Adjust Image Exposure

Drop your photos into the form and move the "Exposure" slider, or press "Auto exposure". A shade over the image shows the before and after side by side.

Exposure and brightness

Exposure changes the amount of light as if the shot had been taken with a different shutter speed: +1 EV doubles the light, −1 EV cuts it in half. That is why pushing exposure up sends bright areas into pure white before dark ones lighten, and pulling it down drives shadows into black quickly. To lift a dark shot without burning out the sky, the Adjust Image Brightness tool works better: there, white areas do not get overexposed.

Shadows and highlights

• Shadows pull up dark areas or make them deeper, with almost no effect on light ones.
• Highlights tame a blown-out sky and glare, or brighten light areas, while dark areas stay as they were.

Auto exposure

For each photo separately, the average tone is pulled toward middle gray, the way a camera light meter does, but never by more than two stops. As it raises exposure, the tool keeps an eye on how much of the photo turns white and does not let that exceed a couple of percent. The chosen value appears on the slider.