"Gamma" slider in Preview's "Adjust Color" window now absent in 10.6. Why?

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Level 2

306 points

"Gamma" slider in Preview's "Adjust Color" window now absent in 10.6. Why?

In Preview, if one chooses "Adjust Color" from the "Tools" menu, a small window pops up with various sliders allowing one to make minor adjustments to the jpeg -- contrast, sharpness, exposure, etc.

In previous versions of Preview that came with 10.4 etc., one of the sliders was called "Gamma," and I found it very useful. I'm no photographer nor a professional graphics person, so I couldn't even tell you the exact definition of what a "gamma adjustment" even is, but in my experience I found that it seemed to lighten the dark areas of the image without overly lightening the already-light areas. By fiddling with a combination of the "Contrast" slider and the "Gamma" slider, one could rescue a photo that was badly lit or unevenly exposed.

But in the new version of Preview that comes with my Snow Leopard 10.6.4, the "Gamma" slider has been removed entirely, replaced by the far-less-useful "Temperature" slider, which instead subtly adjusts the tint to appear warmer or colder (red/blue).

What happened to the "Gamma" adjuster? Is there any way to restore it, or customize the "Adjust Color" window?

What a bummer.

I really like Preview's "Adjust Color" sliders, and find them to be much more convenient for basic photo sprucing up than the more complicated controls in PhotoShop and other pro-level programs. I realize I can adjust the Gamma in these fancier programs, but I'd much rather have all the needed adjustment-controls altogether in the same program.

Any suggestions? I don't want to have to try to re-install an ancient version of Preview just for this one feature.

15" MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jun 23, 2010 2:55 PM

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Answer 1

CMCSK

Level 6

11,452 points

Jun 23, 2010 3:20 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

I did a Google search & found - http://earthlingsoft.net/ssp/blog/2009/08/macos_x6part2
"*Gamma: Apple (finally) changed the gamma value of their display calibration.* There goes the classic Mac look… well it’s not quite as (a) my MacBook’s screen is a crappy dithering **** anyway so I am in no position to notice anything and, more significant in a global sense, (b) the magic of colour management means that you shouldn’t see the difference caused by the gamma change on colour managed images. What remains are the UI elements and Apple seems to have done a reasonable job of making things look all right. Just some of my old icons seem to look a bit different now. In the long run I imagine this change may be beneficial for people who publish images on the web without knowing what they do. "

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Answer 2

Jun 23, 2010 3:44 PM in response to Tuffy Nicolas

Hi

I'm running 10.6.4 with Preview version 5.0.2 (504) and for me it's still there. The slider controls above the radio button that says "Auto Levels". Essentially the central slider controls the mid-tonal area, the slider on the left the shadows tonal area, the one on the right the highlights tonal area. Basically from the left 100% Black to 50% gray to 100% White or if you like 0% black. At it's simplest it's a bit like the Contrast controls you used to get on (very) old televisions.

Tony

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Answer 3

Tuffy Nicolas Author

Level 2

306 points

Jun 23, 2010 3:54 PM in response to Antonio Rocco

Yippee!

Thanks for pointing that out. The left-hand slider of the "histogram" generally makes the image way too contrast-y, and the right-hand slider makes it way too over-exposed -- ah, but like Goldilocks, the MIDDLE slider pretty much is "just right" because you can move it in both directions, and ends up essentially replicating the "gamma" slider function in the old Preview versions.

So, I'll just pretend that the middle histogram slider is the "gamma" slider (not the I have the slightest idea what a "histogram" or "gamma" even are), and go on my merry way.

Solved!

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