Photoshop Lesson 7 | Saving an Overexposed or Underexposed Photograph
So you have taken a stunning photograph in scenery you are not likely to catch again, but when you get home see the photo on your computer screen – disappointment sets in as you realize that it is overexposed. Can you save it? Actually yes. If the damage is not too great you can make a save!
Here is how you do it in Photoshop.
First step, you guessed it, open you image in Photoshop and set your workspace to default view.
There are two ways to do this depending on what your original image looks like / how much damage is done.
First Option.
Click Image | Adjustments | Shadow/Highlight.
A scroll bar control will pop up and you can adjust how strong or weak you want your shadows or highlights to be to compensate for your over or under exposure. You may need to bring down the contrast or the saturation of the image once you have changed the shadow/highlight settings in order to bring it to a more natural level again.
Second Option.
Click on the little half black half white circle underneath your layers pallete. In the menu that appears select Exposure. A scroll bar control will pop up with three options: Exposure / Offset / Gamma Correction.
You can fiddle with these three options to bring your photograph to a more natural exposure setting.
You can then make any brightness or contrast changes afterwards.
For my image, the first option worked a lot better than the second option, but for another image it might not be that way.
From what I’ve read and what seems to make sense, tis better to err on the side or over-expose than under-expose. Darkening a picture retains more quality than lightening one. (hope my english was correct there.)
I was always told that it’s better to under expose a stop or two to avoid blown highlights and washed out images and that restoring an under exposed shot is more successful than the other way around. ?
That’s correct, it is much easier to save an under-exposed image than an over-exposed one. Unfortunatly we can’t always choose which mistake we are going to make when photographing and only see the mishap when we get home and it’s too late
IF you are unsure of the exposure to set while you are on scene - then yes, set it lower rather than higher than you think it should be. Much safer!
You can also take a look at the article “great tip for correct exposure” which tells you how to use your history graph to check if you camara is set to the right exposure when you can’t see the screen properly due to glare etc.
Simon’s top comment threw me off track
he got the under/over exposure part mixed up but he was right when he said that a darker image retains more detail.
yup, I always choose to at least -0.7 stops under between 09:00 AM and 16:00 PM. If I’m pushing higher ISO’s I might even go down to -2.0, especially with a F2.8 or F4 lens.