Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Develop Module Histogram and Clipping Indicators

The Histogram

The Histogram heading is at the top of the right Panel within the Develop Module. The Histogram is a step up from the Histogram displayed in the Library module because it is segmented into four interactive elements. When you position the mouse pointer in any one of the four segments and click and hold down the mouse button, you can push the double arrow cursor to the left or right to adjust how much lighter or darker the image is within the segment. These segments correspond to the Basic heading adjustments for Blacks, Fill Light, Recovery and Exposure. (Fig 7.1).

Shadows and Highlight Clipping

Right-click the Histogram to bring up a contextual menu that customizes the display. Note that the Histogram also has two triangles on the upper corners. When clicked, these indicators are enabled for monitoring image detail clipping within the shadows and highlights. Clipping occurs when there is a lack of detail in the shadow and highlights areas. Photographers refer to this lack of detail in terms like blocked up shadows and blown out highlights. When the clipping indicators are on, black clipping appears as blue spots within the image. The Highlight clipping is indicated by the color red (Fig 7.2).

Having the Clipping Indicators active and dragging within each end of the Histogram region for the Blacks (shadows) and Recovery (highlights) will in most raw images eliminate the blue and red spots will help to reproduce the full dynamic range of the image. Applying this feature is an effective technique to produce an image adjustment with the least amount of effort.

Clipping shortcut key “ j ”

When the Clipping Indicators are not active , use the shortcut key “j” to see the clipped information within an image. Tapping the “j” key again will toggle the clipping off.