Develop Module

As with the Library module Develop has seen some very significant improvement, especially those associated with the Histogram, Basic and Tone Curve panels. Another important change is the fact that many of the Lightroom adjustments are now compatible with Adobe Camera Raw. Obviously some Lightroom adjustment controls aren't available in Camera Raw, so don't be expecting miracles. Nevertheless, these aren't the only big change/improvements in the Beta 4 Develop module.

 

Develop Module with new active Histogram and Tone Curve

 

Basic Panel Controls and Histogram

So what else is new? The active Histogram and Tone Curve complete with live feedback! These two adjustment sets are exceptionally powerful, but can appear somewhat complicated. Describing how the active Histogram and Tone Curve works is a lot more difficult than demonstrating it. However, I'll give it a try...

 

In Lightroom Beta 4 the Histogram is divided into 4 segments each of which corresponds with a specific control slider: Blacks, Fill Light, Exposure, Highlight Recovery. In the screenshot I've colour coded each segment for clarity: red for Blacks, blue for Fill Light, green for Exposure, and yellow for Highlight Recovery. Say you want to adjust exposure - click anywhere inside the green segment and drag left or right; note that the Exposure slider will also move. Alternatively, just hover the mouse over the exposure segment or slider and use the up/down arrow keys to increase/decrease the exposure. Then again you could simply grab the slider and drag it left/right, scrub the text input filed left/right or just type in a value. To reset Exposure back to default just double click inside the exposure region of the Histogram or on the slider button. So, now you know how the active Histogram works you can play around with it yourself. The Auto Adjust Tonality checkbox  is another useful addition, which can be very useful, so don't dismiss it. Once set to "On"  drag sliders or histogram as required to fine-tune the image. Note that unchecking it does not reset the sliders to default. The little squares in the top right/ left corners of the Histogram are an idea derived from Raw Shooter to denote Highlight, Shadow and Channel clipping. Clicking on them switches them toggles them through various display modes. In one mode you they'll automatically light up to show which channel is clipping and in another they only light up when you roll the mouse over them. Again, experiment with them and all will become clear.

Basic Panel and Histogram

Now that we know how the controls in the Histogram work it's time to explain what the new Recovery, Fill Light and Vibrance controls do. Anyone familiar with Adobe Camera Raw or earlier Lightroom betas will know that the Exposure slider was used so set the highlight point and Brightness was then applied to counteract any brightening or darkening of the midtones. The Exposure slider was also the means by which negative exposure could be applied to the image and thus recover highlight detail. Unfortunately, this process also tended to be a bit counterintuitive, hence the new Recovery slider. Now, instead of applying negative exposure to recover lost highlight detail you use the Recovery slider, which also has the benefit of not darkening the image. So, the idea is that you use the Exposure slider first to set the overall brightness level of the image, then drag the Recovery slider to the right until the highlight detail is recovered. Actually, the best way of using the Recovery slider is to begin with it set to 0 then press the Option/Alt key whilst dragging, thus activating the highlight clipping display in the image (i.e. same principle Camera Raw uses with Exposure slider).

The Fill Light is another new control and can be used to brighten up shadows. Fill Light is the control that I've found most beneficial in Lightroom Beta 4. In particular, images that previously required the use of the Shadow/Highlight feature in Photoshop can now be edited very easily without even leaving Lightroom. The Brightness, Contrast and ACR Curve adjustments have been retained for legacy regions (i.e. compatibility with Camera Raw images), which means that they can generally be left in the their default positions.

The release notes state that the Vibrance control was inspired by RawShooter, although the effects are somewhat different. Again, the release notes indicate that this slider controls a non-linear saturation adjustment, which should avoid blowing out the saturation on heavily saturated colours. Essentially this means that it effects lower saturated pixels more than highly saturated pixels. The Vibrance control is particularly effective when applied to flesh tones.

