Wednesday, May 16, 2012

What's the difference between adding contrast and simultaneously darkening highlights and brightening shadows in Lightroom?

Question

In Lightroom 4, when editing a RAW file, what's the difference (if any) between the following edits:

A). +30 Contrast

Or

B). -30 Highlights, +30 Shadows.

Do these do the same thing?

Asked by Eric B

Answer

Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. The GIF animation below shows +30 Contrast, +30 Highlights/-30 Shadows, -30 Highlights/-30 Shadows:

enter image description here

The differences between the three are subtle, however there are indeed differences. Contrast increases the spread of tones across the tonal range, so technically speaking, +30 Contrast is more like +30 highlights/-30 Shadows than it is like -30 Highlights/+30 Shadows. However it is dissimilar from both, in that adjusting contrast also affects color saturation as well as tonal range. This improvement to color contrast is evident between the first two frames of the GIF animation...the colors are more washed out in the +30H/-30S frame (most readily visible in the fence.) Adjustments to contrast are also more likely to affect the entire dynamic range (every tone in the image), where as highlight and shadow adjustments are purposely designed to affect a restricted range of tones.

Answered by jrista

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