RAW Photo Editing Basics: Fix EXPOSURE the Right Way!
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- čas přidán 21. 05. 2024
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In this week’s episode, we discuss RAW photo editing basics and how to fix exposure the right way. Much like most things in photo editing, there are many ways to correct exposure issues, some ways are better than others, but the technique I share in this video is one that I've found the most success with. When I was a beginner photographer, just getting started, I would often return home from a trip with a series of under exposed images. And, I would always correct the exposure the same way, which was by cranking up the Shadows, reducing the Highlights and adding a ton of Exposure recovery. This often resulted in muddy contrast, flat light, and dull colors. In this video, I'll show you a trick that'll solve all of these problems the right way! I hope you enjoy this week's video and as always thanks so much for watching! - Mark D.
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✅QUICK QUESTION: Do you typically under expose your landscape photos?
Yes but usually by accident 😅
I noticed with newer canon sensors over exposing is better than under exposing. The highlight recovery is better than the shadow. So I over exposed by 1/3 of a stop
Yes as it is usually easier to bring up the shadows than to bring down the highlights- especially for sunrises and sunsets
I try to expose properly but if I must either over or under expose, I will underexpose
No, I just try to not blow out my highlights and then just bring up the shadows.
Editing photos is definitely a personal taste based thing, you can be sure that not every one will be pleased with your results. I personally find the boat in silhouette with the vibrant sunset much more pleasing.
My sentiments precisely...
Me too - when the video started, I thought the silhouette version was the finished article!
Whenever I am in these kinds of situations, I usually take multiple exposure.
I like the un-edited better for sure
I like the overall idea, but I think I would have left the boat a bit darker as it is backlit-- I would have looked at a pano crop to see how that looked. I do tend to like more intense and vibrant colors on the whole.
I absolutely love photos with vibrant and rich sunset colors! When there’s a human face in the shot, I’ll gently enhance it to make it clearer. But when it comes to boats or other objects, I prefer subtle adjustments that maintain the overall mood. After all, those gorgeous sunset hues are the heart of these images, and highlighting the boat too much might take away from their magic.
One question. Why did you tone down the glorious red and orange tints in the original.
It was the best part of the original raw, and all of the adjustments still give me the feeling the photo is washed out because it's lost all the depth of colours.
One reason is that the main subject is still the foreground boat not the background sunset. The richness of the sunset distracts from the focus on the main subject. I guess if you want to have the sunset as the main theme, this would be a very different composition (without the boat for example). Also, of course to simplify the colour.
Yeah I don't know about the result, really washed out - which is expected with raising the black levels so aggressively. There are better ways to go about this, while retaining the vibrance and depth even without plugins such as Lumenzia which is an absolute must-have to work with bracketed but also solo raws with demanding scenes.
Man. I’ve been watching your videos for a while now and this is by far the best advice you’ve given. When you described your old way of editing underexposed photos is exactly how I’ve been doing it (and unhappy with my results but not sure why) so thank you.
Loads of useful tips in here beyond the title method! I've always stretched and moved the histogram with white/black/shadows/highlights. I love the idea of the luminance slider to independently shift the mid point upwards.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you Mark. Glad that you had a successful trip. Looking forward to more photos.
As someone who has just upgraded from LR6 to LRC & only have touched a couple of photos, I appreciate this & last weeks vids.
This video REALLY helps! Can't wait to give it a whirl this weekend!
Loved it ! Thanks
Excellent! Thanks so much for sharing.
Mark, thank you. Will try that.
I am definitely going to try this new tip for midtone exposure! Thank you for sharing.
Wow, such a great tip! Thanks a lot for sharing.
Mark thank you for this little presentation. These are areas I have really touched. I will end up watching this a few times to try and get a better feeling of using them.
Best tutorial ever! Thank you so much.
Thanks for keeping me calibrated....great advice as always.
I can relate to your "original receipe " of editing quite a lot - thank you for such an enlightening lesson
New technique helped a lot, thanks mark once again for such informative video
Thanks for another great lesson Mark! Very useful!
My pleasure!
While I prefer the more underexposed photo in this example, the techniques you showed are very welcome and I'm definitely gonna use them in some scenarios instead of the exposure slider. Thanks!
Thanks Mark, I needed a refresher course.
Glad to do it!
Another GREAT VIDEO.... thanks for the tips!
Thanks for watching!
Another great video mark. Have a lovely week.
