Today’s Question: I have upgraded to Lightroom CC and am confused as to why I am not seeing the Basic panel in the Develop module [screenshot included].
Tim’s Quick Answer: In this case it sounds like you have hidden a panel section without realizing it. You can re-enable the Basic section by right-clicking on one of the headers of the right panel in the Develop module and choosing “Basic” from the popup menu that appears.
More Detail: Lightroom enables you to hide individual sections of the left and right panels in the various modules. This can be helpful if you want to reduce clutter by removing sections you never make use of. However, it can also be confusing if you manage to hide a section by accident.
Fortunately, it is very easy to reveal a hidden panel section once you know the “trick”. To hide or reveal any sections on a given panel, you can first right-click on one of the headers for any section. For example, you could click in the area where you see the “Basic” header or the “Tone Curve” header when looking at the right panel in the Develop module.
When you right-click on a header on one of the panels, you will see a popup menu with a list of all of the available sections for that panel. In the case of the right panel in the Develop module, for example, you will see Basic, Tone Curve, Adjustments, Split Toning, Detail, Lens Corrections, Effects, and Camera Calibration.
A checkmark icon to the left of these section names indicates that the section is enabled. If there is no checkmark it indicates the section is hidden. You can toggle any section between being hidden or revealed by clicking the applicable option from the popup menu. So, in this example with the Basic section missing you could simply choose “Basic” from that popup menu to reveal the Basic section on the right panel in the Develop module once again.