Editing & Toning Guide

DeadlineFTP includes a full non-destructive image editor built right into the gallery — no separate app to install. Open any image to bring up the edit view, then use the adjustment panel to crop, tone, and color-correct before delivery.

Every adjustment is stored as instructions alongside the image, not baked into the original file. Your uploaded original is never overwritten; edits are rendered into the copy that gets downloaded or sent over FTP. That means you can revise or reset an image at any time and re-deliver a fresh version.

The core adjustments cover everything you need for fast editorial correction. All controls are live — the preview updates as you drag.

Tone

• Exposure — Overall brightness of the image
• Contrast — Separation between light and dark tones
• Highlights — Recover or brighten the brightest areas
• Shadows — Open up or deepen the darkest areas
• Whites — Set the white clipping point
• Blacks — Set the black clipping point

Color

• Temperature — Warm or cool the image (blue ↔ yellow)
• Tint — Correct color casts (green ↔ magenta)
• Vibrance — Boost muted colors while protecting skin tones
• Saturation — Adjust the intensity of all colors evenly

Use the white balance eyedropper to set neutral color from the image itself. Select the eyedropper and click a spot that should be neutral gray or white — a jersey number, a sideline marker, an official's shirt — and Temperature and Tint snap to remove the color cast. This is the fastest way to fix mixed or unusual venue lighting before delivery.

Presence and detail controls add punch and clean up the image without leaving the gallery:

• Clarity — Midtone contrast for added local punch
• Texture — Enhance or smooth fine surface detail
• Dehaze — Cut through atmospheric haze and flat light
• Sharpening — Crispen edges and detail
• Noise Reduction — Clean up grain and chroma noise from high-ISO frames

Finishing effects add mood and draw the eye:

• Vignette — Darken or lighten the edges of the frame to focus attention on the subject
• Grain — Add film-style grain for a textured, editorial look

The curves editor gives you precise, point-by-point tonal control. Add points to lift shadows, roll off highlights, or shape midtones into a custom contrast curve. A live histogram shows the tonal distribution of the image and updates as you edit, so you can watch for clipping in the shadows and highlights while you work.

Crop and straighten images with aspect-ratio presets, custom dimensions, and freehand or constrained dragging. Rotate to any angle to level a horizon or reframe the action. Crops are non-destructive — the full-resolution original is preserved, and only the delivered copy is cropped.

Saved Crop Presets

Save your most-used aspect ratios and crops as reusable presets so you can apply the same framing across a set of images in one click — handy when a client always wants, say, a 4:5 vertical and a 16:9 lead.

Once you've dialed in a look, save it as a tone preset and apply it to other images with a single click. You can also copy the adjustments from one image and paste them onto others to keep a consistent look across a whole take.

• Save a preset — Capture the current tone, color, and detail settings under a name
• Apply a preset — Push a saved look onto any image
• Copy & paste — Copy one image's adjustments and paste them onto others

Photojournalism mode restricts editing to wire-safe controls so images meet the ethical standards of news and wire services. When it's enabled, tools that alter image content — such as localized masking and cloning — are disabled, leaving only global tone, color, and crop adjustments that are acceptable for editorial use.

Because editing is non-destructive, your adjustments are rendered into the file at delivery time. Whether an image is downloaded from the gallery, sent to an external FTP/SFTP destination, or pushed to a DeadlineFTP Connect subscriber, the recipient always gets the fully edited, cropped, and toned version with your XMP metadata embedded.