Do you use the brightness slider in ACR?

My RAW workflow using ACR 4.6 consists of the following:

1. My default camera profile that I like is Camera Portrait for my D700
2. Correct WB.
3. Adjust the exposure slider to set the whitepoint/general brightness of the image. If the image would be too dark in order to recover any clipped highlights I adjust the slider to get the brightness I want then recover the clipped highlights using the recovery slider.
4. Adjust the recovery slider if there are still some clipped highlights after adjusting the exposure slider. I never take this slider above 30.
5. Adjust the black point until I see a minor amount of clipping in areas where detail is important, then back down a notch.
6. Adjust fill light only if required. I don't like to exceed 15 with this slider.
7. Adjust contrast up or down depending on if the above looks a bit flat or a bit too contrasty. Often I leave it at the default of 25 and leave touching up contrast to Curves in PS.

I don't use any of the other sliders on the basic tab.

My confusion is, typically when I click "auto" exposure isn't touched but brightness is. Contrast is also often jacked way up and the image looks horrible. Does anyone know what logic Adobe uses for the "auto" mode in ACR 4.6 (and is 5.x any better)?

Also, can anyone explain what I'm missing by not using the brightness slider? Am I doing anything wrong with the above workflow?

Exposure changes the right end side of the histogram, brightness moves the middle, blacks moves the left hand end. I use all three. RAW files often need a midtone bump IMHO, which is what the brightness slider's for.

Like Tim said (I seem to write that a lot), Brightness adjusts the middle but doesn't change the white and black points.

In LR (I guess ACR is basically the same, but maybe not exactly) the Auto Tone does an auto levels adjustment plus a change in contrast and brightness. So if you have already set the white and black points there is nothing for the first part to do. I will often do an Auto Tone first just to set the levels and then tweak Fill, Contrast and Brightness. It is a fast way of working.

tzalman wrote in post #7621395
Like Tim said (I seem to write that a lot), Brightness adjusts the middle but doesn't change the white and black points.


In LR (I guess ACR is basically the same, but maybe not exactly) the Auto Tone does an auto levels adjustment plus a change in contrast and brightness. So if you have already set the white and black points there is nothing for the first part to do. I will often do an Auto Tone first just to set the levels and then tweak Fill, Contrast and Brightness. It is a fast way of working.

For ACR 4.6 auto seems to often do totally the wrong adjustments, especially for brightness and contrast. What auto does with recovery makes more sense.

However, at least for ACR 4.6, even if you set the white and black points, auto ignores what you set completely and overrides everything with what it calculates.

tim wrote in post #7620857
Exposure changes the right end side of the histogram, brightness moves the middle, blacks moves the left hand end. I use all three. RAW files often need a midtone bump IMHO, which is what the brightness slider's for.

I understand what it does Tim, it's just that I can't seem to find an instance where using all three has given me a noticeably different result than just using Exposure and Recovery. I'm sure I'm missing some subtle change though ... maybe in the darker midtones?

Back to squinting at images ...

Suggest you use the Exposure to adjust the highlights to just showing clipping. Then bring up brightness to get the best level on the midtones. Use Recovery, or adjust exposure down again if the brightness adjustment caused to much clipping.

Then adjust blacks while holding down CRTL-ALT to set the black level until you just have some true blacks coming up.

This is what was taught at one of the Kelby seminars I went to. As stated, exposure is more focused on the bright tones and brightness is more centric on the dark and mid tones. Though there is crossover and interaction between them too.

For a good explanation see here http://lightroom-news.com …room/lightroom-tutorials/I find it easier to learn via a video tutorial.

Sometimes I do it with brightness and sometimes I do it on the curves panel...But I find most get a bump up in the midtones somewhere. I find even with slightly underexposed images I usally bring them up this way rather than with exposure....(DISCLAIME​R; this is proably wrong aproach but it's where I usally compensate)

I don't typically move the brightness in ACR 4.6 but I do leave it at the default 50. If I need to adjust the mid-areas then I'll move it though.

