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Angel Scan
Angel Scan
Known Participant
January 2, 2026
Question

Photoshop Shadow/Highlight adjustment

  • January 2, 2026
  • 11 replies
  • 559 views

Hello,

when I open “Shadows/Highlights” via Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights to adjust the exposure using the sliders, Photoshop has been showing unusual behavior since the latest update.

In previous versions, I expected — and always got — a continuous, visible adjustment while dragging any of the sliders.

However, now nothing happens at first. Then, while moving the sliders, the image starts flickering, and I don’t see any proper live update. Only when I disable the Preview checkbox do I get a clear before/after result of what the sliders actually changed — almost as if Photoshop were applying the settings randomly or unpredictably.

I have already disabled Technology Previews in the Preferences and manually resetted  Photoshop preferences!

I searched the forum for Shadows/Highlights issues, but the results are very confusing — lots of old reports from years ago, but not found current information.

11 replies

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Community Expert
AxelMattCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 2, 2026

In a first step try to reset the preferences of Photoshop using the steps described here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/desktop/get-started/settings-and-preferences/reset-preferences.html

It's recommended to backup your settings before resetting the preferences.

See here:  https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/desktop/get-started/settings-and-preferences/backup-and-restore-preferences.html

 

Flickering can also be a issue with the grapic card and/or the graphic device driver. Please try to disable the option to "Use Graphics Procesor" from Photoshop by going to Preferences, then Performance. Once done, quit & relaunch Photoshop to check if that helps. If it helps, you can check out the steps suggested here: 

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/troubleshoot-gpu-graphics-card.html

 

If this doesn't also help we need more informations about your system. Please provide a copy of your 'System Info'. This can be get from the Photoshop menu item Help > System Info. There's a copy button in the System Info dialog. Press this button and paste the info into your next forum post.

Please don't insert the info as an attachment. There's a bug into the foren software that don't show the content directly.

 

My System: Intel i7-8700K - 64GB RAM - NVidia Geforce RTX 3060 - Windows 11 Pro 25H2 -- LR-Classic 15 - Photoshop 27 - Nik Collection 9 - PureRAW 6 - Topaz Photo AI
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