Fix light and white balance

Most photos get better with two fixes: neutral colors and the right brightness. This guide does both with the Basic panel of White Room, in about the order a photographer would.

1. Open the photo in Develop

Import your photos with File › Import Photos…, then select a photo in the grid and press D, or choose Open in Develop. The Basic panel lists White Balance, then Tone, then Presence. Work from top to bottom.

2. Read the histogram

The histogram in Develop shows how many pixels have each brightness, from black on the left to white on the right. A pile against the right edge means clipped highlights, and against the left edge, clipped shadows. Press J to mark clipped areas on the photo; press it again to hide them.

3. Set white balance

• Press W for the white balance selector, then click something in the photo that should be neutral: a gray wall, a white shirt in shade, a cloud. White Room sets Temp and Tint so that spot has no color cast. Press Escape to leave the selector without a change.
• Or move the sliders yourself. Temp goes from blue to yellow, Tint from green to magenta. For JPEG and PNG photos they are relative corrections, not Kelvin values.

The selector refuses a spot that is clipped, transparent or too dark to have a color, and says why. Click another spot.

4. Set the brightness with Exposure

Exposure brightens or darkens the whole photo in photographic stops. Set it so that the main subject looks right, even if some highlights or shadows clip for now.

5. Recover highlights and shadows

• Lower Highlights to bring back detail in a bright sky or a white dress.
• Raise Shadows to open up dark areas without making the whole photo flat.
• Use Whites and Blacks to set the brightest and darkest points. Watch the histogram: the ends should just touch the edges.
• Adjust Contrast last, if the photo still looks flat or too harsh.

6. Compare with the original

Press \ to see the photo before your tone and color changes, and press it again to return. Crop and zoom stay the same, so you compare the same view.

7. Fine-tune or start over

• Click a slider and use the arrow keys for small steps; hold Shift for larger steps. You can also type a value in the field next to it.
• Double-click a slider or its name to set it back to zero.
• Edit › Undo steps back one change. Edit › Reset Basic sets every Basic control back at once.

Your changes are saved as you make them. When the light is right, the crop and export guide takes the photo the rest of the way.