Everything you need to know about Exposure
Exposure adjusts the overall brightness of your image using photographic "stops" – the same measurement used in cameras. Each stop doubles or halves the amount of light, giving you precise, natural-looking brightness control that mimics adjusting your camera's exposure settings.
Parameters
- Exposure (stops)
Adjusts brightness in photographic stops. Positive values (+1, +2, etc.) brighten the image – each stop doubles the light. Negative values (-1, -2, etc.) darken the image – each stop halves the light. A range of -4 to +4 stops covers extreme corrections.
How It Works
The filter multiplies all pixel values by 2^stops. At +1 stop, values are doubled (2× brighter). At -1 stop, values are halved (2× darker). This logarithmic scaling matches how human eyes perceive brightness and how cameras capture light.
Exposure vs. Brightness
Unlike the Brightness slider (which adds/subtracts a flat value), Exposure multiplies – so bright areas change more than dark areas. This is more natural and closer to how real-world lighting changes affect a scene.
Tips
- Use small adjustments (±0.5 to ±1 stop) for typical corrections
- +2 to +4 stops can recover severely underexposed images
- -1 to -2 stops helps tone down overexposed highlights
- Combine with Contrast or Curves for complete tonal control