Thanks my friend!
Being one who doesn’t really know the full power of Lightroom, I have always wondered if there was a way to bump up the midtones without washing out the entire image. This is an awesome tip that I will definitely be using! It took me years to learn about using the white and black points to adjust for exposure and contrast. I found the white point helped with color too, so that it wouldn’t look washed out (with maybe a little help from the black point).
Great video. Great tip. Awesome image! Thank you!
You got some great shots and a cracking tan out of that trip Mark, really appreciate your content as always.
Mark, the key message here is to refrain from editing like an automaton. Several times in the presentation you said “I used to always…”. Most of us did that. As I matured and refined my vision, I take more time to get a proper exposure by using the histogram rather than just looking at the image on the back of the camera. That alone got me to a better starting point for editing. I also made sure I got the right aspect ratio in camera when shooting. That worked wonders. Many cameras have aspect ratio templates that enables the photographer to evaluate different compositions that can be changed later. Then, I didn’t start editing by “always __________”. Instead, I observe the image to evaluate the look, feel and emotion that I am trying to evoke. Editing now is a pleasant adventure rather than just pulling sliders in a predetermined order. Good video.😮
Man, just when I thought I had my workflow all figured out...don't get me wrong I love this tutorial and can't wait to go back and try it out....Thanks so much Mark.
Good tips. I do use the exposure along with the other things and will try this right now.
1) GFX has quite a bit of headroom 2) C1 has Brightness slider for mid tones. BTW - You original shot looked much better IMHO. Most times folks end up processing too much in post.
Very interesting and useful points, but if you look at any sunrise or set, the background is always lighter than the foreground, thats where the light is afterall, in the sky.
You are the best tool I have in my camera bag!! As always, very helpful tips and techniques. Thanks Mark!
One of your best, Mark ! Easy to follow and, most importantly, extremely useful. Thanks so much. Slainte !
Thanks a million Bruce!
Thank you for this fantastic video! I still have so much to learn from editing so I plan to incorporate this into my workflow.
Another excellent video Mark, thank you ❤
Thanks Julie!
Good tips, thank you.
Beautiful pic with richness. Using this technique at mo, not a professional but love learning❤❤
Wonderful technique. I learned a lot on this one. Thanks.
One of the reasons why I love the brightness slider in capture one... Great video!
Same here!
It took me a while to realize the difference when I moved to C1 years ago. But man, did it change my editing for the better!
Oh man, that's so awesome. I was pretty impressed with myself that I was editing my photos the same way originally that you had been. Just learning as I go and your videos are so helpful, thank you so much! I followed along with you on one of my own photos and wow, that is a great technique! Thanks!
Really useful Mark - thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Very helpful! Thank you
Great to hear!
Very useful advice… Thank you!
You're very welcome!
Yes, I typically do under expose my photos. Don't want to blow out the highlights.
Good video, going to try it with my recent trip. Thank you for all your videos, very helpful.
Glad you enjoyed it Kathy!
Great Tip Mark !!
Thanks Greg!
This is very helpful. Definitely going to try this method to edit my under exposed images. Huge impact. :D
Thanks Mark. This is a great editing technique!
Glad you think so!
Only just discovered your channel and I like your LR tutorials. Thank you for the informative instruction.
Once again thank you. This technique brings that "little extra" to my photos. I've tried it on a few bird pics and much much more realistic results. Thanks!!!!
Thank you…I’m going to play with the luminance slider. I will say, I agree with those who question the significant reduction of the orange in the sky….leaving it adds so much depth to the photo. I view histograms as a guide to what can be done…can I move it to the right if that’s what looks good. Sometimes a historgram that leans left of ideal, especially at sunrise or sunset.
Great video. The mid-tone trick is something I need to try.
Great tip Mark using Color Grading to manage midtones. I too use the exposure slider as a last resort. I have both the Nikon D750 and the D500. The D750 matches the basic Highlight/Shadows range adjustments in LR, whereas the D500 was missing a little something. (I shoot birds and wildlife with the D500 and Landscapes with the D750) The D500 shots look muddy, especially if you boost the shadows to bring up the exposure. Your Color/Grading tip to add luminance to the midtones works wonderfully to correct the muddy effect. Thank you.
Thank you for such a great tutorial. I really appreciate it. Great video. I learned so much from you.
Love to hear this - thank you!
