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michaljanata
Inspiring
August 28, 2026
Question

Missing standard adjustment as Brightness and contrast.

  • August 28, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 25 views

How to make a mess.

Rename long time well known Brightness and contrast to Light adjustment layer, same time leave standard adjustment as Brightness and contrast.

Why?

    5 replies

    Anshul_Saini
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    September 22, 2026

    Hi ​@michaljanata,

    Thanks for the feedback. I checked with the Photoshop product team to get some additional context on this change.

    The previous Brightness/Contrast adjustment hasn’t been removed. It has been expanded and is now presented as the Light adjustment, which adds more granular controls for Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks.

    If you prefer or need the previous Brightness and Contrast controls, they’re still available from the options in a newly created Light adjustment layer, as you’ve already discovered.

    There were also a couple of compatibility considerations behind the implementation:

    • Existing documents containing Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers continue to work with the previous Brightness/Contrast controls.
    • Existing Actions that use Brightness/Contrast continue to use the previous behavior, so those workflows don’t need to be rebuilt.

    As for why Light wasn’t introduced as an additional, separate adjustment layer while keeping Brightness/Contrast alongside it, that was an intentional design decision. The Adjustments panel already contains a large number of adjustment types, and continually adding separate entries makes the panel more crowded and can make individual adjustments harder to discover. The approach here was therefore to broaden the existing Brightness/Contrast adjustment into Light, providing more tonal controls without adding another adjustment type to the panel.

    That said, I understand the distinction you’re making: you see the new Light adjustment as useful, but would still prefer Light and Brightness/Contrast to be independently available and discoverable, particularly because their behavior isn’t identical. I’ve shared this thread and that feedback with the product team.

    Best,
    Anshul Saini

    michaljanata
    Inspiring
    September 22, 2026

    Hi ​@Anshul_Saini , thanks for response.

    I have few notes to that.

    I know, there is Brightness and Contrast controls, they’re still available from the options in a newly created Light adjustment layer. Unfortunately this option is not permanent, so I have to select it for every new document, which is not comfortable. So if could be possible to select it untill I decide to deselect it, it would be better treatment.

    As for not adding Light as separate additional adjustment panel, not sure if there is some misunderstanding. I have not been saying to keep B&C as separate entries in Light panel, but to keep B&C as another (old) adjustment panel. I think it would not bother anyone. As I read another comments, it would be opposite.

    michaljanata
    Inspiring
    September 3, 2026

    very interesting observation from Blake Rudis… 

    shame on Adobe that they dont explain how new features and tools exactly work and behave, especially when it is crucial for predictible editing workflow and editing result

    and this is bigger reason to make Light adjusting layer as standalone and keep old Brightness and Contrast simultaneously

     

     

    Participating Frequently
    August 29, 2026

    I agree! PLEASE restore the previous brightness/contrast adjustment layer. The new version is NOT an improvement.

    michaljanata
    Inspiring
    August 31, 2026

    No. It IS improvemnet, but it needs to keep consistency in behavior.

    Btw. you can switch panel to old Brightness Contrast in Options for panel.