The Basic panel

Learning goal

You will be able to use the sliders in an editing program's Basic panel not at random, but in an order where each leans on the one before. You will explain why white balance comes first, why exposure comes after it, and why contrast comes after exposure; you will call back detail at the extremes with the highlights and shadows; you will leave the white point and black point to the very end and set the image's tonal range; you will check, by watching the histogram and the clipping warning, that no area has blown out or blocked up unintentionally; and at the end of the order you will enlarge the face and go back to the first steps, making sure color and tone stay right on every skin.

The question

You open the first of the twenty frames in your selection: the portrait of your dark-skinned friend drinking water at the fountain. The Basic panel appears with a dozen sliders. First you raise the contrast; the face darkens. You open the shadows; this time the sky stays dull. You pull down the whites; the water drops stop shining. Then you change the temperature and suddenly your whole balance breaks: once the skin shifts toward orange, the exposure starts to look different too. Half an hour later you are left with a frame where nothing stays in place.

What is the right order for the sliders? In this lesson we will talk about why, when you move one, another seems to change, and how to get out of this vicious circle.

Context

A craftsman painting a wall first smooths the wall, then puts on the primer, then applies the color, and finishes the trim and the corners last. If you reverse the order, after carefully painting the corners you have to fix the wall's plaster and redo the whole job. A photo's basic settings are built on top of each other like this too: each next step is done according to the result of the one before.

In Lesson 7.3 we saw what brightness, contrast, shadows and highlights do, and in Lesson 7.4 color temperature and the tint slider. In those lessons we met each slider one by one. This lesson brings them together and tells how to use the Basic panel, found the same way in most editing programs, in an order from start to finish.

Simple explanation

Why does order matter?

The Basic panel is the section of an editing program where the main sliders that set a photo's color and tone as a whole are gathered. Editing order is the arrangement that decides at which step these sliders will be used, building each step on top of the one before. The sliders aren't independent of each other: raising exposure also raises the highlights, raising contrast also darkens the shadows, changing color also changes how bright a face looks. Order lets each slider do only its own job without spoiling another's.

A common order is this: white balance first, then exposure, then contrast, followed by highlights and shadows, and finally the white and black points. White balance comes first, because color also affects the perception of brightness; skin that has shifted toward orange can look lighter or darker than the same skin in the right color. Exposure comes second and sets the image's overall brightness, often according to the middle tones of the most important subject. Contrast comes after exposure, because it works around the middle tones; setting contrast before the middle tones have settled means building the balance around a wrong center.

How are the extremes and the tonal range set?

After exposure and contrast settle, you look at the image's two ends. The highlights slider calls back the detail of bright areas, for example a sky or a white shirt; the shadows slider opens up detail lost in the shadows. These two sliders fix the problems exposure and contrast create at the extremes; that is why they come after them.

The white and black points are left to the very end. The white point is the place of the brightest tone in the image that still carries detail, and the black point is the place of the darkest tone that still carries detail. Setting these two lets the image use its whole tonal range: a frame that looks too gray and flat comes to life when the whites are pulled up a little and the blacks pulled down a little. They are left for last because every earlier step moves the extremes a little; fixing the extremes early leads to them being spoiled again with every later change.

What do the histogram and clipping warning show?

Trusting your eye isn't enough when setting the extremes; the screen's brightness and the room's light can mislead. A histogram is a graph that shows how the tones in a frame are spread from dark to light; a pile pressed against the right edge shows blown whites, and a pile pressed against the left edge shows blocked-up blacks. A clipping warning, on the other hand, is an indicator that marks the areas where detail is lost with a colored overlay on top of the image; in many programs it is turned on with the small buttons in the histogram's corners, or by holding down a key while moving the white and black sliders.

Stopping the white point just before the first small spots appear in the clipping warning gives the image full brightness while protecting bright detail; the same holds for the black point. Small points that have no detail anyway, like the reflection of a lamp or the sun, blowing out is usually not a problem; but if a face's forehead, the folds of a wedding dress or the texture of dark hair appears in the warning, you need to stop.

How does the order close on the face?

At the end of the order you need to go back to the face. You set the white balance in the first step; but as exposure and contrast change, the skin's color can be perceived differently. That is why, in the last step, enlarging the face and making a short return to white balance helps: on dark skin, after exposure has been raised, the skin can look shifted toward gray or red; on light skin, after contrast has been raised, the pink in the cheeks can become oversaturated.

