Luminance adjustment
The process of manipulating the luminance of brightness ranges or specific color channels to recover detail, manage contrast, and control color-specific brightness.
Core Tonal Controls
- Exposure: Global brightness adjustment.
- Shadows: Controls the luminance of the darkest areas.
- Whites: Sets the brightness of the brightest points.
- Blacks: Sets the darkest point of the image.
Color-Specific Luminance
- Color Mixer: Enables targeted luminance adjustments within individual color channels, alongside Hue and Saturation.
Workflow & Implementation
- Part of Initial Image Preparation, which typically includes straightening and basic panel adjustments to Exposure, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.
- Applied via Masking presets, such as the “Landscape” feature available in Adobe Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC, and Camera Raw.
- Targeted color-specific luminance manipulation via the Color Mixer panel in Lightroom Classic.
Related Sources
- 2026 04 14 Landscape processing in Lightroom Classic Anthony Morganti
- 2026 04 22 2026 04 22 Lightroom Classic Targeted HSL Color Adjustments Using the Color Mixer (Julieanne Kost: Using Color Mixer to Adjust Hue, Saturation, and Luminance)
Source Notes
- 2026-04-22: Lightroom Classic · ▶ source
- 2026-04-08: Lightroom Dark and Moody Photo Processing for Dramatic Photo Enhanceme · ▶ source