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Post-Processing & Retouching

Exposure Adjustment

A processing control that brightens or darkens the whole image in stops, mimicking a change in camera exposure.

Measured in stops (EV)

In depth

On raw data the adjustment is applied before the tone curve, in linear space, which is why it behaves like a real exposure change rather than a brightness slider — highlights roll off rather than clipping abruptly. It should generally be the first tonal decision made, since every subsequent control depends on it.

Examples in practice

Setting exposure to +0.7 EV on an underexposed raw file behaves almost identically to having shot it that way.