This return isn't breaking the order, but completing it. Seeing that the face carries detail in the eyes, at the edges of the nose and at the roots of the hair, that the forehead of light skin doesn't fall into the clipping warning, and that the shadow side of dark skin doesn't block up into the black point, is the last check to do before finishing the edit. Comparing the edited frame side by side with the original also shows at a glance whether the face has lost its natural color.

Visual evidence

You start the fountain portrait over and reset all the settings. First white balance: you choose your friend's gray T-shirt as a neutral surface; the skin escapes an orange veil and returns to its warm brown. Then exposure: taking the face's middle tones, the lit side of the cheek, as the basis, you open it by a third of a stop. When you raise the contrast a little, the lines of the face become distinct. When you pull back the highlights, clouds appear in the sky behind; when you open the shadows a little, the detail in the fountain's stone comes out.

Last you move to the white and black points. While pulling the whites up you turn on the clipping warning; the moment small red dots appear on the water drops, you stop. While pulling the blacks down, blue patches start to show in the curls of their hair; you take it back a little. Finally you enlarge the face: after exposure was raised, the skin leans slightly toward gray; warming the temperature by a small step brings the deep brown of their skin, the glint of the drops on their forehead and the detail in their eyes into place. Side by side with the original, it is the same person, only clearer and more alive.

Common mistakes

Summary

Because the sliders in the Basic panel affect each other, they are used in an order: white balance first, because color changes the perception of brightness; exposure, which sets overall brightness, after it; contrast, which works around the middle tones, after exposure; and highlights and shadows, which call back detail at the extremes, after that. The white and black points, which set the image's tonal range, are left to the very end and set by looking at the histogram and the clipping warning, without important detail blowing out or blocking up. The order closes by enlarging the face, with a short return to white balance if needed, and a comparison with the original; that way color and tone stay right on every skin.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will edit the same frame twice, first at random, then in order.

1. Choose a portrait from your selection and move the sliders as you like for five minutes, with no order at all; save the result as a version.
2. Reset the settings and follow this lesson's five-step order from start to finish.
3. While setting the white and black points, turn on the clipping warning and check that important detail doesn't blow out or block up.
4. In the last step, enlarge the face, make a short return to white balance if needed, and compare the two versions side by side with the original.

Check yourself

• Did editing in order finish faster and with fewer returns than editing at random?
• Was there a moment when you saw in the clipping warning that important detail was being lost?
• In the edited portrait, is the skin color true to the person in the original, on every skin?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What is the first step of the common editing order in the Basic panel?

• A) Black point
• B) Contrast
• C) White balance
• D) Shadows

2. Why is contrast set after exposure?

• A) Because contrast works around the middle tones, the middle tones need to settle first
• B) Contrast only changes colors
• C) Exposure doesn't affect contrast at all
• D) Contrast is used only in black-and-white photos

3. Why are the white and black points left to the very end?

• A) Because they are the least important settings
• B) Because they are needed only for printing
• C) Because they change colors
• D) Because every earlier step moves the extremes; if fixed early, they get spoiled again

4. After raising exposure, a dark-skinned person's face leans slightly toward gray. What should you do at the end of the order?

• A) Pull the black point down even further
• B) Enlarge the face, make a short return to white balance, and compare with the original
• C) Raise the contrast to the maximum
• D) Nothing; the order is finished

Answers

1. C — Because color affects the perception of brightness, white balance comes first.
2. A — Contrast works around the middle tones; it can't be set before the center settles.
3. D — The extremes are affected by earlier steps; when left to the end, they are set once.
4. B — Exposure and contrast can change the perception of skin color; the last check is made on the face.

Summary card

• Order: white balance → exposure → contrast → highlights and shadows → white and black points.
• Color changes the perception of brightness; that's why white balance comes first.
• Contrast works around the middle tones; after exposure.
• Leave the extremes for last; set them with the histogram and the clipping warning.
• At the end, enlarge the face, make a short return to white balance, compare with the original.

Bridge to the next lesson

The fountain portrait's light and tones have settled; but in the bike tour's landscape frames the colors still look a little faded. Below the Basic panel two more sliders wait: one is called vibrance, the other saturation. Both seem to strengthen colors, but in the portrait, when you raise one your friend's skin runs to orange, while with the other it doesn't. How does a photo become more vivid? The next lesson talks about the difference between vibrance and saturation, and strengthening colors while protecting skin tones.