Fixing Exposure
In this section, you will become familiar with editing photos in order to try and fix some common issues that amateur photos will bring. You must learn how to balance exposure and to try to regulate a photo's properties. The image shown below is also available as a downloadable file and you must fix the exposure to the best of your ability.
| image-under-exposed.jpg |
Step 1
Download the photo above and import that into Photoshop - Once you have imported the photo, quickly save the project by saving it in your H: Drive. Give it a title that you can easily identify such as "Exposure Adjustment - <Your Name>".
Step 2
One of the easiest elements to correct and one of the easiest tutorials you will complete for me. This works 95% of the time and will get us very close to our desired results.
I should have mentioned this in the previous tutorial where we looked at colour balancing but I like to Duplicate my background layer before getting started. Remember that Photoshop is destructive and will modify the photo's contents, so if you make a mistake you must start over because you destroyed information from the photo when editing - so please, duplicate your layer before beginning.
Now we can move on with the tutorial, our first step is to open the Shadows/Highlights adjustment layer by going to:
• Image -> Adjustments -> Shadows/Highlights...
Once we open that adjustment layer you will immediately see your image become brighter and much more balanced.
I should have mentioned this in the previous tutorial where we looked at colour balancing but I like to Duplicate my background layer before getting started. Remember that Photoshop is destructive and will modify the photo's contents, so if you make a mistake you must start over because you destroyed information from the photo when editing - so please, duplicate your layer before beginning.
Now we can move on with the tutorial, our first step is to open the Shadows/Highlights adjustment layer by going to:
• Image -> Adjustments -> Shadows/Highlights...
Once we open that adjustment layer you will immediately see your image become brighter and much more balanced.
Step 3
We can click on the 'Show More Options" tickbox to uncover more workable sliders for the shadows and highlights as well as the adjustments sliders. I would stick to the shadows sliders by slowly adjusting the amount and tone to achieve your desired look.
This really is that simple! However, please understand that not all photos will be saveable - some photos are just too dark and will not be able to be recovered - if this happens, I would suggest trying to find a different photo.
This really is that simple! However, please understand that not all photos will be saveable - some photos are just too dark and will not be able to be recovered - if this happens, I would suggest trying to find a different photo.
Bonus Information!
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Over exposed images such as the one on the right, are not saveable. Once the camera takes a shot and registers the highlights are overexposed, this cannot be saved as there is no underlying detail to uncover. The best way to prevent over-exposure is to shoot it properly in camera as well as shoot in RAW - this mode allows us to have more control over the contents of our image.
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