P: Automatically adjust Whites and Blacks in Lightroom Classic

[andymalhan]

One of the first things I do when importing images into LR classic, is pull up the shadows and pull down the highlights all the way. Then I <shift-doubleclick> Whites and Blacks, which automatically sets them as per the exposure of the image being edited.

I'm trying to speed-up my workflow in Lightroom Classic by importing using presets.

The problem is I can't find a way to incorporate the <shift-doubleclick>.

Even when auto-syncing, or copying and pasting Develop Settings, LR uses the values of the first image used, to make the adjustments, and doesn't recalculate the values for each image. I want it to behave as though I'm auto setting the Whites and Blacks for each image, individually. Is this possible, and how?

I'd appreciate any guidance. Cheers!

Andy

Macbook Pro, 14"

[johnrellis]

Unfortunately, there is no way to do this on a batch of photos.  The Auto Settings button computes Whites and Blacks settings that are often much different than what you get from doing shift-double-click on Whites and Blacks.  And as you've discovered, shift-double-click on Whites and Blacks while Auto Syncing copies the settings computed for the source photo and doesn't recompute them on the target photos.

Over the years, a few people have asked for the ability to shift-double-click on a batch of photos, but none of them have posted a feature request in the Ideas section.  I'll ask for your post to be moved there.

[johnrellis]

Moderators, @Rikk Flohr: Photography, please move to Ideas.

[andymalhan]

Thank you, John for a quick answer. Do you think this could be scripted? AppleScript, JavaScript or even Automator?

[johnrellis]

LR doesn't support Apple Events, so I think the best you can do is to record absolute mouse events with Automator or some other tool.  That would be pretty fragile, I think, since the absolute mouse coordinates would be recorded.  

The LR SDK for plugins gives some flexibility to plugins (e.g. for use by MIDI controllers), but unfortunately, it doesn't provide a mechanism for plugins to invoke the shift-double-click functionality.