Here's a quote from Martin Evening excellent Lightroom book:

In other words, Auto Tone should be used as a starting point for your image adjustments. If it doesn't work for a particular image its a trivial matter to press CTRL+Z and reverse the command. But it doesn't make sense to apply Auto Tone "AFTER" making manual adjustments to Exposure and Fill Light since the command will always reset them to zero.

Also, I don't understand why you're limiting your adjustments to certain parameters; you're in all likelihood missing out on opportunities to further develop your images. Take a look at this tutorial by Deke McClelland; especially pay attention to some of the "extreme" adjustments he makes in the Basic panel (the Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light and Black sliders).

http://tv.adobe.com …graphs.html#vi+​f1584v1007

Bob_A wrote in post #7620700
My RAW workflow using ACR 4.6 consists of the following:

1. My default camera profile that I like is Camera Portrait for my D700
2. Correct WB.
3. Adjust the exposure slider to set the whitepoint/general brightness of the image. If the image would be too dark in order to recover any clipped highlights I adjust the slider to get the brightness I want then recover the clipped highlights using the recovery slider.
4. Adjust the recovery slider if there are still some clipped highlights after adjusting the exposure slider. I never take this slider above 30.
5. Adjust the black point until I see a minor amount of clipping in areas where detail is important, then back down a notch.
6. Adjust fill light only if required. I don't like to exceed 15 with this slider.
7. Adjust contrast up or down depending on if the above looks a bit flat or a bit too contrasty. Often I leave it at the default of 25 and leave touching up contrast to Curves in PS.

I don't use any of the other sliders on the basic tab.

My confusion is, typically when I click "auto" exposure isn't touched but brightness is. Contrast is also often jacked way up and the image looks horrible. Does anyone know what logic Adobe uses for the "auto" mode in ACR 4.6 (and is 5.x any better)?

Also, can anyone explain what I'm missing by not using the brightness slider? Am I doing anything wrong with the above workflow?

bsmotril wrote in post #7628482
Suggest you use the Exposure to adjust the highlights to just showing clipping. Then bring up brightness to get the best level on the midtones. Use Recovery, or adjust exposure down again if the brightness adjustment caused to much clipping.

Then adjust blacks while holding down CRTL-ALT to set the black level until you just have some true blacks coming up.

This is what was taught at one of the Kelby seminars I went to. As stated, exposure is more focused on the bright tones and brightness is more centric on the dark and mid tones. Though there is crossover and interaction between them too.

Thanks, sounds like a sensible approach.

chauncey wrote in post #7628607
For a good explanation see here http://lightroom-news.com …room/lightroom-tutorials/I find it easier to learn via a video tutorial.

I think this fellow did a great job demonstrating the different adjustments. Thanks for posting this.

FedkaTheConvict wrote in post #7628855
Here's a quote from Martin Evening excellent Lightroom book:

In other words, Auto Tone should be used as a starting point for your image adjustments. If it doesn't work for a particular image its a trivial matter to press CTRL+Z and reverse the command. But it doesn't make sense to apply Auto Tone "AFTER" making manual adjustments to Exposure and Fill Light since the command will always reset them to zero.

Also, I don't understand why you're limiting your adjustments to certain parameters; you're in all likelihood missing out on opportunities to further develop your images. Take a look at this tutorial by Deke McClelland; especially pay attention to some of the "extreme" adjustments he makes in the Basic panel (the Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light and Black sliders).

http://tv.adobe.com …graphs.html#vi+​f1584v1007

Interesting video. I really dislike his approach and results ... but hey, each to their own

The point is, regardless of whether or not you "dislike" or agree with his approach, he achieves the result he envisioned.

Artificially limiting the use of the sliders to only certain amounts, as you suggested in your original post, means that you are not always optimizing the results you can obtain.

Bob_A wrote in post #7634440
Interesting video. I really dislike his approach and results ... but hey, each to theri own

Bob_A wrote in post #7624547
I understand what it does Tim, it's just that I can't seem to find an instance where using all three has given me a noticeably different result than just using Exposure and Recovery. I'm sure I'm missing some subtle change though ... maybe in the darker midtones?

I use it all the time, mostly for images with something bright in the background. Most images will get a small midtone bump to look the way I want them to look.