Black Point & White Point

Discuss Photomator and photo editing.
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2022-05-28 00:14:31

I use many Desktop/iPad photo editing apps. They all have Black and White point sliders but Pixelmator Photo does not. In Lightness, there is Brightness and Black Point. Why is that? I am trying to understand the paradigm. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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2022-06-07 09:48:38

Just my thought on this.

Although some other apps do have a black/white point setting (I have many too, and not all of them have it), it's quite common to only have a black point setting.

As a rule, it would be usual to set the white point using the Exposure slider first, then set the black point after that. Then you go about adjusting other stuff to get the image where you want it (shadows & highlights, brightness, levels, curves etc.). Depending on the app, there can be a different set of adjustments available. It does help to have a clipping overlay of course, but that is missing from Pixelmator Photo.

Cheers

Andy
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2022-06-08 00:28:34

Can someone from Pixelmator articulate how to set White and Black point since there is no White point slider? I would assert that one use Levels or Curves. Using Exposure to set White point in a photo which is properly exposed does not compute. So let me reask my question - I am trying to understand the Pixelmator paradigm as regards Black and White points and why no White point slider? Thanks.
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2022-06-08 13:29:31

Sorry, you could be right. There are so many online tutorials that it's difficult to assert which is the correct manner. Of course you'd probably assess the images, and the histogram, and work from there perhaps (although I've seen one tutorial video that suggests not to use the histogram).

However, I would ask, if you believe the image is 'properly exposed', then what are you adjusting?

Perhaps this might help...
https://www.pixelmator.com/tutorials/un ... istograms/

Cheers.
User avatar

2022-06-08 13:39:36

Setting White and Black points increases the tonal range and contrast. Thanks.
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2022-06-18 07:24:44

I also use White Point in my Lightroom workflow. It holds me back from doing pro photo edits on Pixelmator. Would love to have White Point added. As well as Clarity.
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2022-06-19 17:24:20

by pjglad Setting White and Black points increases the tonal range and contrast. Thanks.
Yes, indeed. It's one of the ways you can achieve this. That wasn't my question though.

I did find a discussion over at Luminous Landscape about this, and it's certainly a well discussed matter. It doesn't have a right answer, just many preferred ways of working (as is usual with photo editing techniques). And of course there are a plethora of Lightroom tutorials out there that cover such variations in workflow.

As far as I can see, the separate black/white point adjusters are included as a matter of convenience, so you don't have to enter the Levels or Curves panels.

Cheers.
User avatar

2023-07-04 13:02:10

by pjglad I use many Desktop/iPad photo editing apps. They all have Black and White point sliders but Pixelmator Photo does not. In Lightness, there is Brightness and Black Point. Why is that? I am trying to understand the paradigm. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
One option is to use the Curves tool:
Image

See the Pixelmator Pro manual: https://help.pixelmator.com/pixelmator-pro/3.3/#714

Black, gray, and white color pickers. You can use these color pickers to automatically adjust the curves in different RGB channels.
User avatar

2023-09-19 05:00:16

Hi. I want to set the white page of a scanned complicated book page to a true white.
How can I check the results please ?