Leaf Capture 11--Adjust Develop Curve manually

[rogerxnz]

I am trying to get to grips with the Develop Curve in LC 11.  I know you can click on a point in the develop curve to manually adjust the tone of an image.  But can you also move points to avoid clipping shadows and highlights?

Looking at the attached curve, should moving the lowest point (the shadow point?) to the left or lower reduce shadow clipping?  I have tried doing that with the clipping warning on and it seemed to make no difference.

I guess I should open the image in Adobe Camera Raw to correct clipping?

Just for interest, it seems to me that I get a sharper image outputting from LC11 than I do if I apply no sharpening in LC 11 and use ACR to sharpen.  Could be due to my lack of knowledge. Many accept that there should be some input or capture sharpening and also output sharpening based on the final output size/purpose. The worry seems to be that too much sharpening during process will lead to artifacts in the final output.

Would using the Portrait sharpening preset in LC11 be a safe initial stage or should I drop the intensity down from 3 to 2 to be safe?
Roger
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[AndrewDyer]

For the sharpening, I would suggest having a play around with the settings, exporting different versions as tiffs to open up in Photoshop and then PixelPeep to see what sharpening amount you prefer..
I agree with you, I find I can get a sharper image exported from LC than if I try to sharpen it in Photoshop.
I also have done a similar thing to what you have suggested, reduce the sharpening amount from 3 to 2, and have saved that as a new preset... but have a play around to suit your taste.

[snickgrr]

That's a good question.  I had to go to LC11 and play around with it to see for myself.  The under/over alarms do not change with inputs on the develop curve, neither does the histogram itself. In Raw Developer the histogram is tied into whatever parameters you've set for the file.  If you change the curve, histogram changes with it reflecting the new curve.  Not so with Leaf.  The histogram is what it is, just an indicator of the capture values.

But moving the develop curve in LC 11 does influence the clipping values on output.  By using the Picker tool you can watch the pixel information change with each input on the develop curve.  It's just not reflected in the under/over alarms.