I follow almost all your videos and they have personally help me in my editing process. Just one thing I would like if you can come up with a video is on how to get rid of halos. As I bring down the exposure in the skies selectively or reduce exposure in the background I get halos around the subject. I am sure you get what I am trying to say and would like to know on how to avoid halos and if you can come up with a video for the same . Thank you so much
This would be awesome Mark
A nice presentation that is easily understandable and well worth the time to view.
Great video and thanks for sahing. Will try it out on my underexposed landscape sunset shots. I also liked the way you used the masking tool to improve the boat itself, as I was not aware of that of creating a mask around an on´bject. Good stuff
Thank you! I've been messing about for years without having found instruction as clear as this. Great video.
Thanks so much!
Thanks for the usfull tips Mark. Still working on finding my own style, has improved a lot the last few month, and getting som difrent perspective, by following and wathcing different landscape photographer. Towh thing I thougth of while watching this video, was first expocure, Danish photographer Mads Peter Iversen, exposes for the Higlight, so I don't know where I land on this yet, need to get out at take som more photos. Another thing was the clarity slider, when you turned it down, I thougt of Scott Kelby, that turns it up, usualy on a brush mask, paintet on whater or metal, because it gives a extra shine, a process I have used to enhance some of my photos. So a lot of this is also about whati is your style of photo, and yes I am still looking for mine. Loved the tips about the point color, a tool i was not familiar with, and therfor did not use, now I have an idea how to use it.
Great video, I do a lot of sunset photography, this technique will help me a lot. I'll be revisiting this video frequently until I can merge it into my workflow.
Thanks Richard!
Thanks, Truley a God sent. This is exactly where I am at in my studies. Beautyful shot Beautyful Edit. Mahalo Big time, Aloha
Great tips Mark! Looks like you had a great time in Bali! Also looks like you medium format photographers have a new 500mm lens to work with! Awesome videos!
Great video
Super helpful! Quick question, do you ever use the histogram to adjust levels? It lets you target highlights, shadows, mids etc.
I've been avoiding those Color Grading "wheels", along with Tone Curve, admittedly. I need to get more comfortable with these more-powerful controls. Thanks for the motivation!
Thank You
Super helpful, I am off to play with an image to see it in practice. Cheers
Great to hear!
I like the mask - subtract - colour range technique. That's really powerful
I was definitely guilty of using the exposure slider too much. Will give this method a try, thanks
Thank you! I have been grappling with exposure since getting my camera and iMac and it always seems a little "off". This video could not have arrived at a better time!
Another top tip/video. I must confess that up to now I have rarely used the colour grading settings. Must give this method a try on some older images that have never quite looked right. Thanks Mark.
Glad to do it Roger!
Mark, I don;t use the buggy, slow, crash prone LR anymore. It's too frustrating. Can I use this technique in Photoshop?@@MarkDenneyPhoto
In my opinion, your edited photo looks way better than the one with the exposure bump, but what a convoluted way to achieve it. As someone whose knowledge of Lr is limited, or more importantly, my patience level using it is very thin. I should try some of your courses That would probably negate the cursing and maybe increase my patience level should I become more proficient. Anyway, I have subscribed.
The first thing I do is select auto, it usually does an ok job, then if needed fiddle with the sliders. You can always click auto again to go back to untouched image.
a very nice video!!
Thanks so much!
I revisited some photos from 7 years ago, specifically a photo of the Bass Harbor Light. It was hard in the past to balance the scene but with Midtone grading in Lightroom it was way better..
I used to tend to underexpose landscapes, but just a little. These days, I tend to expose so that the whites/brights are not clipping but close to the right in the histogram, and use the exposure, other sliders to bring back the details in the brights, that are there. This tends to leave more useful dark details in the RAW file than underexposing leaves.
Mark, nice work here. One fundamental concern I have with your approach is that most of the data from an image is in the brightest pixels, not the darkest pixels, so when you pull up your midtones luminance, darks, shadows…you are increasing noise and artifacts , which you will really notice when zooming in.
I would encourage one to consider exposing to the right when in the field, and focus on all of that data in the brightest pixels, massaging it down into the midtones using gradient curves masks in LR….the real power and control is in using curves adjustment masks.
Compare both of these approaches and zoom in, you will be shocked at how much cleaner and detailed the latter image is when zoomed in. A big deal if a person is adding layers of processing in PS, or eventually enlarging.
