Expose to the right ... then what?

[Michael Barkowski]

Let's say I exposed to the right to get the best use out of my sensor. What should I be doing in Photoshop CS2? Can someone give details, step by step?

[k100d]

just reduce the exposure to the desired level.

[NicholasN]

First things first....

New Adjustment Layer > Levels

Hold down the Alt key while you click your mouse on the right hand slider and it will show you all the clipped highlights.

Leave that layer for now and adjust your exposure slightly and keep checking that against the levels until the clipping dissapears.

Once that is done adjust the Levels layer to fine tune the exposure and your done.

Then.........

Ctrl + Click "RGB" in the channels palette.

This will slect the highlights which you have already fixed. You want to fix the shadows so then you click Select>Inverse.

This has now selected the shadows. You need to adjust the shadows to either lift them or deepen them. To do this you go....

New Adjustment Layer>Curves

Change the selection to Pigment/Ink.

Then move your cursor to the middle of the graph and you should get readings of 50 and 50. Click the centre of the graph when you get 50/50.

All you need to do from there is hold Alt and press the up or down arrove to either deepend or lighten the shadows.

Once that is sorted Layers>Flatten Image and then add your sharpening and Hue/Saturation and Contrast adjustments.

Hope this helped.

Nick