Read and correct an image

The manual pages document each tool separately. This guide does the opposite: it shows the order in which you actually use them, from the moment you import a file until you have a corrected image you keep. It's a path, not a new feature — each step links to the page that details the tool.

This path stops at the image. It doesn't go as far as the calibration chart, the negative, or color separation — that's different work, for a specific alternative process. Here, you read a file and decide on the rendering it deserves.

#What you see on screen

Step 1 — Import reads your file with no action on your part. As soon as you load an image, the Smart Analyzer runs silently and classifies your photo into one of seven tonal profiles (Normal, Low Key, High Key, Charcoal, Soft Mist, Underexposed, Uncertain). This reading drives the auto-correction proposal that follows — a dark portrait and a sunlit landscape don't receive the same default treatment.

Step 2 — You verify what Smart Analyzer saw. Open the histogram to see the actual distribution of tones. It's the classic view: where are the dark pixels, where are the lights, where does the image's mass concentrate.

Step 3 — You look at the flat-value structure with Notan. If the histogram isn't enough to tell you whether your image has a clear tonal architecture, activate Notan mode. It groups pixels into 2 to 15 families of value and shows you blocks — not an abstract curve. You immediately see whether your image has two clear masses or a dozen nuances. This step is optional: it's useful when the histogram alone doesn't tell you enough.

Step 4 — You build the rendering with the three sliders. Return to standard correction mode and adjust blacks, whites, and exposure — see Analyze your image before correcting it for the reading logic, and Adjust the curve: three sliders for the gesture itself. The starting point proposed by Smart Analyzer is never fixed: you push in the direction you want.

Step 5 — You keep or start over. Once you have a rendering that suits you, you can save it as a reusable preset if you want to apply the same adjustment to other images from the same series.

#Why it matters

To not correct blindly. Without prior reading (Smart Analyzer, histogram, possibly Notan), you're correcting an image you don't really know. You can push a black point that has nothing to push, or miss a cast the histogram would have shown at a glance.

To move faster on a series. Once you can read the three signals (Smart Analyzer profile, histogram, Notan structure), you identify in seconds whether an image needs standard treatment or special attention. You pause only on cases that deserve it.

To understand where this path stops. This guide builds a corrected image — not a negative, not a chart. If your final goal is a print in an alternative process, this path is the first half of the work: the second half (calibration, separation, negative) is a different path, with its own tools.

#When to shorten this path

You already know your image well. A file you've already looked at, which you know is well exposed and free of cast — no need to revisit Notan or scrutinize the histogram. Go straight to the three sliders.

You just want a quick result. Smart Analyzer already proposes a reasonable starting point at import. If that starting point suits you as is, you have nothing else to do — the path stops at step 1.

Your image is atypical (chart, photogram, raw scan). Smart Analyzer and Notan mode are designed for natural photographs. On a calibration chart or abstract image, jump straight to manual adjustments.

#Worth remembering

#The test

Take two very different images — a dark portrait and a very bright landscape. Run them through the first four steps of this path without skipping any. You should get two renderings that each respect the original mood, not two identical standardized images. If the two renderings look too similar, go back to the histogram or Notan to understand what you missed before recorrecting.