Develop module panels and tools

The Develop module contains two sets of panels and a toolbar for viewing and editing a photo. On the left are the Navigator, Presets, Snapshots, History, and Collections panels for previewing, saving, and selecting changes you’ve made to a photo. On the right are the tools and panels for making global and local adjustments to a photo. The toolbar contains controls for tasks such as changing between Before and After views, playing an impromptu slide show, and zooming.

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The Develop module
A.
Presets, Snapshots, History, and Collections panels

B.
Histogram

C.
RGB values

D.
Tool strip

E.
Adjustment panels

F.
Navigation zoom controls

G.
Toolbar

  • The Histogram panel in the Develop module allows you to measure color tones as well as make tonal adjustments to the photo.

  • The tools in the tool strip let you fix red eye, remove dust and spots, crop and straighten photos, and apply adjustments to specific areas of a photo.

  • The Basic panel contains the main tools for adjusting the photo’s white balance, color saturation, and tonal scale.

  • The Tone Curve and HSL/Color/B&W panels contain tools for fine-tuning your color and tonal adjustments.

  • The Split Toning panel colors monochrome images or creates special effects with color images.

  • The Detail panel lets you adjust sharpness and reduce noise.

  • The Lens Corrections panel lets you correct chromatic aberration and lens vignetting caused by the camera lens.

  • The Effects panel lets you apply a vignette to a cropped photo or add a film-grain effect.

  • The Camera Calibration panel makes adjustments to the default calibration settings for your camera.

Show or hide the Develop toolbar

 Choose View > Show Toolbar or Hide Toolbar, or press the T key.

Tools in the tool strip

Tools for performing local edits to specific areas of a photo are located in the tool strip under the Histogram panel. Select any tool to display its options in the tool drawer. Deselect the tool to close the drawer and revert to the Hand or Zoom tool.

Crop Overlay
Includes the Crop Overlay tool, Crop Frame tool, Aspect Ratio Lock button and options, Straighten tool, and Straighten slider.

Spot Removal
Includes Clone or Heal options and the Size slider. Click Reset to clear the changes to the photo.

Red Eye Correction
Includes Pupil Size and Darken sliders. Click Reset to clear the changes to the photo.

Graduated Filter
Includes options for making tonal adjustments across a region of a photo.

Adjustment Brush
Includes options for brushing Exposure, Clarity, Brightness, and other tonal adjustments on specific areas of a photo.

Additional Develop module buttons and tools

Hand/Zoom tool
When you hold the pointer over the photo, R, G, and B color values display under the Histogram. The tool that appears changes depending on your view. The Zoom tool is selected if the magnification is Fit. The Hand tool is selected if the magnification is Fill, 1:1, or higher. Click the photo to toggle between Fit and 1:1.

White Balance Selector
Click this tool in the Basic panel, choose it from the View menu, or press W to select it. Options appear in the toolbar.

Targeted Adjustment
Lets you adjust certain color and tone sliders by dragging the tool in the photo. Select it in the Tone Curve or HSL/Color/B&W panels, or choose it from the View menu. Once the tool is selected, you can choose different targets from the Target Group pop-up menu in the toolbar.

Loupe View
Although this single-photo view is available in both the Develop and Library modules, the keyboard shortcut for Loupe view in the Develop module (the D key) is different from the keyboard shortcut in the Library module (the E key). The Loupe View button, located in the toolbar, lets you quickly switch to Loupe view in each module.

Copy and Paste
These buttons at the bottom of the left panels let you copy or paste the current settings to a selected photo.

Previous, Sync, and Auto Sync
These buttons at the bottom of the right panels toggle according to whether you have one or more photos selected in the Filmstrip. If only one photo is selected, the Previous button lets you copy and paste all of the settings of the previously selected photo to the currently selected photo on the Filmstrip. If multiple files are selected, the Sync button lets you choose which of the current settings to paste from the currently selected photo onto the other selected photos. Auto Sync adjusts other selected photos automatically after each slider is moved. Press Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS) to turn the Sync button into the Auto Sync button.

Before and After views
The Before And After Views button in the toolbar offers four choices. You can arrange two photo views side by side or top to bottom, display the whole photo in both views, or split the photo in two. Click the Loupe View button to turn off Before and After views.

Copy settings
These three buttons let you copy and paste the current settings from the After view to the Before view, from the Before view to the After view, or swap between the views. They appear in the toolbar when you have selected the Before and After view in the Develop module.

Select tools and options

 Click the tool or choose it from the Tools menu. To deselect a tool, click it, click Done, or select or a different tool.