Tone Curve options and the saved tone curves are missing

Issue

After updating to Lightroom CC 1.4 (June 2018 release), the Medium Contrast and Strong Contrast tone curve options and the saved curves are missing in the Tone Curve panel.

Product versions affected

Lightroom CC 1.4

Operating systems

Windows and macOS

Explanation

To streamline the interfaces and make the tone curve process consistent, the following changes have been introduced in Lightroom CC 1.4 (June 2018 release):

  • The Medium Contrast and Strong Contrast tone curve options have been removed.
  • The ability to save tone curves and apply saved curves within the Tone Curve panel has been removed.

Going forward, the tone curves should be saved as a preset so that they can sync across the Lightroom ecosystem of apps.

Solution

Download Medium Contrast and Strong Contrast tone curve presets

Use the link below to download a zip file containing the previously provided Medium Contrast and Strong Contrast tone curve options as a conventional preset. The zipped folder contains the following XMP preset files:

  • Medium Contrast.xmp
  • Strong Contrast.xmp

Download

After unzipping the downloaded folder, you can import these XMP presets into Lightroom.

  1. From the menu bar, choose File > Import Profiles & Presets.
  2. In the Import dialog that appears, browse and open the unzipped folder and select the XMP preset files.
  3. Click Import.

Restore the saved tone curves

If you've used Photoshop's tone curve to create saved curves or have saved curves in the past via Lightroom Classic or an earlier version of Lightroom, follow the instructions below to restore your existing tone curves in Lightroom:

  1. Open Lightroom Classic.
  2. Load your saved tone curve in the Tone Curve panel.
  3. From the Presets panel, save your tone curve as a develop preset. See Create a Develop preset.
  4. Open Lightroom
  5. From the menu bar in Lightroom, choose File > Import Profiles & Presets
  6. In the Import dialog that appears, browse to the required path and select the develop preset that you saved in Step 3. Check the file location for Lightroom Classic presets on Win and macOS
  7. Click Import
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