And we’re back with another Lightroom tutorial! Today we’re going to talk about your first line of defense against some common photography issues: the Lightroom Basic panel. If you missed last’s week tutorial about importing your images into Lightroom, check it out here.

If you’re struggling to master basic photo editing, the options in the Basic panel are a great way to get started with balancing light and color effectively. Because they’re all set up as sliders, it’s incredibly easy to go back and make changes if you make a mistake.

Throughout this tutorial I’ll be using examples of my own work as a visual aid. Let’s get started!

 

Basic Panel: White Balance

The first thing you’ll see under the Basic panel is the option to choose your treatment. This is a quick way to switch from color to black and white. Just remember that your white balance sliders can still affect your image if you select “Black & White”!

 

The Eyedropper Tool

 

We’ll cover this again in my upcoming tutorial for advanced users, but let’s also go over some things while we’re here. Notice that little tool on your top left there. This is your eyedropper tool. Click on it to select your eyedropper and hover it over different points in your image.

As you hover,  you’ll see a box like the one above. It’s zooming way in on those pixels and telling you to pick a target neutral. Look for a perfectly neutral area in your image and click on it. This will adjust the white balance of your image based on that neutral spot.

You can get creative if you like, and add an intentional color cast by clicking in an area with a touch of color to it, Be careful and watch out for the more saturated colors. Things get wild, fast! If you need to backpedal, remember that you can always use Command + Z to go back a step.

 

Basic Panel: Tone

Below your white balance, you’ll see “Tone.” This section will manage the lights and darks in your image. It gives you control over different aspects of light balancing. All right there at the top of your “Develop” menu! We’ll cover each slider here.

 

Exposure

This slider is the easiest way to brighten or darken your entire image at once. It’s a quick fix if you’re facing under- or overexposure in an otherwise usable photo. Be careful, though: if you overdo it with this slider you may add digital noise to your image. It’s best used for subtle changes.

 

Contrast

This is another slider that will affect your entire image at one time. “Contrast” will brighten your brights and darken your darks {or the other way around, if you move the slider to the left} quickly for you. As with “Exposure,” you’ll want to stick to subtle changes here. This one-size-fits-all approach may not be right for every project.

 

Example Time:

 

 

To the left, you see an image with the exposure bumped up. Everything is bright and cheery, but we’re also noticing less detail in the bowl of sugar and on the cream. “Exposure” is a double-sided coin: it does a great job of illuminating, but it really shines in a situation where your image is uniformly underexposed.

On the right is the same image, but instead of increasing exposure I bumped up the “Contrast” slider. You can see that some of those same brighter areas have been lightened up while the darker areas have been further darkened or left untouched. Now we see some nice definition in our tonal range, which really works for this image.

Next, you’ll see four more sliders: “Highlights,” “Shadows,” “Whites,” and “Blacks.” The question most beginners have at this point is, “What’s the difference between highlights and whites or shadows and blacks?” We’ll talk about that next.

 

Highlights vs. Whites

These two sliders cover the light areas of your image. “Highlights” covers a wider tonal range. It’s particularly good at bringing back detail from extra shine on your subjects’ faces or other smooth surfaces (in food photography, think fruit). 

“Whites” covers a more narrow range. This is meant to set the perfect white point in your photo. If overused, you’ll start to see some clipping. It’s best to stick to “Highlights” for bigger changes. For a more subtle pop, “Whites” is your best friend.

 

Shadows vs. Blacks

Here you have the same principle in reverse. “Shadows” will affect a wider tonal range than “Blacks,” but both control the darks in your image.

 

“Blacks” is my go-to for adding detail and contrast in my images. I often will darken “Blacks” and brighten “Whites” to get a more targeted punch of value than I would get with the “Contrast” slider.

 

Example Time:

 

Here’s an idea of what you can do with these four sliders. On the left is an image straight out of the camera. In the middle, I lowered the highlights to recover some detail and raised the whites to offset the flatness I caused by reducing the highlights.

On the far right, I also raised my shadows to recover detail in the darker parts of the image with a slight uptick in blacks to get back some of the contrast. You can see that even without adding additional filters or effects, these basic changes make a huge impact.

 

Basic Panel: Presence

The last section in your “Basic” panel is “Presence”. These three sliders tend to cause a lot of confusion with photo editors who are just getting started. What the heck is “Clarity,” anyway? And what’s the difference between “Vibrance” and “Saturation?” Let’s take a look.

 

Clarity

This is not a sharpening slider, but it can help with fuzzy images in a similar way. “Clarity” will increase contrast in your mid-tones. Use this slider to add detail to textured areas of your image by sliding right, or you can smooth skin and similar surfaces by sliding to the left.

 

Example Time:

 

These three images follow the “Clarity” slider from left to right. You can see that we get a hazy, romantic softness when we lower the effect, and more of a dramatic, contrasty look when we raise it.

 

Vibrance vs. Saturation

At first glance, these two sliders may seem like they do the same thing (and in some images, they might.) Think of it as the difference between your “Contrast” slider and one of the more specific sliders like “Whites” or “Blacks,” except here we’re talking about color and not value. Saturation is your all-purpose fix for flat colors in your photo. It will intensify all of the color in your shot at a uniform rate.

“Vibrance,” on the other hand, only affects certain color ranges depending on your image. It will (theoretically) leave the already saturated portions of your image mostly alone, intensifying the flatter color ranges and helping them keep up, in a sense. If you have an image where one color is stealing the show, “Vibrance” can even the playing field.

 

Example Time:

 

Now let’s see it in action. On the left, we have our base image. In the middle, we’ve upped the saturation and you can see a pretty steady boost in color throughout the photo.

On the far right, I’ve also increased the vibrance. Now we’re not necessarily seeing a big change in our already saturated fruit, but we’re pulling in some blues from the background that make for an interesting complementary color scheme.

It’s a matter of taste whether you want those extra hues to creep into your image, but it’s important to know how to make it happen. Even more so if you want the opposite effect. Say you’ve got some subtle color casts happening that throw off your vision, you can sometimes walk that “Vibrance” slider back to nudge them out of the composition.

 

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Now that you’ve got a thorough understanding of the “Basic” panel, go and have some fun! The best way to master Lightroom is to use it, so take one of your favorite images and try out the sliders we’ve covered in this tutorial. You’ll be a pro in no time!

Next week, we’ll take a look at advanced Lightroom features like “Tone Curve” and the “Hue,” “Saturation,” and “Luminance” menu. You’ll get an even greater degree of control over your photo editing and an even better understanding of how light and color affect different aspects of your image. To make sure you will not miss it, you can sign up for my newsletter here!