Tone Curve

The Tone Curve works in a similar fashion to the Histogram, but the segments relate to: Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows. Floating the mouse over the Tone Curve or the image will result in a dot appearing on the curve. You can either drag this dot up or down to a adjust the curve. Alternatively you can use the Up/Down arrow keys. Also note that the old tone curve adjustments found in previous betas have been greatly simplified, and with the addition of the third "split point" (triangles under the curve) you should now have even more control than before. Remember that the "split points" can also be adjusted. Resetting the individual tone curve sliders back to zero is as easy as it was with the Histogram - double click the relevant region in the curve or the slider button. Likewise, double clicking the "split points" will reset them. Lastly, if you want to save some screen space you can close the slider section of the Tone Curve.

 

Tone Curve with visual feedback

 

Both the Histogram and Tone Curve have their own context menus that enable/disable some of the features described above, so make sure that you configure them to suite your own method of work.

With the addition of the Recovery, Fill Light, and Vibrance adjustment toolset it has been necessary to redesign the Synchronise Settings dialog. Whilst important I think this particular dialog may becoming a little overloaded.

 

Synchronize Setting allows you to apply settings from one image to selected others

 

White Balance

The new White Balance tool along with its floating Pixel Magnifier and RGB readout should make setting the white balance a lot easier than it ahs been to date. You can still access it via the "W" key or simply click on it and drag it off its dock. Once you click on the image it will automatically re-dock. However, this change in operation from earlier betas mean that you can't easily make multiple attempts at white balance. Not to worry, hold down the "W" key and the tool stays active. Also, note that the navigator preview shows how the white balance will alter if you click the point under the sample tool.

 

New White Balance Tool with RGB Readout and Pixel Magnifier

 

Toolbar and Views

As with the Library module there's a  new look toolbar in Develop module. At present it's fairly stark, which might imply that there are other tools waiting in the wings to be included when ready. The following screenshot shows two views of the redesigned toolbar with the lower version showing some of the hidden buttons. These buttons appear depending upon the actual type of split view. As with the Library module, you can maximise screens real estate by turning off the toolbar using the "T" key. To switch it back On again press "T" again.

 

Develop Module Toolbar

 

Other than the method of accessing the various Before and After views little has changed with this viewing mode. The following screenshot shows how the Before /After Left/Right  Split appears on screen.

 

Before/After Left/Right Split

 

 

Exporting Images

Exporting images from Lightroom is the only way that they they can be saved, so any improvements to the Export dialog need to make the task easier than it has been to date. However, as of going public the Beta 4 Export dialog only has one new feature, but it's very useful nonetheless. This new feature is found towards the bottom of the dialog and provides the user with a number of post-processing actions, which includes burning the images to disk or opening them into Photoshop. You might ask why a second method opening an image into Photoshop is required. Well, it could be any other editing application (e.g. Photoshop Elements) that you've selected as the External Editor in Preferences.

 

Enhanced Export dialog with new post processing options

 

Side Panel Behaviour

The last feature I want to mention is the ability to configure which panels are available on each pane. Previously all panels were displayed, which meant that even those you used rarely or not at all took up real estate and often required that you scrolled a lot. Beta 4 now has lots of context menus that allow you to switch these panels off. It also has context menus that allow you to control how/when the side panes, etc spring out and in. The following screenshot shows the context menu for the right Develop module pane.

 

Disable individual side panels

 

Conclusion

In this relatively short review I've only really skimmed the surface. To be honest there just too many new features to cover, so, I'll leave the rest for you to discover for yourself. In the meantime I'll try to add more information on features such as Photo Binders, etc. As for the features you hoped would be included but can't find, well it's the same as story as with Beta 3 - "Rome wasn't built in a day". Also, remember that this is still beta code, so there will be bugs (hopefully not serious). Nevertheless, if you do find a bug or think it might be, then report it via the Lightroom Bug Report Forum.

 

Oh, and don't forget Rule 5: ENJOY!