Lightroom: The Fill Light Slider
category: Lightroom • 1 min read
Lightroom Develop Module Sliders: Recovery, Fill & Black
Everybody uses the Exposure slider to make their photo lighter or darker. Then the problems starts: like what to do with the recovery, fill light… The problems are due to Adobe’s “poor documentation”. I will attempt to clarify the fill slider.
The fill light slider works best with RAW photos. It will still work with JPEG photos, but not as well.
The Fill Light slider will fill the shadows without changing the highlights. It affects the mid-tone shadows in the histogram - not the deep dark shadows. The fill slider will brighten the photo without blowing the highlights.
It’s very easy to overdo the Fill Light slider:
- The shadows will get muddled
- The noise is exacerbated by the fill light.
It’s good to slightly overdo the Fill Light slider when printing on matte paper.