MacLife - UK (2019-12)

Diagnose the issue

To freeze action your camera

may use a fast shutter speed, which

can underexpose the photo. Choose

Window > Histogram to see the spread

of tones as a graph. This underexposed

shot’s graph is clumped to the left.

Global adjustment

Set the Histogram’s Channel

to Luminosity to show the spread of

tones more clearly. Go to Enhance >

Adjust Lighting > Brightness/Contrast.

Push Brightness right. The graph slides

right, indicating brighter tones.

Boost contrast

A shot should have some dark

shadows and bright highlights. Drag

Contrast right until the edges of the

histogram graph stretch to the far left

(for dark shadows) and to the far right

(for bright highlights). Click OK.

ON AUTO MODE most cameras

will adjust their settings to try

to capture detail throughout

a scene’s entire tonal range.

However, sometimes a photo may be

underexposed, losing detail in the

shadows and midtones — or occasionally

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overexposed. We’ll show you how

Photoshop Elements enables you to make

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In high-contrast lighting scenarios

your camera may struggle to create a

balanced exposure. If it captures highlight

detail then the shadows can look too dark,

while in contrast when exposing for

shadows your camera may overexpose the

highlights. Fortunately, Photoshop

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tonal ranges so you can brighten up dark

shadows without blowing out correctly

exposed highlights (or vice versa).

Element’s global and local tone–tweaking

tools are available in both the Expert and

Camera Raw editing workspaces, as we’ll

demonstrate. GEORGE CAIRNS

Fix exposure problems

Restore missing tonal detail and create a more balanced exposure

REQUIRES

Adobe Photoshop

Elements 2019

YOU WILL LEARN

How to fix common

exposure–related

problems

IT WILL TAKE

15 minutes

HOW TO Fix an underexposed shot

Create

84 DEC 2019 maclife.com Image rights: Adobe.