As an example….take 9 bracket shots and in LR exposure match them all to a neutral luminance. Zoom into 200-300 % and you will see the dark images that were brightened will have much greater noise signal and less micro detail. Add on typical PS/LR processing and these issues are only amplified.
Whereas the brighter images that are pulled down in luminance to a neutral level will have a much cleaner RAW file to start from.
I know this is pixel peeping 101, but there are good, better, and best approaches to photo editing, and it’s a matter of how deep down the rabbit hole we want to go.
Nice video 🙏
Great ❤
Mark, thanks for an interesting video and I can understand where you're going with this approach. Personally I wouldn't have lifted the brightness of the boat as I prefer it in shadow more but that comes down to editing preferences and where you as the photographer want to go with the picture which I respect.
Thanks for a great timely video. I was struggling with processing a late afternoon Yosemite shot yesterday that I’ll be going back today with the mid tone technique in mind.
Made the edit using mid tone technique. Much better.
Interesting idea, to use the Color Grading Luminance slider(s) as an additional overall brightness refinement.
Thanks a lot
Glad to do it!
one reason why I prefer Capture One. Because using the Brightness slider there just affect the midtones and keep the color. (there is also a expose that just affects everthing) but that might be one simple reason why I always likes the Capture One results more. But good to know these tricks for Lightroom (which I dont use anymore currently) but good to know.
Sorry Mark, but the end result of "fixing" the histogram definitely ends up with a nicer histogram, but the entire mood/feel of the photo has been altered, and in this case, for the worse - in my opinion. Anyway, some good Lr pointers along the way; I always learn something from your tutorials.
Hmm I think I honestly like both for different reasons. The first one has a more a pastel look I’m digging. Maybe a few more touches but I like the overall look of the first one just as much as the second.
With all the stuff Adobe has been adding, I'm surprised they HAVEN'T added a mid-tones slider to LR/LRC under the Basic panel. At least there is the workaround I guess (and maybe why Adobe hasn't bothered to add the slider to the Basic panel).
Nice 👌
I like this “lesson” and it opens up another way to edit my photos, however, if you had applied the similar gradient masks to the first technique, I’m sure the image would turn out quite nice as well.
This video shows me I use a sledge hammer instead of a paint brush in editing. I love the techniques shown here...especially editing midtones.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I don’t have luminance in Capture One. From what I see I’d say it is the brightness slider in Capture One. It seems to handle the mid tones
My workflow is similar, except I start with adjusting the Black and White sliders until the information starts clipping, and then go to the first mode of the Tone Curve to nitpick what exactly is considered a mid tone, a shadow and a highlight in the image, and then I adjust those there. Over the last ~100 photos I reckon I've adjusted the Exposure slider with a value of more than half a stop less than 5 times.
Thanks for the video.. For this technique, will it increase the image noise?
I've been using the midtone color grading since your last video!
Perfect!
shot pic In St Joe,Mo. exposed for the sky not to blow it out against the massive murals. so pic really dark (1.5-2.5dark)But LITGHT, shadow, clarity, mid tone color bump worker great. The only time I touched the exposure slider is when it touched contrast. Those masks help the subject.I've used tone curve in PS but went ahead and used them here. Great to bring light in and darken the darks. the technique keep me out of PS and NIX at least for cityscapes. I'll se what is does for flowers lated, Thanks
like it! Great demo of the wealth of editing tools. Do you prefer post processing in Lightroom Classic to Photoshop>Camera Raw?
Selamat pagi terima kasih! Sanur? I love Bali. Such an amazing place and love the locals.
Interesting. Beautiful photo by the way. You should apply also the linear gradient masks to the modified exposure sample to really compare the two processes.
Thanks so much Eric!
Excellent Tutorial……as always…….Welcome home🇺🇸
Thanks so much!
I never would have thought to use the mid tone luminance but I really like what you did here - it really targets what you need without affecting shadows and highlights. Other than that, I never start with the exposure sider, preferring to open shadows and highlights, and then find the black point and white point. Question - I wonder why you don't like to see a black point? I like to open up the shadows quite a bit and then go with a black point, but thats personal. Thanks for this informative post.
Gosh is this ever a helpful video. Welcome back from Bali - I am envious of those who could make it with you! Question as to an alternate of using the linear gradient - top and bottom. What are your ideas instead if you used a mask on the subject to lighten and then to duplicate and invert the mask and darken the background? Your thought and recommendations?
Thank you for a fantastic video. Always great training and help!