Editor overview

Where to find it

• In the Full view, click Edit in the tool bar at the top right (Edited for photos you've already edited).
• Or right-click the photo in the full view and choose ✎ Edit.
• The formats you can edit are JPG, PNG and RAW (CR2, CR3, ARW, NEF, DNG and so on). Other formats (TIFF, HEIC and so on) open in the external editor set in Settings.
• ✎ Edit in the right-click menu of the gallery opens an external editor, not this screen.

Screen layout and controls

Screen layout

Top bar

Buttons on the photo

The Edit tab of the right panel

At the top are an RGB histogram of the current look and the save status; below them, the panels are arranged in the following order. Click a panel title to collapse or expand it.

At the bottom of the panel list are the Copy edits · Paste buttons, and below them the Undo · Redo · Reset buttons. This Reset keeps the crop, rotation, perspective and lens corrections and removes the rest of the edits (including masks, repair and portrait retouching). To remove everything including the crop, use Reset all in the top bar.

Filmstrip at the bottom

The filmstrip list is the same as the list you were viewing in the full view (same folder, same filters). The filmstrip appears when the list has two or more photos.

Using sliders (common to all panels)

• Drag the handle or click the slider to change the value. Where you can adjust, the mouse cursor changes to a left-right arrow.
• Dragging the slider name left and right also changes the value. Dragging about 300 pixels covers the whole range. Hold Shift while dragging to move 10× more finely for precise adjustments. This is handy when the slider is short.
• Double-click to return to the default (anywhere on the slider, the handle or the name). Most defaults are 0; Vignette midpoint is 50.
• Click the number box and the whole current value is selected, so you can type a new number right away. Press Enter to apply and Esc to cancel.
• When a value isn't 0, the number is shown in bold and the slider is filled with color from 0 to the handle, so you can see at a glance which sliders you've adjusted.
• Changes made during one drag are grouped into one undo step.
• Exceptions: the 4 sliders in Lens Corrections and Size in Repair are adjusted by dragging or clicking the slider.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts work once you've finished typing in a number box. On the crop screen, use Cancel on the crop screen instead of undo, and move to the previous · next photo after you finish cropping. In the macOS version, use ⌘ (Command) instead of Ctrl (for example, ⌘+Z to undo, ⌘+Shift+Z to redo).

Step by step

The basic flow

1. Open the editor

   Click Edit in the full view. The Edit tab opens in the right panel.

2. Click Auto

   It's in the top bar. Analyzing… is shown for a moment, then the values in the Light panel are filled in, and the status bar shows what was adjusted.

3. Adjust only the parts you don't like

   Work your way down from the Light panel, dragging sliders or typing numbers.

4. Compare

   Press Y (split view) and drag the center line, or press \ (compare original) to switch back and forth with the original.

5. Done

   Or press Esc. Your edits are saved and you return to the full view. The gallery thumbnail also changes to the edited look and gets a ✎ mark.

6. Export if you need a file

   Creates a new file with the edited look (→ Export).

Auto

1. Click Auto in the top bar. While it calculates, wait without moving other sliders (if you change values in the meantime, the auto result is discarded).
2. What auto adjustment changes:
   • Exposure — Moves the photo's midtone brightness toward a proper level, but not all the way, so the mood of photos you deliberately shot dark is kept. It never raises exposure so far that bright areas blow out to white, and lowers exposure only slightly, and only for photos with large blown-out areas.
   • Whites is only raised and Blacks only lowered, widening the tonal range (blacks are never lifted to gray).
   • Contrast is raised slightly by default, and more for flat photos.
   • Highlights · Shadows are adjusted only for photos with large areas blown out to white or crushed to black.
   • If there are people, it measures face brightness and brightens shaded faces (mainly with Shadows, raising exposure only slightly). Face detection is processed only on this PC.
   • Vibrance is raised more for photos with paler colors, and Saturation is raised just a little, only for pale photos.
   • If the shooting ISO is 1600 or higher, a little Color noise is applied, and at 6400 or higher it suggests trying AI denoise (→ Detail).
   • If blacks look gray because of a preset or LUT, Black depth is adjusted too (→ Deep Blacks).
   • Temperature and tint are left as they are. To correct colors, click Auto color in the Color panel.
3. Check the message in the status bar — for example: "Brightness, contrast and vibrance set automatically (temperature unchanged) · brightened shaded faces. Undo to revert." Depending on the photo, phrases such as "· portrait, so shadows lifted slightly", "· deepened grayish blacks (Black depth N)", "· color noise reduction N for ISO N" and "This photo is noisy. Try AI denoise in the Detail section" are added.
4. If you don't like it, press Ctrl+Z once to go back to before the auto adjustment.

