How to use the Basic Edit palette
Choose your image
In the image viewer, choose an image. Before making adjustments, select the zoom from the top toolbar and magnify the image to 100%. Now navigate around your image, checking for sharpness. When happy, zoom out to ‘fit’ the image to the screen by clicking on the rectangle with four arrows in each corner from the toolbar.
Picture Control and White Balance
With a Raw image, select the Picture Control you require to match exactly the settings from your Nikon, or change the Picture Control to apply a baseline colour, contrast and saturation preset to work from. If required, change the white balance to warm up or cool down the colour temperature, in order to achieve a pleasing colour tone.
Make exposure adjustments
Use the Exposure Compensation slider to tune the exposure. Pay attention to the histogram to ensure you have not clipped any shadow or highlight detail in the image. Use the Active D-lighting settings to balance the contrast in the image and uncover shadow detail to really maximize the dynamic range from the sensor.
Refine brightness and colour
Finally, use the Brightness and Colour tools to finish the basic adjustments to the image. Use the Contrast slider to create depth in the image, if required. The Saturation slider can be used to add a ‘kick’ to the colours as well. If any clipping has occurred, use the Highlight and Shadow Protection sliders to reduce this.