Do you know what the Luminance slider in Lightroom does and why is it so important? Sure, you can slide it left and right and watch your image change before your eyes, but do you really know what’s going on and why this slider is so powerful?
I subscribe to dozens upon dozens of post-production channels on YouTube. Most of them are related to Photoshop and Adobe’s Lightroom, as they are the two platforms I use the most in my editing workflow. So I think I’m pretty good with both forms of software and can handle most people. That said, there’s always something new to learn, and it doesn’t have to be anything revolutionary. Sometimes it can be as simple as getting a deeper understanding of a popular tool.
And that concept brings us to this great video by Mark Denney, in which he walks us through the Luminance slider in Lightroom. I think almost anyone who uses Lightroom knows about the Luminance slider in the Color Levels panel and has probably used it on occasion to spice up some colors in an image. But do you really know what the slider is doing and what pixels it specifically affects? Here, Denney makes good use of the histogram to show us where and how the Brightness slider works its magic. Knowing this can make your editing much more intuitive. After you see it in use, I think you’ll be amazed at how easy it is to implement in your editing workflow, but more importantly, you’ll know why you’re using it and when. Use it for the greatest impact. Check out the video and let me know what you think below.