Compare original · split view

1. Split view

   Click Split view on the photo (or press Y). Drag the ◀▶ handle on the vertical center line to widen or narrow the Before area on the left. The line starts in the middle each time you turn it on.

2. Compare original

   Click Compare original on the photo (or press \). While on, it shows the original; when off, the edited look. Toggling it on and off with the key makes the difference easy to see.

3. Turning one of them on turns the other off.

Versions — saving the current edit under a name

1. Click Versions at the bottom right of the photo. Edit versions opens in the right panel.
2. Click Save current state…, type a name in the "Save current edit as a version" window (the default name is "Version <current time>") and click Save. The status bar shows "Saved the current edit as a version."
3. Try out various changes.
4. To go back to a saved state, click Versions, choose a version from the list and click Restore selected version. The status bar shows "Version restored: name". A restore can also be undone with Ctrl+Z.
5. To go back to the edit panels, click the Edit tab at the top of the right panel.

Copying and pasting edits (one photo at a time)

1. On the photo you've finished, click Copy edits (at the bottom of the Edit tab, or press Ctrl+Shift+C). The status bar shows "Copied the edits of filename."
2. Click another photo in the filmstrip (or press Ctrl+→).
3. Click Paste (or press Ctrl+Shift+V), choose the groups to bring over in the "Paste edits" window and click Paste:
   • Light · Exposure, contrast, highlights/shadows, whites/blacks, curve — together with the DEEP BLACKS panel values (on by default)
   • Color · Temperature, tint, vibrance, saturation, HSL, color targets — together with black & white and color grading (on)
   • Effects · Vignette, grain, sharpening, noise, clarity — together with texture, dehaze, AI denoise and vignette midpoint (on)
   • Crop · rotation (off) · Masks (off) — when you turn these on, the note "If the aspect ratios differ, crop and masks may land in a different place." appears.
4. The status bar shows "Pasted the edits of …. Undo to revert." If the values are already the same, it shows "Nothing changed — these edits match the current ones."

Copied edits are kept until you close the app. In the gallery, too, you can right-click an edited photo and choose 🎨 Copy edits, then select several photos and use 🎨 Paste edits (→ Viewing and selecting photos).

Pasting to several photos at once (filmstrip)

1. On the reference photo, click Copy edits.
2. In the filmstrip at the bottom, select the photos to paste to with Ctrl+click (✓ mark). "n selected" appears at the top of the filmstrip.
3. Click Paste edits to selected (or press Ctrl+Shift+V). When the window titled "Paste edits · n photos" opens, choose the groups and click Paste.
4. "Pasting… n left" is shown at the top of the filmstrip, and when it's done, the status bar shows "Pasted edits to n photos. To revert, open a photo and reset it." The thumbnails get a ✎ mark.
5. To clear the selection, click Clear selection.

All · RAW · JPG

1. When you edit in a folder containing both RAW and JPG, the All · RAW · JPG buttons appear at the top of the filmstrip.
2. Click RAW and only RAW files remain in the filmstrip, and the JPG you were editing changes to the RAW with the same name so you can continue editing (the JPG's edits are saved at that moment).
3. Your choice is remembered and stays the same the next time you open the full view or the editor. In folders without that format, all photos are shown.

Cancelling and leaving

1. Click Cancel in the top bar.
2. If you've made changes, the "Discard edits?" window opens — "All changes made in the editor this time will be discarded, returning the photo to how it was before you opened it. Saved versions and exported files are kept."
3. Click Discard & close to revert the changes and close, or Keep editing to return to the editor. If you haven't made any changes, it closes right away without asking.

Result

BeforeAfter

For this photo, the values set by auto adjustment are exposure +0.01, contrast +2, highlights −30, shadows +90, blacks −27 and vibrance +21, and the status bar shows "Brightness, contrast and vibrance set automatically (temperature unchanged) · brightened shaded faces. Undo to revert."

With one auto adjustment, the shaded face becomes brighter and the whole photo becomes clearer, without the view outside the window blowing out to white.

The people in the sample photos were generated by AI.

Good to know

• In the free version, a faint diagonal "photoKam Radar · Free" watermark is added across exported photos, and the same watermark is previewed over the photo in the editor. Everyone can use all features in the same way (→ Free version · Full version).

Frequently asked questions

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