Exposure in One Sentence
Exposure Adjustment changes how much light your image has — like an EV change — with extra controls for midtone shaping, highlight safety, and targeting shadows or highlights, plus Mix for natural results.
When to Use Exposure Adjustment
Use this tool when you want camera-like corrections:
- A photo is underexposed (too dark) and you want to lift it cleanly
- A photo is overexposed (too bright) and you want to pull it back
- You want to brighten a scene but protect skies / whites
- You want to change brightness but keep the result natural, not “slider-edited”
- You want to brighten mostly shadows or tame mostly highlights
This tool is ideal for:
- travel / landscape photos
- product shots (especially white backgrounds)
- interiors (dark corners)
- portraits (subtle lift without nuking highlights)
Recommended Workflow
1. Start with Exposure
Exposure is the main control. If your image looks too dark, raise it; if it looks too bright, lower it.
2. Add Highlight Protection
If raising exposure makes the brightest areas look harsh or blown out, increase Highlight Protection.
3. Shape midtones with Gamma
If exposure feels right but midtones look “off”:
- Lower Gamma slightly for a punchier feel
- Raise Gamma slightly for a softer, brighter midtone roll
4. Use Tonal Focus to target a region
If you mostly want to affect one end:
- Slide toward Shadows to lift dark areas more
- Slide toward Highlights to control bright areas more
5. Blend with Mix
If the look is close but a bit strong, lower Mix instead of redoing everything.
Controls Explained
Exposure (EV-style)
Think of this as “more light / less light.” It scales the image in linear light, so it behaves closer to a real exposure change.
- Great for overall brightness corrections
- Best first step
Offset
Offset is a small lift/crush applied in linear space.
Use it when:
- blacks feel too crushed even after exposure
- you want a gentle “lift” without changing the whole image
Gamma
Gamma shapes midtone response.
- Lower Gamma: deeper midtones, more contrasty feel
- Higher Gamma: brighter midtones, softer feel
Highlight Protection
Protects very bright values when exposure increases.
- Higher = more rolloff (fewer blown highlights)
- Great for skies, white objects, glossy surfaces
Tonal Focus (Shadows ↔ Highlights)
Applies the adjustment more to one end of the tonal range.
- Toward Shadows: lift dark areas more
- Toward Highlights: influence bright values more
Mix
Blends the processed result with the original.
- 70–95% is usually the sweet spot
- Use Mix as your “naturalness” control
Surprise Me ✨
Surprise Me picks a set of exposure settings that are designed to look good out of the box (clean lift, highlight-safe brightening, gentle matte lift, moody down, etc.).
It also uses quick brightness analysis so it tends to:
- lift dark images more confidently
- protect highlights more when the image is bright
- avoid overly aggressive settings on already high-contrast photos
Because it adds small jitter, results don’t feel repetitive.
Quick Recipes
Use these as starting points and fine-tune with Mix.
1. Underexposed photo (clean lift)
- Exposure: up slightly
- Highlight Protection: low to medium
- Gamma: near neutral
- Mix: 80–95%
2. Bright photo with harsh whites
- Exposure: down slightly
- Highlight Protection: medium to high
- Gamma: adjust to keep midtones natural
- Mix: 75–95%
3. Interior photo (lift shadows, keep windows)
- Exposure: up a bit
- Tonal Focus: toward Shadows
- Highlight Protection: medium
- Mix: 70–90%
4. Sky / beach / snow (keep detail)
- Exposure: small changes
- Highlight Protection: medium to high
- Tonal Focus: toward Highlights
- Mix: 70–90%
5. Subtle “finish” for web thumbnails
- Exposure: tiny nudge
- Gamma: tiny nudge
- Mix: 50–75%
Best Practices
Make small moves first
Exposure changes can clip highlights quickly. Adjust slowly and watch the brightest areas.
Use Highlight Protection when increasing exposure
If whites or skies look harsh, increase Highlight Protection rather than undoing the exposure.
Use Gamma for feel
If the photo is “technically correct” but aesthetically wrong, Gamma is often the fix.
Use Mix to keep it realistic
If it starts to look edited, reduce Mix. This keeps your settings but makes them subtle.
Use Tonal Focus for smarter corrections
Most photos don’t need equal correction everywhere. Targeting shadows/highlights usually looks more professional.
Common Problems and Fixes
“The image looks washed out after brightening.”
- Increase Highlight Protection
- Reduce Exposure slightly
- Lower Mix
“Highlights look clipped / too white.”
- Increase Highlight Protection
- Consider shifting Tonal Focus toward Highlights
“Shadows look noisy after lifting.”
- Lower Exposure and raise Mix slightly (or use Tonal Focus toward Shadows with smaller Exposure)
- Consider applying a denoise tool after (if available)
“Midtones look weird even when exposure feels right.”
- Adjust Gamma slightly (small changes go a long way)
“It looks too strong.”
- Reduce Mix (fastest fix)
How It Works
To keep results consistent and photo-like, Exposure Adjustment works in linear light:
- Convert pixels from sRGB → linear
- Apply:
- Exposure as a light multiplier (EV-like)
- Offset as a small linear lift/crush
- Highlight Protection as a soft rolloff (compresses very bright values)
- Gamma to shape midtones
- Tonal Focus to weight the effect more toward shadows or highlights
- Convert back linear → sRGB
- Blend with the original using Mix
Preview uses a size cap for speed, while Download exports at full resolution in the original format.
