or even Photoshop.  But, as it is now, the computer can only "guess" about the image and how it should appear.


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## Chris_N

Thanks for your suggestions Bryan, I will try them. 

Sadly it seems there is no quick work around for auto levels in LR. From my experience with PS Elements auto levels is the most useful starting point for nearly all of my images, its then a matter of tweaking midrange tones and shadows. It will take me a while to get used to LR. 

Kind Regards
Chris


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## Alan Klein

Chris_N said:


> Thanks for your suggestions Bryan, I will try them.
> 
> Sadly it seems there is no quick work around for auto levels in LR. From my experience with PS Elements auto levels is the most useful starting point for nearly all of my images, its then a matter of tweaking midrange tones and shadows. It will take me a while to get used to LR.
> 
> Kind Regards
> Chris



Have you figured out how to use Levels in LR?  Anyone else?


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## Rob_Cullen

> Anyone else?


For a 'Simplistic' comparison-

In Photoshop you drag the triangle markers under the Levels histogram.







In Lightroom you drag the mouse cursor left/right while hovering over the required AREA of the histogram in develop mode. (Press J to toggle the clipping indicators ON.)


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