Enhance vs Adjust: Which Tool Should You Use?

COMBb2 offers two tools for improving exposure and color: the AI-powered Enhance tool and the manual Adjust tool. They serve different purposes, and knowing when to use each produces better results than defaulting to one for everything.

Enhance: AI-Powered, One-Click

The Enhance tool uses a neural network to analyze your image and apply intelligent corrections. It's designed for underexposed and low-light photos, where it excels at recovering shadow detail while preserving highlights.

Best for:

• Dark or underexposed photos
• Quick fixes when you don't want to tweak sliders
• Batch processing where consistency matters
• Low-light photos with complex exposure problems

Limitations:

• One-click with limited control - you get what the AI decides
• May not match your specific creative vision
• Designed primarily for brightening, not for color correction

Adjust: Manual Control

The Adjust tool provides individual sliders for brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, shadows, and highlights. You control every parameter independently.

Best for:

• Fine-tuning color temperature and white balance
• Creative adjustments (making a photo warmer, cooler, more vibrant)
• Photos that need specific corrections (too much saturation, wrong temperature)
• When you have a specific look in mind

Limitations:

• Requires understanding of each parameter
• Slower than one-click enhancement
• Linear adjustments can't match the AI's non-linear intelligence

When to Combine Both

The best workflow often uses both tools in sequence:

1. Enhance first: Let the AI fix the overall exposure and brighten shadows.
2. Adjust second: Fine-tune the result - correct temperature, adjust saturation, modify contrast to taste.

This combination gives you the AI's intelligent exposure recovery plus your creative control over the final look.

Decision Flowchart

• Photo is too dark → Enhance, then Adjust if needed
• Photo has wrong color balance → Adjust (temperature slider)
• Photo is properly exposed but needs style → Adjust
• Quick batch of mixed-quality photos → Enhance for speed
• Professional work needing precise control → Adjust

Conclusion

Use Enhance for dark photos and quick fixes. Use Adjust for creative control and color correction. Use both in sequence for the best results. Both tools run in your browser - no uploads required.