The new Lightroom 4 Develop tools do not work at all like Lightroom 3.  Working with them is proving to be a challenge, whereas some photos seem easy, others are just painful.  So here are a few tips?  

First of all, you are not alone if you are having problems, but it will be well worth the struggle to master the new tools.  PV 2012 gives even more control and subtlety.  

As I explained in my previous Blog, the LR4 Develop Module is based on Process Version 2012, which introduces a whole new algorithm for a simplified, more intuitive and powerful way to adjust your images.  The 'Recovery', 'Brightness' and 'Fill Light' sliders in LR3 (PV 2010) have been removed, and  in PV 2012 controls for 'Highlight', 'Shadows' and 'Whites' have been added.
 

Treatment Panel

1.     White Balance:  Adjust by using the sliders, the drop-down menu or by selecting the White Balance Tool and clicking on a white area in the image.

2.     Exposure Slider:  This controls the overall brightness of your image.  The three ways of adjusting overall image brightness in PV 2010 - 'exposure', 'brightness' and 'fill light' - have been replaced by a single method - 'exposure' - in PV 2012.  Moving the slider to the left will make the image darker whilst moving it to the right will brighten the image.  You can still employ the Option key while moving the slider to set a technically correct white point.

3.     Contrast Slider: This affects primarily mid-tones.  As the slider is moved to the left, the contrast between dark and light areas is reduced.  Move the contrast slider to the right to increase contrast and the darker areas of the image will get darker and the lighter areas will become lighter.

4.     Highlights Slider:  This increases or decreases mid-range highlights.  As you move it to the left the mid-range highlights will darken whereas if you move it to the right they will lighten.

5.     Shadows Slider:  This does what the Highlights Slider does, except it affects mid-range shadows.  Adjust the slider to the right and the shadows will lighten and as you move towards the left the shadows will become darker.

6.     Whites & Blacks Sliders:  These work just like the Highlights and Shadow Sliders except they effect the brightest and darkest areas of the image as opposed to the mid-range highlights and shadows.  Adjust these sliders to recover or darken highlight detail and to recover dark shadows.

Tips

The Auto button is often a good place to start and often works surprisingly well. 

You can probably adjust 90% of your images by using just the Exposure and Contrast Sliders.  

Follow the order of adjustments above.

Hold down the shift key and double click on a slider to auto-adjust that individual slider.

Double click on a slider to return to its default setting.

With PV 2012, you no longer need to be afraid of using the sliders at 0-100%.

And Remember:  Don't automatically change all your LR3 uploaded images to PV 2012 - see previous Blog.