

You can then fine-tune the results by selectively tweaking sliders for the Highlights, Midtones and Shadows as you would in many other image editing apps. The app then tweaks the shot’s exposure to prioritize details in the selected areas. After clicking the panel’s Spot Weighted button you can draw a marquee over the area (or areas) that are most important.

PhotoLab 4’s Light panel has a useful Smart Lighting feature that does a similar job. Photographers often use spot metering to prioritize the exposure for a particular part of the scene (such as a bright sky or a building in shadow).

You can also adjust a specific area using manual brushes, which enables you to selectively dodge (lighten) or burn (darken) particular areas with great precision (like an old school analogue dark room photographer), but PhotoLab also uses auto-masking 'control points' inherited from DxO's takeover of the Nik Collection.
