The tone curve in Lightroom is a powerful tool for adjusting the exposure and tonal balance of your photos. Mastering this feature can help you achieve more refined edits, creating a polished, professional look.
Coming to you from Christian Möhrle - The Phlog Photography, this informative video walks you through the key steps to use the tone curve effectively. Instead of starting with the Basic tab for tonal adjustments, Möhrle heads straight to the tone curve, where you can fine-tune brightness and contrast with precision. He begins by introducing the parametric and point curves, highlighting why the latter offers more flexibility. With the point curve, you can manipulate specific tones in the image by placing points on the curve and adjusting them vertically or horizontally. This freedom allows for more nuanced control over highlights, midtones, and shadows.
The video shows a high-key editing process. Möhrle starts by increasing the brightness of highlights without causing overexposure. He explains how each adjustment on the curve subtly affects surrounding tones, creating a softer gradient for a natural look. To maintain balance, he anchors the midtones by adding a point and slightly lowering it, preserving the overall tonal integrity. For shadows, he carefully lifts the black point to create a soft, dreamy effect. These adjustments bring out more detail and create a punchier image without losing control over the tonal range.
Beyond the tone curve, Möhrle demonstrates how these adjustments can impact saturation. The tone curve often increases the color intensity, but Lightroom includes a refined saturation slider to counteract or enhance this effect. Möhrle opts to slightly boost saturation, adding vibrancy to the image. He also tweaks the white balance to introduce warmth, enhancing the overall mood of the shot.
In addition to global adjustments, the video dives into masking techniques for localized edits. Möhrle uses a color range mask to darken the blues in the sky, adding contrast and depth. He also creates a radial gradient to simulate a soft glow of sunlight, using tools like negative dehaze and increased black levels for a subtle, realistic effect. These techniques showcase how Lightroom’s masking tools can refine specific areas of a photo without affecting the rest of the image.
Möhrle wraps up with additional enhancements, including sharpening and spot removal. He uses the detail panel to selectively sharpen parts of the image while masking out areas like the sky that don’t need sharpening. Finally, he removes sensor spots using the heal tool, ensuring a clean, distraction-free final image. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Möhrle.
Alex, this article provides a fantastic breakdown of the tone curve’s potential in Lightroom, and I found Christian Möhrle’s video super informative—concise yet packed with useful information. His approach to using the tone curve first, rather than relying on the Basic tab, really underscores how powerful this tool can be for precise tonal adjustments.
One of my favorite takeaways was how subtle shifts in the curve can completely change the mood of an image, whether through high-key brightness adjustments or a gentle lift of the black point for a dreamy, cinematic look. These techniques are invaluable for editorial and fashion photography, where the right tonal balance can enhance depth and emotion in an image. I also appreciated his use of localized masking, which is something I often leverage in my own work to refine details without affecting the entire scene.
This video serves as a great reminder that small, intentional adjustments can make a huge impact. What’s your favorite way to use the tone curve in your edits?
Paul Tocatlian
Kisau Photography
www.kisau.com