Set tone and contrast before color

The first group in the toolbar contains Tone (T), Tone curve, and White balance (W). These panels work in both Color and B&W. For docking and floating controls, see The Editor.

Tone and white balance apply before your color pins. Setting them first gives you a starting point for color grading.

Set white balance

Open White balance (W). Drag the marker on the pad toward the adjustment you want:

• Up to warm the photo.
• Down to cool it.
• Left to add green.
• Right to add magenta.

Hold Shift while dragging for finer adjustments. The readout shows the direction and amount of the shift, such as Warm 0.8 · Green 0.7. It reads Neutral when no adjustment is applied.

To correct a cast using a neutral area, click Pick neutral, then click something in the photo that should be gray.

Double-click the pad to reset. Hold the eye icon in the panel header to preview the photo without the white balance adjustment.

Adjust exposure and tone

Open Tone (T) and use Exposure to set the overall brightness. Its range is −3 to +3 EV.

Then refine the image with Contrast, Brightness, Highlights, and Shadows.

For precise adjustments, click a slider's readout and type a value, or hold Shift while dragging. Double-click a slider to reset it.

Shape the tone curve

The Tone curve adjusts lightness without changing hue or chroma. It applies after the Tone sliders, and the histogram behind it shows the tonal distribution at that stage.

Read and adjust the curve

The horizontal axis shows the starting tone, from shadows on the left to highlights on the right. The vertical axis shows the result, from darker at the bottom to lighter at the top.

• Click the curve to add a point.
• Drag a point up to lighten those tones or down to darken them.
• Double-click a point to remove it.

A gentle S-curve increases contrast by lowering shadows and raising highlights.

Set black and white points

The endpoints control the black and white points:

• Drag the bottom-left endpoint to the right to bring more dark tones to black.
• Drag the top-right endpoint to the left to bring more bright tones to white.

These adjustments can clip detail, so check the result with the clipping overlay.

Check highlights and shadows

Open Histogram near the bottom of the toolbar to inspect the tonal distribution of the current edit.

Click Clipping, or a corner triangle on the histogram, to highlight clipped areas in the photo. Highlights and shadows use different indicators.

If important detail is clipped, reduce the relevant adjustment or move the curve endpoints back. You do not need to remove every clipping indicator; bright light sources and intentional deep blacks may be fine.

To limit adjustments to particular lightness ranges, see Luminance masks.