Can Lightroom's Auto Tone be changed so it doesn't adjust exposure?
Asked 10/9/2015
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In Lightroom Classic, I often click the Auto button in Develop as a starting point. I usually like what it does to highlights and shadows, but it often makes my images look too bright. I generally expose the photo how I want in camera, so I’d prefer Auto to leave Exposure alone while still applying its other automatic tone changes. Is there any way to customize Auto Tone’s default behavior, or disable only the exposure change?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
1
Unfortunately not. The nearest you can come is to set up automatic adjustments that happen when you import photos, but of course this will apply to everything you import while that is set. It is OK as a starting point to do this and then finishing adjustments yourself. As people have commented, you should get your monitor calibrated and also get used to using the histogram as a guide.
The camera's Lcd is never going to be able to show you enough accurate detail to make any sort of decision on the quality of the image apart from glaring problems.
Originally by user45394. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user45394
10y ago
0
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No. Lightroom’s Auto Tone behavior itself isn’t user-configurable, so you can’t tell Auto to adjust highlights/shadows but leave Exposure untouched.
The closest workaround is to apply automatic adjustments during import or use Auto only as a rough starting point, then manually reset Exposure and fine-tune the image yourself.
If Auto consistently looks too bright, it’s also worth checking your editing setup: calibrate your monitor if possible and use the histogram as a reference rather than relying on a laptop screen or camera LCD alone. Those displays aren’t reliable enough for judging subtle exposure accurately.
So in short: Auto can’t be tweaked at that level; manual correction after Auto is the practical approach.
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